Cocktails on the Croft | Berry Minty Lemonade

Living alone, I do far too little drinking.  Somehow, drinking alone at home feels vaguely unseemly to me and I’ve decided I’ve got to nip that nonsense in the bud!  So once a month or maybe every couple of weeks I’m going to try a new mixed drink….and maybe some old favorites, too.  I’m also going to try to use some harvested or foraged goods from the croft as much as possible.  What good is having an acreage if it can’t get you drunk?!? Heh, heh *awkward laugh*

Making Mint-flavored Vodka

So I’m not sure if I’ve actually done this or not…. I steeped a whole bunch of mint leaves in Stoli Vodka for 9 weeks. *gulp* I’m not sure what recipe or instructions I was following to steep it that long but the only instructions I can find now, say to leave the leaves in the vodka 5 days. But, you know, 5 days…9 weeks…basically the same right. This vodka was very minty and did not taste off at all. I actually may have gotten closer to making mint extract, ha!

If you want to try your own infusion experiment:

1. Loosely pack a mason jar with clean mint leaves.
2. Pour vodka over mint leaves to top of jar.
3. Store in a dark place anywhere from 5 days to 9 weeks:). Honestly, I think 9 weeks is too long but also think 5 days is two short. Try for a couple of weeks? *shrug*
4. Strain out the leaves.
5. You now have mint vodka. Store in fridge? This seems unnecessary but certainly shouldn’t hurt.

Have you ever tried to invent a cocktail?

This was my first! Let’s see how it went!

Here’s the recipe:

• 1.5 oz of mint-flavored Vodka
• 2 Strawberries, muddled
• 1 oz lemon juice
• 0.5 oz Rose’s Lime Juice
• Club soda
• Mint and strawberries for garnish

Instructions

1. Combine vodka, muddled strawberries, lemon juice, lime juice and ice in a shaker and, you know, give it a shake!
2. Pour into an ice filled tumbler
3. Fill the rest of the glass with club soda and garnish with mint and strawberry.

My Verdict

Well………It looked better than it tasted. For one thing, the mint vodka was VERY minty. It didn’t overpower the taste but it was kind of sharp and cleared out the old sinuses for the night. Nine weeks may have been too long. I’m willing to admit it. The citrus flavors were very astringent which didn’t mix well with the mint. The flavors didn’t meld really. I was thinking that the addition of some simple syrup would have gone a long way to improving this. I think it would have mellowed and sweetened the mint which would have then blended a little better with the citrus.

So what did I learn here? I have a lot of work to do on my cocktail inventing skills. … And my flavored vodka making skills. Why did I even publish this? I’m not entirely sure. It’s good to air one’s mistakes? Hoping someone will tell me how I went terribly wrong?

2 out of 5 stars. I did drink the whole cocktail but I have no desire to have another.

Honestly, I gave up trying to pick a book to recommend that would be related in some way to this cocktail post. So the book I’m highlighting, A Study in Brimstone by G.S. Denning, has nothing to do with cocktails or mint or berries or anything. It’s a riff on the Sherlock Holmes novels, that places a younger Holmes in a bizarre and magical world. It is much more whimsical and fun than the stories it is inspired by. I am somewhat of a super fan of “professional” fan fiction particularly around Sherlock Holmes and Jane Austen’s novels. This was a fun one!

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