Wednesday, October 21, 2009

The best way to make Skittles Vodka

Are you interested in drinking alcohol that tastes exactly like liquid Skittles?

If so, you have come to the right place.

There are a lot of different Skittles Vodka recipes out there on the net. I had researched at least a dozen recipes, each having minor variations and took what I thought was the best parts of each recipe to produce the best tasting, easiest to make Skittles Vodka.

Here we go...

Step 1: Get Supplies

5 Pints of Vodka
1 Large Bag of Skittles
5 Glasses
1 Funnel
Filters
Mixing Stick/Spoon

I suggest using Gordon's Vodka. It's a mid-grade vodka that's meant to taste good in mixed drinks. Don't think that spending a lot of money on vodka is going to make this drink taste better. Don't waste money buying vodka that's meant to be drunk straight, when in the end you don't want any vodka taste at all.

For the glasses that you will use to dissolve the Skittles, the rule is: The wider the glass the better. You can also use bowls. You want to maximize the amount of surface area that the Skittles are exposed to the vodka. This way, the Skittles will dissolve faster. If you have them, what is also nice is putting the Skittles into bottles you can shake.

For the filters, most recipes tell you to use coffee filters. Well, to put it bluntly, coffee filters suck. I started out this latest batch with coffee filters, but knew there must be an easier way. So after some experimentation I found that paper towels work great (I used Bounty). So, don't use coffee filters! Use a clean, white paper towel. In the pictures below, I was using coffee filters and I don't have a picture of the paper towels, but trust me, you will want to use paper towels, not coffee filters. It will save you at least an hour of time and aggravation. I have also read that Cheesecloth works good as a filter, but I tried it and it doesn't work well at all; cheesecloth is not fine enough and the waxy goo just goes right through it.

Note: Cleanliness is key! Always wash your hands before handling anything and make sure the equipment is clean. You never know who may be drinking this when you are done, so you want to be as clean and professional about it as possible.

Step 2: Separate the Skittles and add vodka

Pretty self-explanatory.

Step 3: Mix and Store

You will mix each glass for at least one minute, then wrap up the glass and let it sit. Repeat the one minute mixing every 8 hours, or whenever you get the chance. After 24 hours, give it a final mixing and it should be ready to go.

Step 4: Filter


So, you just dissolved the Skittles in the vodka, and are getting excited and ready to drink it right? Wrong! Now it's time for the most un-fun part of the job: Filtering. The dissolved Skittles leave a residue that you should remove. As mentioned above, do not use coffee filters. The use of coffee filters is so annoying that it's enough to make many people never want to try again. I found that using good quality paper towels works much better and faster.

Place a paper towel over the opening of a container and pour the vodka over it slowly. Let the vodka drain through the paper. If it goes too slowly (which often it does near the end) you can wrap up the sides of the filter, hold it in your hands and squeeze down to force the vodka through the paper faster.

The pictures above show coffee filters taped onto glasses, but this is not my recommended way of doing it. It takes forever. Next time, I'm just going to use paper towels, which is what I resorted to after waiting several hours.


Step 5: Use the funnel to fill up the bottles



Step 6: Drink!
This part is a tad trickier then you think. You will be tempted to drink a shot of this delicious smelling concoction. However, drinking it straight is pretty nasty. What you have on your hands is concentrated Skittles/Vodka syrup. To bring out the perfect Skittles Vodka taste, you need to pour it over ice and mix it with something. I mixed mine with Upper 10 (it's like Sprite) and it worked perfectly. It tasted like I had stuck a straw into a giant Skittle and drank it. Sprite should also work very well as a soda in the drink. I have heard about others mixing Skittles Vodka with Mountain Dew, 7-Up, Coke, Diet-Coke, Red Bull or fruit juice.

Good luck and enjoy!