Candy Booze

Autumn Sunset Revisited

2017-12-06T15:57:00.001-08:00

A while back I decided that I wanted to try out mixing some drinkings. Things that you wouldn't normally see for flavoured alcohol. I made on before with strawberry marshmallows and Lemonheads, each dissolving them in vodka. I decided to revisit that to see if I could do it better.
I started once again with a jar with Lemonheads in it. They're a sour candy. Sour items can be good because they bite through the taste of alcohol, making it easy to drink. That's why you bite a lime when you're doing tequila.

I had some left over Silent Sam vodka for this one. I figured that it would take longer than the strawberries, so I started on this one first.
Here they are taking a little bath.
It looks like they're having some fun here. But it was important to wait a while for this to break down. They're hard candies, so they will need time to break down. These took about a week and a half.
Finding the right strawberry marshmallows can take time. I found that these Real Mallow seem to do the job.
I wanted to have about this many in it, because marshmallows are lighter, and will dissolve a bit easier.
Boom top shot.
Now we add vodka and wait a week.
It took a while, and I even took a fork to it to speed up the process. It helps get rid of the marshmallow clumps.
Now we can compare the two different types, side by side. As you can see, they both came out with beautiful colours. Must more vibrant than Skittles.
Due to the amount of vodka put in, you're going to get two different types of layers to the drink. This is important if you want prettier shots. If they're the same density then they're mix together, and you will get an orange colour. With this level though you can have the flecks of red in the yellow, and it makes it a bit more magical. It was worth the wait. It's also important to take the entire shot at one time. If people sip it, then they're only getting one of the flavours, and that doesn't keep the shot balanced.
Autumn Sunset Shot: 4/5

Banana Marshmallow Vodka

2016-06-15T04:43:00.000-07:00

I've enjoyed the strawberry marshmallows from a while back. I wondered if the success that they had could be transferred to other types of candy. Luckily these fake banana marshmallows fit the bill. I'm not the biggest fan of bananas, but they have a place.

And so I got a whole bunch of them.
But they're sad, because it's about to rain on their parade.
Now we have to wait... How long will it take?
It took about a week for these to melt away into the drink, which isn't too bad. Just took time and some daily swirling. Overall it has a lovely colour. It seems a bit playful. You have to be careful with the balance of vodka to marshmallow though to make it go off without a hitch. It has a good flavour to it though, and overall I think it was a success.
Banana Marshmallow Vodka: 4/5

Jones Cream Soda Carbonated Candy Vodka

2016-05-26T14:02:00.001-07:00

I've been chewing on these mints for a while now, and I figured why not take it to the next level? Carbonation style! I wanted to see how well carbonation could be transferred to alcohol.

So I had a gander on the inside to take a look at how many mints there were. I figured I'd have to use a bunch to try and get flavour from them, since they aren't overpowering.
And here we have a view from above. Don't they look cozy?
Now we add the vodka and begin the wait.
I found out after this that there is a bit of a trick. You have to drink it quickly, otherwise the carbonation is gone. If you drink it too soon though, there isn't any carbonation nor flavour. If you drink it too late, there isn't any carbonation, but there is a bit a flavour. Not enough enough to justify attempting this.

Jones Cream Soda Carbonated Candy Vodka: 1/5

Hot Pepper Vodka

2015-09-19T04:58:00.002-07:00

These wonderful peppers were a few that I picked up from the local market. I normally use them to add some spice to dinner, but this time I wanted to add some spice to my night cap.

You have to cut them up pretty fine, just so that hot seeds can be introduced to the liquid.
Having sliced them up three different ways, I added them to the jar.
We add a little alcohol, and then we wait a few days.
After about five days we're done. The colour of the vodka has been slightly tainted by the chlorophyll, but that's to be expected. A different type of heat is introduced, one that cuts the burn of an alcohol, and replaces it for a spice, which is quite nice. That being said, it's not terribly good if you want a candy alcohol. It is good if you like spice though.
Hot Pepper Vodka: 2/5

Christmas Candy Cane Vodka

2014-12-21T06:56:00.001-08:00

Above all else, when it comes to Christmas, the candy cane is king. Well king of the candy. I don't want to go into any religion since that may cause people to drink a lot more. So let's take a look at what we are working with.
The twelve days of Christmas? How about 12 candy canes? Just your standard variety of cane.
But I was getting the feeling that 12 might be too many, so I went with 8.

