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How-To: Fresh Pomegranate-Infused Vodka

In yesterday’s post I gave you just a “taste” of what was to come – Pomegranate cocktail recipes. But first, the little story of why they ended up in our glasses Saturday night.  And after writing the world’s longest cocktail post, I decided to break this up into a miniseries. Turns out I have a lot to share about Pomegranate Cocktails!

I was simmering cranberries on the stove in preparation to make what I imagined would be “Cranberry Holiday Cocktails.” As I burned the first batch and started over, running out of sugar in the process, I suddenly realized that a Cranberry Cocktail was either a) a sugary and totally not-real-fruit-juice drink by Ocean Spray or b) Carrie Bradshaw’s fave drink – AKA a Cosmo.

My fabulous, unique, imaginary cocktail was really just a glorified Cosmo??

LAME.

Now I’m not knocking all you Cosmo drinkers out there. It’s just that I love to create new and surprising cocktails. Ones that you wouldn’t find at every corner bar.

Enter the Pomegranate – because I had a fresh one being totally lazy in my fruit bowl. Usually Pomegranate cocktails are created with POM liqueur and/or POM nectar, but I was determined to make it work with what I had on hand. First up? I needed to make some Pom Vodka.

Liquor Store Tip: I never spend the dough to buy flavored vodka. First, I don’t want to have a huge bottle taking up space at all times. Second, Second, I don’t want cheap vodka in any flavor, so it’s way cheaper and easier to make my own from the good stuff.

Fresh Pomegranate-Infused Vodka

I made a quickie batch of Pomegranate-infused Vodka – to squeeze the most flavor out of the fruit. The hardest part was having to separate all the arils (seeds) out of the flesh of the fruit.

Ingredients:

  • 2 Cups Good Vodka
  • 1/2 Cup Fresh Pomegranate Seeds

Useful Tools:

  • Cocktail Shaker
  • Muddler or Mortar & Pestle
  • Confidence 😉

  1. Throw the Pom arils in the bottom of the shaker.
  2. Add just a splash of vodka.
  3. Use your muddler or the wrong end of a fat-handled cooking spoon to squish all the juicy goodness out of the fruit.
  4. Add the rest of the vodka and let it sit for 30 min – 1 hr.
  5. When it’s ready, use the shaker and a hand-held fine mesh strainer to double-strain the vodka into a pitcher. If you don’t double-strain there may be bits of crushed fruit in the liquid. And they won’t look pretty, as all the color will be gone from them.

Now you’ve got a beautiful, ruby red vodka.  How do you store the stuff?

Well, you could go all artsy-DIY-blogger on it and pour it into a fabulously rustic jar, use your Cricut to design a gorgeous vinyl label, tie some hand-woven twine around the lip of the jar, screw on a cap adorned with your hand-painted rendering of a pomegranate.

-OR-

When you’ve got company arriving at any moment, you can use a funnel to pour that sucker back into the original vodka jar. That’s what I did.

If you’re storing the vodka, be sure to put it in the freezer to keep it fresh. Now that there’s fruit in it, it’s gotta stay cold. For best results, I’d use it up within 2 weeks – but I’ve been known to keep it around longer.

So you’ve got your freshly-infused Pomegranate Vodka. Now what?

You’ve got a few options – a delightful, bubbly cocktail made with Champagne or Sparkling Wine, a PomTini, or a Pomegranate Lime Soda. And many variations in between.  Stop back later for both the cocktail AND mocktail versions of the first!

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11 Comments

  • Reply mikalah at 2:44 pm

    Ooh, that looks amazing! I just tried fresh pomegranate for the first time every the other day. It was rather strange, I didn’t know the seeds are the fruit! Crazy. I imagine it would make a really yummy cocktail though.

  • Reply Julia at 2:58 pm

    Well, you could go all artsy-DIY-blogger on it and pour it into a
    fabulously rustic jar, use your Cricut to design a gorgeous vinyl label,
    tie some hand-woven twine around the lip of the jar, screw on a cap
    adorned with your hand-painted rendering of a pomegranate.

    HA! Brilliant writing. I love it.

    • Reply Jane @ The Borrowed Abode at 2:59 pm

      Hopefully you all know me well enough to know I’m joking and not honestly knocking the artsy-DIY-blogger thing, since I too am often guilty of doing such things 🙂

  • Reply Jessica Peterson at 4:00 pm

    There are many things on my to-DIY list, but anything involving vodka moves to the top…Thanks for sharing! Sounds delish!

    Jessica {The Aestate}

  • Reply liz at 4:15 pm

    “When you’ve got company arriving at any moment, you can use a funnel to
    pour that sucker back into the original vodka jar. That’s what I did.”

    That would be exactly my thought process!! And I might have startled the dog laughing at that paragraph. Thanks for the great idea! I always want flavored vodka and somehow never connected that it’s really that simple. Have you ever done a vanilla or spice flavored vodka? (I admit I haven’t looked through the archives and it might be obvious if you have). I’m just wondering if it’s the same amount  of resting time or if it needs more.

    Happy Holidays!

    • Reply Jane @ The Borrowed Abode at 4:24 pm

      Hey! Glad I could make you laugh. 🙂 I’ve never made a spice or vanilla vodka, but I bet it’s easy! I’d put a small piece of vanilla bean in the vodka and maybe test it after an hour, and a second hour, etc. I think maybe you’re supposed to scape the seeds out of the vanilla bean first, though. Hmm. Thanks for the great idea!!

  • Reply LifeinRehab at 6:25 pm

    I smell wedding cocktails…

  • Reply How-To: Sparkling Pomegranate-Rosemary Cocktail or Mocktail | The Borrowed Abode at 2:02 pm

    […] What the Hell? « How-To: Fresh Pomegranate-Infused Vodka […]

  • Reply Leigh at 7:38 pm

    Fun! And perfect timing. My holiday party is next week!

  • Reply Fresh Pomegranate Martinis & Pomegranate-Lime Sodas | The Borrowed Abode at 8:16 am

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