Cranberry infused vodka | Christmas cocktail ideas
Homemade cranberry infused vodka Scarlet colored spirit is great for sipping, makes the base of many cocktails too. After a wait time of 2–3 days you have a fully infused ready – to – pour crowd pleasing flavor any cocktail enthusiast would love. Most preferred edible gift item!
What’s your at home mixology game looking like during this holiday season? Mine is all set you see! 🙂
If you are the kind of people whole love to pop bubble wrap then you should try popping cranberry. Crude way but so effective! See video below if you don’t believe ..I am serious people!
Tips for making cranberry infused vodka —
- Use fresh cranberry for the best flavor. Preferably organic because it is one of the fruits that has highest pesticides residue.
- Remember while muddling the cranberry it is better to sightly break the berry and not to crush it in the food processor. This makes pretty flavorful crispy booze filled berries to serve on the side.
- We are not cooking the cranberry in the sugar syrup instead allowing the berry to simply soak in the alcohol. I find that on cooking the berry thickens the mixture. My method also saves you the hassle of straining the liquid. The seeds or some residue adds so much character to the drink.
- After washing the cranberry thoroughly pat dry with a paper towel as we are not cooking the berry in this recipe.
- Should I skip sugar ? By all means go ahead. You should still boil the water when it cools down add cranberry and allow it to sit as our regular recipe. Boozy berries will taste like vodka with no sweetness. U might want to trash it.
If homemade edible gift is your thing you have to check out these recipes to know how serious I am (They have a longer wait time though that is one of the reasons I started looking for infused drinks)
If you think background in the photos are fake watch this video till the end 🙂
Cranberry infused vodka
- Fresh cranberry – 12 oz 340 gms
- Sugar – 1 cup
- Cinnamon sticks – 2
- Water -1 cup
- vodka – 750 ml ( I have used Smirnoff here)
Wash the cranberry well and pat dry. Put it in a ziploc bag and muddle very lightly in order to break the berry slightly but keep the shape intact as far as possible. (Do not use food processor as it will mash the berries completely ) Keep it ready.
Heat a pan with one cup water and cinnamon sticks. Bring it to a rolling boil then add sugar reduce heat . Do not stir instead simply swirl the pan by holding the handle.
When all the sugar melts switch of the stove and allow it to come to room temperature then add the lightly bruised cranberry.
Pour this into a large glass bottle and top it off with vodka till the brim of the bottle. Keep it in a dark place and after 2-3 days max 7 days. It is ready to use now. Mix in the rest of the vodka if the entire bottle did not fit into the infusing bottle before bottling.
It is ready to be bottled. Pour into gifting bottles and insert a sprig or two of rosemary into the infused vodka bottles.
Sits well in room temperature up to a month.
Bonus – The vodka soaked cranberry is very flavorful so do not throw away the berry. Instead it can be served in the cocktails as garnish.
To serve : Pour cranberry vodka over ice and add tonic water to taste. Garnish with rosemary sprigs or a slice of orange, lemon , lime etc
Cranberry infused vodka is good just by itself with tonic water or it can be used to make other alcoholic drinks like martinis, cosmopolitan etc
How to serve the cranberry infused vodka?
Fill the serving glass with ice add two parts ( 1/4 cup or 60 ml) cranberry infused vodka and 4 parts ( 1/2 cup or 120 ml )tonic water/ sparkling water / soda water. Garnish with cranberries.
Warning : Just like any other booze don’t go overboard it is easy to be over-served . Pour some real orange or lime juice. Do not pour any bottle juices it will make the drink way too sweet.
Hope you are going to try this perfect drink for your Christmas party and let me know how it goes.
Meena