How to… make your own flavoured vodka
Posted by Lucy on December 22nd, 2008The newest recruit to our blogging crew, Jim, is a mine of totally useless amazing facts and tidbits. I was immediately drawn to the mention on his blography of willow-flavoured vodka and, after a fruitless Google search, I asked him where this delicious-sounding nectar came from. As usual (and you’ll soon come to understand why we call him Jimopedia here at Mr & Mrs Smith), the answer was both revealing and informative. So for those of you who were also wondering whence willow vodka hails, or fancy making your own, here are the details, straight from the horse’s mouth:
I came across willow-flavoured vodka in the Altai region of Siberia while on the Mongol Rally with Team Clouseau last year. It’s easy to make: you half-fill a vodka bottle with pollen-laden willow catkins and leave it for two weeks. Tastes great and, what’s more, willow contains the active ingredient of aspirins so no headache afterwards. In fact chewing willow leaves was the traditional way to cure headaches before aspirin was invented.
You can make any flavoured vodka by leaving the key ingredient in the bottle for a week or two. I’ve been growing a lemon verbena plant (the French call it vervain) in the garden all summer in order to create my own vervain vodka. Other good ones are honey, cloudberry, lingonberry, bay leaf and chilli vodka. I’m horrified by the mere thought of Absolut Tangerine though.
I should add then that I learned some years ago in Siberia that there is a definite knack to drinking vodka. You drink shots in rotation with bread, pickles, cheese and salami. This stops you absorbing the vodka too fast and gives you a nice warm glow (even in -30º) rather than getting you totally plastered. Fruit flavoured vodkas don’t go too well with salami and pickled gherkins so you can use chocolate instead; Russian chocolate is really rather good and comes in almost as many varieties as the vodka.
Thanks Jim!
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