Here the candy canes are dancing like a group of awkward guys at the club.
"Guys, can you move? Please? No? Okay. :("
So I cut them off at the legs so that they would fit better in the jar, and dissolve faster. This way it only took two days to dissolve, and minimal shaking.
This was a quick and easy infusion. It's certainly looks the part for Christmas, and it should warm the cockles of your heart. The peppermint should make this go down, and with a pleasant after taste. It's like Christmas is hugging you from the inside. Do this and have the twelve shots of Christmas, and it will make any family gathering a good one.

Candy Cane Vodka: 4/5

Sweet'N Low Butterscotch Vodka

2014-06-20T10:32:00.001-07:00

Every once in a while people ask me if my drinks are too sugary. I reply to them, "If you're concerned about the sugar content, you're not drunk enough." A few times after that, they wanted to know if there is a diabetic candy booze that they can enjoy. Maybe. Perhaps. Yeast and sugar and all that. In any event, I found a sugar free candy to play with.
See? Sugar free. The package even says so.
This package contained exactly 10 pieces of candy, which means I'm going to use them all.

But first I'm going to play tic-tac-toe. O's win.
Just a top shot before we get down to business.
One day later and the drink is ready to rock.
It dissolves fine, and works pretty much the same as regular butterscotch vodka. You may wish to play around with the vodka to candy mix to either be 2:1 or 3:1, so that it isn't syrupy, nor too boozy. I'd still give the edge to my other butterscotch vodka, but that might just be a placebo effect.

Sweet'N Low Butterscotch Vodka: 3/5

Original Spree Vodka

2014-05-21T00:20:00.002-07:00

Did you know that Willy Wonka made the candy Spree? Did you know that they made a second version of Spree, found out that it was bad, and then went back to the original recipe, much like New Coke? Nor did I.
This candy comes in a nice and coloured box. I found this baby at the dollar store, because I'm looking for candies I can find that I haven't done yet.

They come out like little sugar pills. They have a little bit of flavour to them as well.
The colour distribution seems to favour red, and purple. Sorry orange, they didn't give you any love.
But I did. I figured I could mix both yellow and orange to get a golden colour in the end.
Now we just add a little Alberta Pure Vodka, and wait.
It only took a few days, but then we're provided with this sweet mixture of vodka. There isn't too much flavour to it, but it certainly looks nice. It's like dating a pretty person without a personality, so you can't fault a person for that. I can grade the concoction poorly though.

Original Spree Vodka: 2/5

Vanilla Vodka

2014-01-25T12:03:00.000-08:00

Part two of the Vanilla Vodka infusion fest, this one took a bit more time than just adding extract, and drinking. This required a bit more finesse.
I found a delightful bulk store, which I believe is called "Bulk Foods", and they were offering tubes of vanilla.
These vanilla pods come in pairs, but with how powerful they are, I decided to just go with one.

Technically I decided to go with much less than just one though, because I've heard you could flavour a 4 litre bucket of ice cream with one of them. You must score the vanilla pod to let out the pungent flavours of the vanilla pod, which allows the items around it to be infused much quicker.
This little fella looked so lonely, so I decided to do something about it.
I gave it a pool to play in. I didn't know how much to put in, but so I put in the rest of my bottle of vodka. I really should get more...
I went with using Pinnacle vodka, because I was hoping vanilla might be the pinnacle of spices. I'm lying about that. I am also not sure if vanilla is an actual spice. I should just Google it, but I am being lazy. How lazy? Lazy enough to just type a few sentences, rather then do a search. Maybe I am just more of a procrastinator.
I left the vanilla pod in there for three weeks. It gave a nice golden colour to the drink. It was full of flavour, which was great to have. It isn't the best pure flavour though. It's a great thing to splash into another drink. It could be a great component to build off of.
Vanilla Vodka: 3/5

