This is one of our favorite new techniques since discovering it over on the French Culinary Institute’s Cooking Issues Blog.  With an isi cream whipper and some gas chargers (N20) you can infuse small amounts of alcohol with incredible flavors and colors in one minute. If you’ve already learned the technique, you can skip right …

Here’s a Japan-inspired take on a classic margarita that’s very elegant.  Yuzu juice adds complex depth far beyond lemon’s, replacing its tartness with a blend of tart, honeyed and floral flavors. Serving this cocktail straight up (without ice) lets the beautiful glow of the citrus juices shine through the glass unencumbered and keeps their flavor …

This cocktail is elegant and luxurious…an elderflower suffused variation on the classic French 75 cocktail. Ingredients:       (Makes 1 Drink) 1.5oz Gin (we used Bombay Sapphire) 1oz Elderflower Syrup .5oz Lemon Juice, freshly squeezed Dry Sparkling Wine Lemon Twist Directions: 1. Shake gin, elderflower syrup & lemon juice with ice. 2. Strain the mixture into a …

This twist on the Brandy Sidecar has a brandy & orange flavor given more body and supporting flavors by the yuzu juice. Ingredients:       (Makes 1 Drink) 2oz Brandy 3/4oz Yuzu Juice 1/2oz Cointreau Lemon Twist for Garnish Directions: 1. Pour all ingredients into a shaker. 2. Add ice & shake to chill & combine. …

This play on a Manhattan features the ultra complex, layered flavor of elderflower paired with bourbon infused with orange, star anise and pink peppercorns, evoking the homey flavors, aromas and essence of autumn. Ingredients:       (Makes 1 Drink) 2 oz Flash-Infused Autumn Bourbon (Recipe & Technique at How to Flash Infuse Alcohols) 1/2 oz Dry Vermouth …

Includes huckleberry, peppercorn, and liquor flavored simple syrup recipes. Simple syrup is so called because it’s…well…simple.  A base simple syrup is nothing more than 1 part water to 1 part sugar.  Use simple syrup to sweeten cold drinks like lemonade, cocktails or hibiscus tea without endless stirring.  Dab it onto cakes before you frost them to …

Vanilla contains a lot of alcohol-soluble flavors that are commonly drawn out to make vanilla extract.  Making homemade vanilla vodka is easy and a great way to bring the calming and flavor-enhancing properties of vanilla to your mixed drinks. Ingredients: 1 pint sized jar or resealable bottle 4-5 Tahitian vanilla beans or bourbon vanilla beans …

This recipe can be used with almost any fresh herbs to make a tasty and colorful dessert sauce or cocktail mixer.  Here we’ve used the most popular dessert herb, mint, but you could substitute any variety (completely trimming the stems if they’re woody) that works with the other flavors in your dish. Ingredients:                Makes approx. 20 …

Flash infusing is our new favorite kitchen trick.  You get a lot of the flavor of slow-infusing in a tiny fraction of the time.  Don’t worry if you don’t have a cream whipper handy, you can still make chile-infused alcohol.  Just slow-infuse dried ghost chilies (or other dried chilies) using the technique in this ghost chile vodka recipe. …

Pasilla Hot Chocolate with Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream Any variety of bulk dried chilies (consult our chile heat scale for help deciding) can be used to make this hot chocolate (although you’ll likely want to change the amounts to fit the chile heat you’re looking for).  Here we’ve used mild pasilla chilies for a fruity …