As you may know, we love our cocktails and high-end spirits.
There’s nothing better than sampling an expensive champagne or sipping an XO cognac, but we also love experimenting with recipes at home.
This has led to us check out the odd moonshine-esque practice of ‘dishwasher vodka’. When we first identified it in the paper, we weren’t sure it would work, but it really does.
It’s like bathtub gin, just automatic and technologically assisted. and not illegal. Well, I don’t think it is…
Anyway, before you start imagining us sipping on some soapsuds-topped rinse-aid coloured cocktail, allow me to explain. We don’t drink the dishwasher water – we just use the heat and motion of the dishwasher cycle to create flavoured vodka.
And it’s soooo simple.
Dishwasher Vodka
Here’s what you need:
1 bottle of vodka – we gotten a mid-price vodka that had a screw cap.
1 pack of lollies – depending on the flavour you want your vodka to be.
1 functioning, empty dishwasher.
Here’s what you do:
Pour about a cup of vodka out and put it to one side.
Smash up the lollies – you can use a pestle and mortar, some food wrap and a rolling pin, a plastic bag and a hammer, a sock and a wall… it depends on how hillbilly you’re feeling!
Put the lollies in the bottle, and do the lid up as tight as you can.
Wrap the top in glad wrap and put it on the top shelf of the empty dishwasher.
Don’t put any detergent in the dishwasher.
About halfway through the cycle, very carefully open the door and roll the bottle over.
When the cycle’s finished, take the vodka out – be careful, it’ll be hot. If there are any undissolved sweets in the bottle, shake it until they’ve dissolved as much as possible.
Add the vodka you took out back in and you’re ready to go!
We made two types of vodka – a butterscotch schnapps style one and a limoncello style one. For the butterscotch one we used Werther’s original hard toffees and for the limoncello we used a bag of sherbet lemons.
They are both delicious – though the butterscotch tends to separate after a while so you need to shake it up before serving.
When deciding on your flavour, look for hard boiled sweets. We’ve heard jelly lollies don’t dissolve very well and you have to strain the vodka after. Skittles work but they turn the vodka a odd grey-brown colour unless you separate the individual colours.
A pink strawberry Chuppa Chup vodka would be terrific for Mardi Gras this weekend, or those sherbet-filled lime lollies would make a terrific St Patrick’s Day vodka!
What flavour would you make? tell us your tipple type in the comments below!
Images by Mrs Romance.