Artificial Vanilla Extract Vodka

2014-01-19T20:02:00.002-08:00

Vanilla has always been my favourite flavour of Coke. In fact, I would love for them to bring it back to Canada, but unfortunately it was traded away so that we can avoid suffering the dreaded 8 month long Canadark. The ice giants gladly accepted that deal, but sometimes I think it would have been worth it to keep the Vanilla Coke.
I decided to try earlier on to do both versions, the real an artifical. Technically I could have done also the vanilla extract, but that was not in the budget for this trip.

Normally you should start with the expensive drinks, and work your way backwards, but I decided to go the opposite to save time.
As you can see, it was a couple of drops to add the flavour. It turned out okay, but it was nothing I would really want to try again. The real deal is coming soon! Artificial Vanilla Extract Vodka: 2/5

Cinnamon Stick Vodka

2013-12-28T15:34:00.000-08:00

A while back I decided to do Vanilla Vodka, and that turned out decently. I figured it was only fair to branch out into cinnamon vodka. Sure, I could have cheaped out a just poured some ground cinnamon, but I didn't think that was fair to the audience. Instead I retrieved some sticks, and got to work.
In case you haven't seen cinnamon before, here it is in its glory. Not too shabby, but if you're looking to bake with it, you need to do a little work. Likewise, for me to get this to work, by getting it to fit in my jar, I had to break it down to size.
And so I snapped them in half like match sticks.

Don't they look so cute standing like that?
After that it was time to give them a bit of a bath, then come back to them later.
I waited a few weeks for it to dissolve, but of course it couldn't. Instead the vodka soaked its way up the sticks, and the whole lot was moistened. Even now the sticks were quite flavourful. It might be possible to infuse a second batch.
Bottoms up! This worked out decently. You could certainly taste the cinnamon. My issue was that it looked a bit darker than I would have liked. When I think of cinnamon, I just think of a red colour. Perhaps with more vodka we could have lightened it up a pinch. The flavour was over pouring as well. You certainly wouldn't taste a burn of alcohol, though the cinnamon taste would leave a dry taste in your mouth. It's like doing the cinnamon challenge. I will admit that you should probably mix this with something else, rather than just do shots.

Cinnamon Stick Vodka: 3/5

Shocking Popping Candy Vodka

2013-12-14T20:31:00.000-08:00

Pop Rocks. Sort of a bane of my vodka flavouring experience. Mind you this is just popping candy, but I put it in the same boat. They're more of a novelty than an actual candy because they disappear so fast. There isn't too much flavouring, so you don't get to flavour a drink efficiently. Secondly the novelty of the popping candy would be lost after infusing a drink, so there isn't much of a reason to do it.
Hoping that my problem was strictly that I didn't have enough pop rocks, I decided to double down. Then I doubled it again to be sure I was right.

Where one is not enough...
Four might be.
Bottle for scale... There were no bananas around to compare it with.
And of course this fills up most of the glass. This reduces the total amount of vodka that can go in, but it's what has to happen.

Of course this video would sum it up. Another little "shocking" video I guess. Unfortunately there is still a problem where it doesn't really flavour the vodka, and so you're still just gulping down straight vodka. That's fine and all, but since the blog is about flavouring vodka, sadly it gets a low score. The candy was fine though!

Shocking Pop Rocks Candy Vodka: 1/5

Absolut Raspberri Vodka - Raspberry Vodka

2013-12-04T02:03:00.000-08:00

The final drink in the Absolut vodka sampler is Raspberri. I remember growing up and eating raspberries on the farm. I preferred their tart flavour to strawberries, which I still think are a little overrated.
This is the classic bottle it uses. A nice deep red. Of course that's just the bottle, and the insides are clear.

