The second episode of four in a series on making the perfect Bloody Mary.. Cocktails on the Fly Episode “Bloody Mary infused vodka” Alberta: Hey welcome aboard this is our second leg of our journey to Flighty Bloody Mary land or her a.k.a. Flighty cooks a meal ha, ha. Alright, so what we are going to do is make an infused vodka for our Bloody Mary. Everyone likes hot Bloody Mary’s right? But we do not want to be too hot, we don't want to blow out our tasters, we do not want our tongue burning. We want to be able to have some flavor, and that is the important thing. So I have been experimenting with his vodka for a long time. Now I do not want you think that you have to do it exactly the way I do it. You can add as many kind of variations as you want; this is just a general guideline. But let me tell you there are some tried and true things that I have found out through many, many years of R&D. That is what they call it, isn't that great? I am a bartender what is my R&D to consist of? Taste testing, super fun. Okay the first thing I learned when I was making this vodka is that I don't want simply a hot flavor. There was back in the day when I first started doing it a couple of commercial pepper vodkas out there. And one of them specifically, I'm not going to mention any names but this one specific one you would taste it and all you would taste was heat. That is it, and that is not what I'm looking for in a Bloody Mary vodka. I don't want it to just be hot although I like it hot. I want some flavor there okay? So just let me tell you a little story about the first time I made it. Basically we all know if you cook, I don't cook but still I know that when I'm serving a cocktail the way things look is almost as important as the way they taste. You know guys, right? Okay, so anyways what I'd do is I got some peppers, I did not know anything about peppers. I got some jalapeños and I wanted to look good. I packed this container with jalapeños I filled it to the top. And boy it did look good; people would look at it and go, oh what is that you have got brewing? And I am like oh it is my Bloody Mary vodka it is not ready yet. But let me tell you something, you have got to be very careful about the type of peppers that you put into your Bloody Mary, because without knowing it, without checking all of a sudden you can have a little cocktail of emergency on your hands. So let me tell you what happened. So I packed my thing with jalapeno peppers. This was a Saturday; you know on Saturday afternoons Flighty didn't have much to do, doing a little taste testing, R&D. Then she is off for a couple of days, she comes back, a guy comes in and he is like I want a Bloody Mary. I hear you make good ones here. I say yes we do. He goes, I like it hot, I say Sir, it is going to be hot, and don’t you worry about it. But he keeps insisting he wants me to put Tabasco or this or that in there. And I'm like Sir just tasted it is going to be hot. But he did not believe me and he just kept insisting, and you know how sometimes you get a little sarcastic when you get tired of people who don't trust you? You get a little sarcastic. I made the drink; I busted out my Bloody Mary vodka that has been sitting there for a couple of days. Now I tasted it before I left, but I didn't taste it when I came in on the Tuesday. And I poured his drink, I made it for him. He takes one big drink of it. I could tell he had that skeptical look on his face. He takes one big drink, and then all of a sudden his face drains of color. He told me later that everything started going wha, wha, wha. In this big dude had to put his head between his knees for about 15 minutes before he could talk again. I'm feeding him milk, hoping he does not sue me. So you've got to be careful okay? So I have experimented with a bunch of different peppers, and I've come upon Ancho chili peppers. Ancho chili peppers provide a light heat, now it does get hotter the longer you let it age but it is a light heat with a nice smoky flavor. So we are going to put those in the first. So you have got the Ancho chilies. You only need two; you do not need to pack your whole thing with the chilies. I'm going to put some fresh lemon peel in there, ba, bam. Okay and then I'm going to put a handful of fresh cilantro. Here we go. I'm going to put in some fresh lemon grass, and then some dried orange peel. You know what I'm just going to pour this whole thing, I was just going to say tablespoon, but you know what just pour the whole thing in there. It is nice to have a citrusy tangy hot heat okay? And then four bay leaves. Now I always use fresh California bay leaves but I read an article that was talking about these Turkish bay leaves and how much flavor they have, and how they are not just overwhelming. So Flighty is going to experiment with these, you know live and learn, live and learn. So there we go R&D, see it? R&D in action. And then we are going to put in some of these allspice berries, super yummy. A little bit of juniper berries, as you might know they're very cleansing to the kidneys. So we can toxify and detoxify at the same time. And then a pinch of this cumin, I like to use the whole seeds; I don't want a bunch of cloudiness going okay? And then this fabulous stuff, my producer took me to a super fun spice bazaar, and I discovered black cardamom. Now Flighty loves cardamom, and this black cardamom the way they age it, they cook it over a fire so it has kind of a nice smoky feel, but once you bite into the inside it has a nice cardamom spiciness. So I will throw those in, you have got smoky cardamom, and then a pinch of garlic, and a pinch of celery. Now be very careful about celery. Now when you eat celery you are thinking celery is like water, who cares? You can throw a bunch of celery in there and you would not get any flavor. But you know what? I have learned through R&D, that celery can overwhelm a batch of vodka or Bloody Mary mix very, very quickly. So you just use a pinch okay, just a little pinch and then some coriander. Alrighty, now and then you add your vodka, vodka, vodka, vodka, now I want you to know that the quality of the vodka that you put in is very important. Now I know that we are not all made of money, but you know what? Just like they used to say back in the old days, and in the computer Times, garbage in, garbage out, that is true for your infusions; don’t put crappy vodka for your infusions. You can really taste the difference, even if you have got a fruit flavor or an overwhelming kind of almost overwhelming hot heatness. You can taste the vodka, you can taste when you put a good vodka in. I used to think that you couldn't really tell and sometimes I would slip in a little one that wasn't so good. But you know what? I can taste the difference and I know my customers can and I know you can too. So put in a nice vodka. Sometimes I even like to use like this Skyy 90. The higher proof pulls out the flavors more quickly, so for example if you have a party in the afternoon or whatever and you are making your vodka in the morning. Just in that short time if you have a higher proof vodka you can get the flavors out. So this is the end result, this one has been sitting overnight. Now the thing is about the vodka that you can keep tasting it. Because people have different tastes, and the thing is you are looking for the heat but you are looking for also a dynamic flavor. So if you have tasted your vodka and you feel that it is as hot as you would like it to be, pull out the peppers. But let it age a little longer with the other spices so you can have a full rich tasting vodka. Just experiment and try different things. That is what Flighty does and that is what you do too. So be careful all right? Peppers are hot. All right, cheers, leg two done. Bloody Mary vodka in a large glass jar add: 1. 2 Ancho chilies. 2. 2 strips of lemon peel. 3. Handful of fresh cilantro. 4. 2 stalks of lemon grass. 5. 1-2 teaspoons dried orange peel. 6. 4 bay leaves. 7. 1 teaspoon each juniper berries and whole allspice. 8. 4 black cardamom pods. 9. Pinch each of garlic powder, celery salt, cumin seeds, and coriander. 10. A bottle of good vodka. 11. Let stand overnight. 12. Delicious! And spicy.