Heart of Gold (working title)

I was reading about Lillet Blanc, the delicious French vermouth aperitif, on the official website and I came across something that said it was served on the rocks with fresh ginger in Japan. This got my creative juices flowing, so to speak, and I decided to try to mix a cocktail with my home-infused ginger vodka and lillet blanc. This is the result, which may be prone to tweaking in the future:

• 2 measures Lillet Blanc
• 1 measure ginger-infused vodka
• Splash lemon juice

Shake with ice, strain into cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon twist.

(The working title, "heart of gold", comes from the bright golden color of all the ingredients. And, of course, Douglas Adams's "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.")

Diablo Sucio (Dirty Devil)

This is another original (as far as I know) recipe of mine that I've been messing around with since I made the chili pepper vodka. It's simply a dirty martini with a measure of the hot pepper vodka added. The batch I made was very spicy, so this can be a very hot cocktail.

• 2.5 Measures Gin
• 0.5 measures dry vermouth
• 1 measure chili pepper infused vodka (to taste)
• Splash olive juice (to taste)

Shake with ice, strain into glass. Garnish with olive and chili pepper on a cocktail toothpick.

Guangzhou Mule

This is a slight variation on the Moscow Mule which uses ginger-infused vodka rather than plain vodka to give it even more of a strong ginger flavor. I also prefer to use spicier or bolder ginger ales such as Vernor's or Boylan's, rather than dry ones that don't have much noticeable ginger flavor.

• 1-2 Measures Ginger-Infused Vodka (preference)
• Ginger Ale
• Slice of Lime

Pour the vodka in a tall glass and squeeze the lime into it, then drop the lime right in. Add ice, give it a quick swirl, and top up with ginger ale.

NOTE: I chose to call this the Guangzhou Mule for the obvious reason that it has a lot of ginger flavor in it, and ginger is an integral spice in a lot of Chinese cuisine. I chose the city of Guangzhou because it seemed a suitable replacement for Moscow phonetically.

Infusing Vodka

Last week I decided to try my hand at infusing some of the large amount of vodka I was looking to be rid of. I prefer earthier/spicier flavors to sweet and fruity flavors, so I decided to try chili pepper and ginger (separately, of course). From what I had read, the best way to do this was to simply put the desired flavoring ingredient directly into a sealed jar with the vodka and let it sit in a cool dark place for a few days, which is exactly what I did. When it was ready, I poured the contents of each jar through a coffee filter to remove all the sediment and chunks of chili pepper or ginger. They each turned out quite nicely. The chili pepper one is extremely spicy, and so far I've only tried it in a hot bloody mary, but I want to try making a spicy martini sometime soon. The ginger vodka is very good, and I've created a drink based on the Moscow Mule that I think suits it very nicely. The recipe is posted following this post.

Zen Martini (KoFusion)

I'm a big fan of green tea, and green tea flavors in foods. Therefore, I had to try this martini at KoFusion in Champaign. It's made with vodka, green tea liqueur, and genmaicha green tea (the one with the toasted rice). Of course the color was the dull green of green tea, and the flavor was entirely green tea. It was quite good, very smooth, and very easy to drink. My only complaint is that the alcohol taste was very far in the back and hard to notice. Otherwise, definitely a creative spin on the vodka martini.

The Venetian

This is one of my original creations (as far as I know). It's modeled after the Parisian, which is a similar cocktail using gin and dry vermouth. I chose to call it the Venetian because sweet vermouth is sometimes referred to as Italian vermouth. Vodka gives it less of a spicy flavor than gin would, as well.

• 2 measures Vodka
• 1 measure Creme de Cassis
• 1/2 measure sweet vermouth

Shake ingredients with ice, strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with twist of lemon or orange, if desired.