See? Told you so. I guess it makes it easier to mix with other drinks. Straight up it's not too bad. Like the others, it's light on flavour. It's a hint of raspberry, rather than going full tilt. I drank half of it, and put the rest into a Bloody Mary. It added an odd kick that I liked, though I did double down with more vodka. It's okay, but certainly we can do better, especially if were were to infuse it with raspberries ourselves.

Absolut Raspberri Vodka: 2/5

Tsar's Vodka and Gold

2013-11-11T11:20:00.000-08:00

Here is a video done by the Periodic Table of Videos, about Tsar's Vodka, and a little bit of gold infusion with Aqua Regia.

Absolute Pear Vodka

2013-10-28T11:59:00.000-07:00

Come-pear-ing these five types of Absolut vodka has been taking longer than I expected. In any event there is certainly two left, including this one. I bring you Absolut Pear.
No one is quite sure why pear was selected. It's not terribly common of a purchase of any of the fruits. It's quite rare for me to see anyone eating a pear too. Yet here we are.

The drink is quite simple, and light. It's clear, and far from sweet. It's okay to use, but it doesn't really stand by itself in any regards. Since it doesn't have a major flavour punch, it needs to be mixed with something else.

Absolute Pear Vodka: 2/5

Absolut Apeach Vodka (Peach)

2013-10-03T05:57:00.000-07:00

I'm going to the country, and I'm going to drink a lot of peaches. I assume that was the idea behind this drink, at least by the creators.
Here it is in the specially coloured bottle.

The drink inside, of course, is drastically different. That's not a bad thing, just a fact. I like my drinks to have a bit of colour though, at least when working with vodka, because then you know that there is a change. I wonder if that's the inner critic inside of me, or the alcoholic. The drink itself is okay, but still like on the peach flavour. It's one of the better pre-flavoured drinks though, so that's a bonus.

Absolut Apeach Vodka: 3/5

Absolut Citron Vodka (Lemon)

2013-09-10T09:19:00.001-07:00

With five types of drinks on the docket, we turn to the second one. This is Citron, a mass produced lemon vodka. This continues the sampler I got oh so many years ago, that was totally begging to be drunk.
Here it is in the bottle. It does about a shot and a little bit, depending on how big your shot glass is.

It tastes a bit lighter than I would prefer. The lemon flavouring lightens the burn as well, making it a bit more bland either way. I strongly recommend making Lemon Head Vodka instead, though this will work in a pinch, since it is just easy to buy a bottle.

Absolut Citron Vodka: 3/5

Absolut Ruby Red Vodka (Grapefruit)

2013-08-30T15:21:00.000-07:00

About 6 years ago, I was working at a call centre. I wasn't much of a drinker back then, and when secret Santa came about, we were all limited to $10 gifts. It seems someone wanted to break the rules though, and they gifted me this set. Since I wasn't much of a drinker, it just sat in my closet for the longest time. I figured now would be a good time to try them out. I wished to compare my flavoured vodka verses theirs, just to see how close they were.
This would be the five pack that it comes in. So many different flavours, and we'll get to each one of them with future posts.
I specifically went after Ruby Red, since I haven't really tackled grapefruit before.

As you can see, their vodka is clear in the shot glass, and it is the bottle that gives the drink the illusion of colour. I drank this, and I must say that it's difficult to get a good taste by the drink itself, and rather it shines more with the after taste. It's easy to use, but it's lacking a strong candy flavouring.

Absolut Ruby Red Vodka: 2/5

Riesen Vodka

2013-08-19T05:07:00.000-07:00

And the Riesen is you. A long time ago, not like 50 years, but a solid twenty, I remember them coming out with Riesen candy. It is a candy that had a dark chocolate outside, with a toffee inside. The idea behind it is that it was a candy marketed to the older crowd. I think. I am not sure. I'm drunk now.
Here is the magical bag that they come in. It's not a perfect bag, but it is a bag none-the-less.
I decided to go with five, mainly based on the size of the vessel.

