cocktails

Cosmopolitans, like chunky shoes and flannel shirts, were everywhere in the 90s, thanks largely to Miss Carrie Bradshaw and her gal pals on Sex and the City. While I tended to avoid Cosmos when SATC was all the rage, I have to admit that when I’m outside in the good ol’ summertime there’s something superbly refreshing about a well-made Cosmopolitan. The problem is that most bar Cosmos are either too tart (usually because they’ve cheated on the Cointreau and made up for it with a dousing of lime juice) or too alcoholic. The thing is, in the summer you want fruit and low alcohol—not a martini bomb.

To solve this dilemma, I started infusing vodka with fresh summer berries. I started out with strawberries (too sweet) then went to blackberries (not pronounced enough) and ended up using a mixture of raspberries, strawberries, and blackberries.

Perfection. And nothing could be simpler than making berry-infused vodka. Buy a pint each of strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries, add a little simple syrup (a quarter to half a cup, depending on how sweet you want it) and a whole vanilla bean, then dump in a bottle of vodka and let it sit for four or five days in a cool, dark spot like the pantry. To make your cosmo, rim a chilled martini glass with a lemon twist, combine two shots of berry-infused vodka with half a shot of Cointreau, shake and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with the lemon twist and an infused raspberry.

You’ll notice in the photo that my vodka is being infused in a very cool glass container. Anything from a pickle jar to a lemonade pitcher will work, but I like using a clear glass 64 ounce Milano infusion jar, complete with spigot, that I got from Infused-vodka.com. It’s the perfect size for infusing a bottle of vodka (or any other spirit for that matter) and only costs $23. They also have 20 other infusion jars in every shape and size imaginable up to a 240 ounce Tuscany behemoth that would handle about four bottles of booze. I don’t have any connection with this company—in fact, they don’t even know I’m promoting their products. I’m just saying, in the summer you ought to make your own infused spirits (in addition to the berry vodka, I’m currently also making a strawberry tequila and a pineapple rum and vodka infusion that makes the best Hawaiian martinis you’ve ever had) and if you do, these jars are cool and cheap. And they come with a recipe book for making over 50 infused vodkas from Cran-Orange Spice Vodka to Vanilla Banana Twist.