Vodka Drink Recipes

Mojitos and other party drink recipes pack a punch with garden herbs and fresh ...

Party drinks sipped in the company of friends can be one of summer's greatest pleasures -- especially when the glasses are filled with mojitos and other creatively mixed cocktails.

A recent trend among bar pros has been to infuse cocktails with culinary quality ingredients, and this is the perfect time of year to impress guests with a party drink enhanced by aromatic garden-grown herbs and luscious seasonal fruit.

Mojitos, caiphirinas and party punches are just a few of the drinks that can be elevated by the addition of fresh ingredients. And these muddled drinks don’t need to have alcohol to be refreshing. So many great recipes have been coming in that it warranted a roundup of some of the best options. And the recipe choices go beyond rum-based mixes. A few of the featured options are made with vodka or the new Courvoisier Rosé, a summer-appropriate blend of Courvoisier cognac and premium French wine grapes. One featured drink is alcohol-free.

Mojitos hit the bar scene hard about 10 years ago, and they remain among the most favored cocktails. They owe their refreshingly cool flavor to fresh mint, lime juice and rum. One taste of a perfectly balanced mojito makes it easy to understand their appeal. And when fresh herbs can easily be plucked from the garden, mojitos and similar fresh-flavored drinks are an appropriate and potentially addictive summer staple.

"Liquid chef" Kim Haasarud , who always seems to come out with an exciting new book just in time for seasonal parties, has dedicated her latest volume to the mojito and other muddled drinks. In "101 Mojitos & Other Muddled Drinks" (Wiley, $16.95) she exploits the flavor of fresh mint, lime and assorted ripe fruits in enticing combinations such as the Key West Mojito with crushed pineapple chunks and Midori. The White Pear Mojito is made with white pressed grapes and Bartlett pear. Haasarud also reaches past the expected mint to craft such inspired mojito combinations as watermelon-basil, passion fruit-sage or cucumber-cilantro.

Caipirinhas, the national cocktail of Brazil, are recreated in this volume with sage or thyme. Similar to the mojito, the caipirinha is made with the Brazilian rum cachaca, lime juice and simple syrup. In one of Haasarud's spin-off caipiroskas, where the cachaca is replaced by vodka, rosemary is muddled with lemon wedges to blend with citrus vodka and elderflower liqueur, all sweetened by simple syrup.

Infused Vodka Recipes: The Kumquat Summer Tease

I’m giving you notice up front: this post is going to seem a bit stranger than usual.  You see, having been away for a couple of weeks has caused me to be influenced by so many things that my head feels like it’s going to explode.  Today’s recipe, which at first glance doesn’t seem to be all that different (Friday drink post-check, infused vodka recipe-check, relationship advice-check) has so many moving parts that don’t seem to be intertwined, that it’s not until the very end when will you see it all come together.  So stick with me here.

I already told you that I went to Paris on my recent getaway.  But that wasn’t the only place…my trip started in London.  I was finally able to meet my fellow Nudie Foodie Jackie.  Jackie writes a great blog called I am a Feeder and we met up and had dinner at Inamo Japanese fusion restaurant.  We even let Craig come along.  He earned his spot by taking us for some amazing gelato, at Scoop, afterwards (that boy can sniff out an ice cream parlor from 5 miles away).

London is part 1 of this mixed up tale.  After dinner and gelato, Craig and I found our way to the Experimental Cocktail Club.  You’d walk right past the place if you weren’t looking for it.  And even if you’re looking for it you might not find it.  The only sign that the ECC is at the address is a dingy black door.  Thankfully for us, there was also a non-descript doorman who I forced Craig to ask if he knew where the place was.  Let this be a lesson to you guys…would you ever just f*!@king one time ask for f*!@king direction?  If it weren’t for me, demanding a drink, we never would have found the place.

ECC is a small bar that serves amazing hand made drinks that are mixtures of things you probably never even imagined.  Like gin and cucumber jam (which I will get to in a minute), Cuban tobacco infused bourbon, mezcal and beetroot, and Calvados infused with liquorice root.  All of these things are mixed into cocktails that will have you licking your lips and asking for more if not a little loopy for all of you taste testing.

When I arrived back home in LA, I found that my mom had picked up a Sunday copy of the LA Times (This would be part 2 for those of you keeping track).  Love my mom to death, but she’s just never going to get the hang of getting her news and information online.  Of course if she had done that, I never would have come across the article about Nastoyka .  Nastoyka is a traditional Russian liquor that is basically an infused vodka recipe.  Sometimes they throw a little cognac into the infusion, but the infusions are of fruits and herbs that are native to Russia (so you’re not going to find any of that bubble gum flavored swill in the mix).  The other key to this infused vodka recipe is the fact that there is an abundance of fruit to spirits.  By doing this, the flavors develop quickly and the infusion process is very short, sometimes as short as 24 hours.

Harper's bazaar

The Vodka 1000, The Ultimate Collection of Vodka Cocktails, Recipes, Facts, and Resources

The New York bartender's guide, 1,300 alcoholic and non-alcoholic drink recipes for the professional and the home

Sharp Magazine October 2008

Mini Bar Vodka