That and I could do a cool looking shot like this.
Since there is chocolate on the outside, and toffee on the inside, I knew I had to cut them open, otherwise the vodka could never dissolve the sweet sweet insides. I learned this from doing the Mars vodka, so it was quite important.
Here is a nice top down shot of how they looked in the container.
Now we just need to add some Blackstone vodka, and then wait.
It takes a week before you can consider drinking it. It requires quite a bit of agitation to try and get it to this level. If you let it sit, it will begin to have the chocolate floating at the top. Here you can see tiny chocolate floating bits.
It ends up looking like this, with large and chocolate bits inside of these as well. The flavour mixture that this creates is a bit of a chunkier drink, which isn't really the best for shots. It was a bit more work than I like doing as well, which doesn't do it a favours. All in all, it's mostly a bit of a fail, unless you want to let it blend for a solid month plus.

Riesen Vodka: 2/5

Ban on Russian Vodka

2013-07-29T15:10:00.003-07:00

Hello,

Due to the ban on open gayness in Russia, this blog will no longer use Russian vodkas until this problem has be corrected. While it personally doesn't affect me of what happens in Russia, it affects many of them, and that is just as important.

Thank you for your time,
Gordon Edward - CandyBooze.com

Sunkist Hard Candy Vodka

2013-07-27T03:10:00.002-07:00

Hard Candy is a movie about a man potentially losing his balls. Sunkist Hard Candy is about just being sweet. I urge you to know the difference. Not too long ago I found a bag of Sunkist candies. Normally I remember Sunkist as being more of a juice company, but I'm just a crazy Canadian, so what do I know? Anyways, I wanted to make these "hard candies" even harder, so I decided to add a little vodka.
I introduce to you the Citrus Blend of Sunkist hard candy. I didn't know that these existed until I picked up a whole bag for $1.00. Big spender eh?
As you can see, this is the flavour distribution. Lemon is in the lead, followed by orange, cherry, and finally strawberry with only two.

I decided to go with the two two choices, mainly because orange and lemon do not get as much love as they should. Lemon Head Vodka turned out pretty good after all.
I added a bit of Potter's Vodka and allowed the waiting game to begin.
After about three days it was ready to sample. I must say that I should have added a bunch more vodka, because it was sweet and flavourful. I was very glad that I didn't have to filter anything as well, which made it a nice and easy vodka to make. It works well to create, but I would have liked more quantity for what I paid for the candies.

Sunkist Hard Candy Vodka: 4/5

Fruit Filled Candy Vodka

2013-07-13T12:15:00.003-07:00

I believe that fruit filled candy, and probably one of the most common candies out there. I remember having a supply of them when going over to grandma's house, and I'm pretty sure you did too. They were always wrapped in a piece of plastic with an image of what flavour they were inside. I thought that they would have a fancier name, but it turns out that isn't the case at all. Wowzers.
Here is a whole bag I was able to procure. Still nothing too fancy about it.
I opened it up too quickly, and it kind of exploded. My bad.

I figured I would sort them by type, just to get a flavour distribution. Cherry was in the lead, followed by pineapple, lemon, orange, and finally strawberry.
I haven't done pineapple before, and figured there was no time like the present.
So I got them naked for a closer look. Sadly they're not ribbed like a pineapple, since that might be kind of interesting.
One aerial shot before we get down to business.
It's business time. Blackstone vodka was the vodka of choice for this run.
It took about three days to complete. It was easy to do, so there is points for that. I must admit I am not a real fan of pineapple. I normally throw them off of my pizza, if there is any one it. I have to say that this tasted pretty good. The sugary part of the candy dissolved, leaving little fruit-esc bits floating around in it. It was quite sweet, and it worked quite well with the whole drink. It combined with the quickness of dissolving the candy, make it a solid choice.

