#INFUSE SPIRITS TV#

They’re all about balance and layers of flavors-I love doing infusions that have three, four or five ingredients. “I look at infusions like I look at cocktails. “Some people get stuck doing one kind of infusion-one fruit or one vegetable,” Magarian says. If you’re pretty confident about your culinary chops, you can try layering flavors for more complex blends. I love apples and Cathie loves raspberries, so we decided to those. “Doing the testing of it all is a lot of fun,” he says. Her co-host Steve Piacenza discovered his favorites-ginger tequila and pineapple rum-through experimentation.

#INFUSE SPIRITS TV#

Crafty TV personality Cathie Filian, co-host of the DIY Network’s Creative Juice, grew up watching her mom infuse vodkas with melon and strawberries from her garden, so she’s partial to fruity blends. For your first few goes at it, you might be most comfortable mimicking an infusion you’ve tasted before and liked. When deciding what to infuse, start with flavor combinations you know you like. In that spirit, let your tastebuds-not your brain-be your guide. “There’s so much enjoyment in the flavor.” “I want people to stop looking at cocktails as an alcohol-delivery vehicle and start looking at them as a flavor experience,” Magarian says.

Cocktail consultant Ryan Magarian likes to think of the uninfused spirit as an empty canvas the ingredients you’ll add are the paint. Once you set your heart on making the perfect chile- and lime-infused tequila, you can forget about strict recipes and exact measurements. Think Like a ChefInfusions are more about culinary creativity than science. And you don’t have to stick to vodka whiskey, gin, sake and everything in between can be gussied up with fruits, veggies, herbs, spices, teas, even coffee beans. Truth is, while there is such a thing as a bad infusion, with a little experimentation and patience, you can make your own at home.

When lined up on a back bar, the glass jars filled with inspired, colorful combinations of stewing ingredients look very Chemistry 101-chic and, as such, there’s a perceived magic behind them. Bartenders favor the showy concoctions for their versatility, depth of flavor and-let’s be honest-their wow factor.

Store the tea-infused syrup in the refrigerator and use in place of a regular simple syrup in your cocktail recipe.Īs we said, you can use this simple method with any tea and any spirit of your choosing to add some tea-zazz to your cocktails! Here are just a couple of recipes to get you started.Once crowd-pleasing novelties that graced only the trendiest bar shelves, infused spirits have become cocktail-menu staples.

Stir an equal amount of sugar into the hot tea and stir until fully saturated.

Steep your tea of choice according to the brewing instructions on the package.

This gives you the option of adding a tea infusion into different kinds of cocktails made with a variety of spirits, rather than having an entire bottle of infused vodka or gin, for example. Refrigerate until you’re ready to start mixin’!Īnother method you can use for more generic use is to steep tea in syrup.

When you’re ready, strain the tea from the alcohol.

Also, the higher the alcohol content, the less time it needs to steep.

The longer it steeps, the stronger the tea flavor. Let the tea steep in the alcohol for a minimum of two hours and up to 24.Once you have your chosen ingredients, just add 3-4 tablespoons of loose tea to 750mL of spirits and shake or stir to combine.

Also, if you’re creating your cocktail as you unwind in the evening, consider using a decaf tea if caffeine at night is a concern. Think how beautiful a drink would be with the purple hues of Indigo Punch or vibrant red of Strawberry Kiwi Fruit. Herbals, flavored black teas and flavored green teas are wonderful choices if you are looking to give your spirit a definitive flavor and/or vibrant color. Any tea will work, but those with more flavor will have more impact than say a very light, delicate tea. As with any cocktail, the better the quality of alcohol, the better the beverage. With the variety of tea flavors and blends available now, the art of infusing for cocktails has become incredibly popular, as the possibilities and options for creaTEAvity are endless.Ĭreating a unique tea-infused spirit is about as simple as simple gets: Back as far as colonial times, tea was used as an ingredient in alcoholic punches. But what if we twisted this notion around a bit - rather than just adding tea as an ingredient, instead we infused the alcohol with the tea? It’s incredibly easy and can change the way you look at your favorite cocktail recipes.Ĭombining tea and liquor is not a new notion. Fans of tea cocktails have long known that adding tea as an ingredient in cocktails (and mocktails) makes a great drink even better.

Infuse spirits