DIY Infused Liquor:
Wishing to have your own taste of liquor? Are you fancy for an expensive Gin infused Strawberry which you saw recently in a store? What does Mango passionfruit Vodka sound to you? Interesting?
In this section we will cover how you can achieve this!
Your Base:
First step is your base, choose which of the liquor you want to build your recipe on it, you can choose any alcohol but usually Vodka, gin and tequila are easier to work with, which flavours will not affect their quality too.
Avoid using red wine for base, as it has very dominant taste and very hard to mix, white wine should be fine. Some less dark whisky can be good base too, choice is endless but it is all about balancing choosing the right base.
Choose Your Flavour:
Choice of flavours are endless, you can use any fruits you like, or even you can go for bakery flavours even cheesecake! Usually strawberry and Mango are more popular flavours, but choice is endless, it depends your imaginations, even you can combine two or three flavours, fore example a mix of Strawberry lime or Mango and passionfruit would be very exotic!
Mix it Up!
Finally, to mix your own liquor, all you would need to do is combine your base of liquor with a favourite flavour, much like mixing a fruit cordial with water, after mixing shake it and leave it aside.
After mixing
1. labelling:
Of course, labelling your liquor is very important. If you make more than one infused liquor, you can find their ingredients and track your progress. At the beginning, you can use just masking tape. Just write down their names and your recipe and stick them on it. Then you will not lose anything.
2. Steeping:
Steeping will give depth to your liquor. Normally, fruit flavours need less steeping time, between 2-3 days, but bakeries need more time, and especially some vanilla flavours, require at least two weeks of steeping.
3. Testing:
Never make a big batch, just go for a small batch and see how it goes. After you make sure you like that recipe, then you can go for a bottle or more.
Tips to DIY infused Liquor:
1.Some flavours blend well together, for example Mango pair very well with Peach or passionfruit, or strawberry and cheesecake, so try to use flavours which blending them makes more sense.
2. Try to use well-known flavours, do not choose any flavours because of its name or it’s picture, research and finding the best flavours are the essential part of this. For example, there are more than 20 different Mango flavours, so choosing a mango that is best for your situation is critical! The good point is there are lots of information on web, you can search all the flavours on Google and you will find out are they good or not? are they applicable to your situation or not.
One of the best and economic option is Duomei flavours, their flavours are super strong and even a drop of their flavours will infuse a glass of any liquor, also they last long too, but make sure you do not add too much of their flavours as those are super powerful.
3. Do not start by mixing a big batch of liquor. It is advised to make a small glass or even less, then go for a bottle.
4. Avoid using too much flavour concentrate! If you are using FA, FLV, or INW, start with 1-2% and increase it to 5-6% (for standalone, most probably 4-5%). For example if you add 20% of FA Almond flavour, you may end of muting the tatse.
If you are mixing two flavours, then start with 3%-4% as your main profile and add another one at 1-2%. Do not let this myth derail your journey; adding more flavours will not result in more tastes!
5. Let your mix steep at least for a few days, so infuse your liquor , close or seal the bottle and let it stay away from sun and heat for few days, some special flavours require more steeping.
Best standalone flavours for DIY Liquor:
Please note that the below is Liquid DIY’s view. In the below list we tried to introduce some pretty straight-forward fruits which do not require further development and even if they are used as standalone, they can be recognised easily by most of people.
Best Mango Flavour concentrate:
Mango Flavour Express (FE) is our choice of the best mango flavour concentrate. Other good Mangos are FA Indian Mango and FLV Mango, for the best outcome, you may combine all of these mangos together to reach a better Mango.
Duomei Yellow Mango is another legend, if you can source it! By far it is the best Mango EVER! also super concentrated and just few drops of it would be more than enough, also it will last much longer.
Best Apple flavour:
This is very hard as there are lots of good apples, but Fuji Apple of Flavour Art (FA) is our choice, following by Capella double apple.
Best Strawberry:
Sweet Strawberry of Jungle flavour and Strawberry Jam of One On One flavours are two of the best strawberries.
The best peach flavour concentrate is:
Honey Peach from Jungle flavours and TFA Juicy Peach are amazing.
The best blueberry flavour is:
Flavour Art Juicy Blueberry, TFA Blueberry Extra, or Hangsen Blueberry are all good choices for the best Blueberry but our choice is Flavorah Blueberry and Muffin.
Best Vanilla Custard:
This is very hard, Capella Vanilla Custard is a clasic Vanill acustard, also nowadays perople tends to use Inawera Custard and Flavour ART Custard premium , but the Jungle Flavour Ultimate Vanilla Custard is a new game changer!
Best Lemon for DIY:
Flavour Express Lemon is an amazing lemon which lasts longer than other lemons, also Flavour Art Lemon Sicily is super yummy but it fades faster than FE Lemon, so it would be on you, will you go for yummy FA Sicily or your juice needs a long steep?
Best lemonade, is Liquid Barn Pink Lemonade, just add sweetener and enjoy it, of course you can add a bit of WS-23 too to add icy effect to it(1% of WS-23 would be more than enough).
Best Raspberry:
Although Flavour Art Raspberry and Inawera Raspberry are both good ,but our choice for the best Raspberry is SSA Premium Raspberry following by Raspberry Syrup of SSA.
Best Lychee:
Flavour Art Longan is an amazing lychee.
Best French Vanilla:
Our choice for the best Vanilla flavour is Jungle Flavours Ultimate French vanilla.
Best Cola flavour:
Flavour Art Cola, Liquid Barn Cola and SSA Cola are the best Cola flavours.
Best Redbul/Energy drink:
Flavour West Green Goblin is our first choice, following by amzing Duomei's Energy drink.
Best Watermelon:
By far, the best Watermelon is Ultimate Watermelon by Jungle Flavours.