(Pineapple) Fruit Filled Candy Vodka: 4/5

Double Lollies Vodka

2013-07-05T01:32:00.001-07:00

Double Lollies are normally a candy given out at Halloween. It's a mix of multiple flavours of sugar, which pretty much taste the same. I remember one person saying that the flavour is complex, because it slowly changes as you lick them, and mix different quantities of the mix together. For me? I think that's BS, but I thought I'd add it anyways.
And here we have a full bag of these. It is brought out by the same people that bring you Smarties/Rockets. Those didn't turn out too well though.
I figured a trinity of these would be enough to fill up our vessel.

Here they are all naked. Meoooow.
Of course those nasty stems have to go, so I lopped them off with a knife. Of course there are still some that I couldn't reach, but we'll grab those in a bit.
So I tossed them all in the jar.
Here is another angle just in case you're super interested.
Now we just need to add a little vodka, which this time it is Blackstone Vodka. It came in a plastic bottle, so I've been drinking it quickly.
After two days the candy has dissolved. It did it at a decent speed, which is nice.
Here's the remaining stems from before, which were buried in the candy.
After a brief shake the drink is ready to go. It seems that it is still heterogeneous though, and if you let it sit, it'll separate into the candy scum and dark brown liquid. The flavour isn't terribly great, but I wasn't expecting too much. I'd probably avoid making these again in the future.

Double Lollies Vodka: 2/5

Crystal Mint Vodka

2013-06-20T17:41:00.002-07:00

Do you like Crystal Meth? How about Crystal Meth vodka? Oops, I mean crystal MINT vodka. Judging by the packaging though, you might have made the same mistake. Crystal Mint is a type of clear mint put out by the Sweet Shoppe. It's a dollar store brand, since I got it in a dollar store after all. But just because it is a cheap candy, it doesn't mean it is bad. In fact, they taste pretty good, and they last for a long time.
Here's the product I was talking about. This features mainly a clear type of mint. This is what can be quite interesting.
At first I decided to just do a few, but ten turned into twenty, which turned into the rest of the bag. I had high hopes for this one, considering other mint vodkas like Great Bite and just general mint vodka have each turned out quite nicely.

But I let them disrobe and put on a little show. Hi to you too.
And in case you're a candyphile, I decided to show you their clothing.
But now it's time to get down to business. As you can see they're still quite clear when stacked up.
Now you just have to add vodka and wait your turn.
It took about two days for it all to break down. It produces a fairly clear minty drink. It tastes great, and gets rid of the after burn. Your breath ends up smelling like Scope though, which can be a bonus if you want to drink before going into work. No one would be the wiser. It dissolves quite easily, which gives it a nice score, but with many other different mints, it's hard to rate each one terribly different from the last.

Crystal Mint Vodka: 4/5

Great Bite Mint Vodka

2013-06-13T06:45:00.000-07:00

Hey kids. Do you like attitude? Do you like sharks? How about mint gum shark candy for all you surfer ninjas out there? I guess that's the marketing scheme they went with when creating this candy. It's not a terrible idea, as it does have a certain awesome factor.
The candy comes in a sealed tin with a giant bite mark out of it. That alone is pretty cool, but that's not the end of it, which we will get to in a bit.
It's loaded quite full with their mint candy. The candy itself does taste like mint, but is far from overpowering.

A close up shot of the candy shows that the candy itself has a nice bite mark out of it as well. It's always good when people stick with a theme.
But before we get too deep into conversation of how great the candy is, here's the money shot.
I pretty much used up the rest of my Potters Vodka on this. The rest of it disappeared into other alcoholic drinks.
It took about 4 days for it to break down, so it loses a point there. This could have been sped up if we took the time to crush the candy, but that seems like an unnecessary step. It has an interesting green colour to it, which is good because we can mistake it for a mint drink. It tastes pretty good. There isn't a burn of alcohol, which through my many experiments with alcohol, it synominous with mint vodka. I would strongly recommend making it, though you'll be hard pressed to find the candy.

Great Bite Vodka: 4/5

New Candy Is Coming

2013-06-06T05:12:00.001-07:00

I have two more candies dissolving right now. Sorry on the delay.