Cinnamon Stick Vodka

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.

Shocking Popping Candy Vodka

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.

Absolut Raspberri Vodka - Raspberry Vodka

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.

Tsar's Vodka and Gold

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

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.

Absolut Apeach Vodka (Peach)

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.

Absolut Citron Vodka (Lemon)

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.

Absolut Ruby Red Vodka (Grapefruit)

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.

Riesen Vodka

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.

Ban on Russian Vodka

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

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.

Fruit Filled Candy Vodka

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.

Double Lollies Vodka

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.

Crystal Mint Vodka

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.

Great Bite Mint Vodka

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.

New Candy Is Coming

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

Certs Vodka

Certs is a breath freshening candy, which has been around for years. Their claim to fame is Retsyn, a compound that gives it a green colour. This was used to make it seem more special than other mints, which allowed them to be the number one breath freshening mint sellers. Good on them! But we don't really care about that. We want to know how it tastes in vodka.
This is how they come, just in a tube like Life Savers.

Cherry Halls Vodka

For a while, I have been a bit under the weather. I have had a bit of a cold. I decided that instead of letting that keep me down, I was going to include it, if possible, for drinks. That's where Halls comes into play.
So just a classic package of them ready to rock.

Glitter Vodka - April Fools

For a long while, I was a little entranced with the "Unicorn Blood - Cola Balls Vodka" that I made. It was different for sure, and it was pretty to boot. I wanted to recreate the magic, so I decided to go for the best part of the experience. I decided to go for the glitter.
So I figured why not start off with pure glitter, and then work backwards? This time let's go with five colours instead.
Look at them... They think they're the Might Ducks.

Green Russian

There is a show called Archer, which happens to be one of my favourite things to watch these days. While it is not as great as previous seasons, there is still quite the allure. Who is his dad? Can he tame the ocelot? How does a Green Russian taste?
A Green Russian is a drink that the HR person named Pam coined. It has two ingredients. One is Absinthe... And the other.

Chiclet Vodka

Since I had completed the Double Bubble Gum Vodka previously, I was curious what Chiclet vodka would taste like. Both seemed to have their bonuses, though one was far more minty.
I got this four pack for $1.00. Then I went to another store and found out if I spent $2.00 there, I could have had 50 boxes of them. Son of a... I say that because I would have added a lot more.

Cherry Mega Sours Vodka

I was stumbling through a candy store, looking for new candies. Lately I have been looking for brand name candies that I haven't done, but most of them have been completed already. This lead me to the fringe. The shop keeper pointed me to these Cherry Mega Sours. He said they were more sour than War Heads, so I knew I had to give them a shot.
These are what they look like up close. I must say that they are certainly more sour than War Heads, though that may be just based on the size. I did notice that my sister was unable to complete finishing one off in a single go, so they do seem to be more sour.

Candy Buttons Vodka

Anyone remember Candy Buttons? As a kid they were just sugary buttons, less than the size of a button, and really they were pure sugar. Remembering that, I decided to melt a couple down for shots!

Here they are in all of their glory.

Each package was double sided, and all the colours are separated. There should be enough to satisfy a few kids!

Peach Slices Candy Cane Vodka

I know I'm a little late on the train for Candy Cane vodka, but it has been a pain to find candy canes that aren't broken. Luckily a family member had been holding these off for me, and now I get to enjoy them with you!

They come in a box of nine, which seems a little odd, but it is what it is. I figure they should come in twelve, like the twelve days of Christmas, but I'm no marketing expert.

Here's a pair of candy canes... Aren't they in love?

Little Rascals Bubblegum Vodka

The Little Rascals have been around a lot longer than I have been alive. Heck, even their reboot movie is practically older than me. With that said, if I am old enough to drink, these Rascals are old enough to drink now too.

Their gum game in a mini-lunch box. It's a nice souvenir if you like to hide things like... Gum... Marbles, and other things inside.

Sucker Punch Vodka

Sucker Punch was a movie, that included nearly naked girls being empowered, while being stuck in an asylum/whore house, and fought off cyber Nazis. It was pretty much a terrible, yet decently looking movie. Alternatively Sucker Punch is also a candy with a gimmick. A punching glove.

Mama said to knock you out.

Blamo!

Manly Project for Manly Men - Guest Post - Blackberry Mead

Hello,

 I have a friend with blog that you should certainly check out. It's called Manly Project for Manly Men. In this post they make blackberry mead. Please check out the blog at http://manlyprojects.blogspot.ca

I Used To Be An Adventurer Like You...

It's time to make some "Black-Briar" mead. Any Skyrim fans might especially like this one.

As there's no mention of what is in Black-Briar's mead in game, this is a just-for-fun imagining of it. The Black-Briar crest features what appears to be a thorny vine with the leaves of a blackberry bush, so that's what I'm basing it on.

Fun fact: I almost horribly burned myself doing this in a fairly comical way. I'll get to that at the bottom of the tutorial

Vodka Gummy Cherries

Cherry gummies is a staple of my childhood. Going to the store and getting a bunch of them as for 5 cents, was something that finished off many school days. I am not going to explain what they taste like because if you don't know... You're a fool.

Here they are laid out, almost Mario Bros 2 style. If you collect enough of them, you get a star. Well I am ready to be a star.

Maynards Swedish Berries Vodka

Berries. Maynards freaking Swedish Berries. For those who have the misfortune of not having taste these before, they're a firm sweet gummy. They come in bunches normally, though I have seen similar ones on sale for penny candies.

Normally you can find them in a bag like these.

And this is what a bunch of them look like.

Wells Banana Bread beer

When I think of specialty beer, know what first comes to mind? Coffee flavoured beer. Know what comes to my mind secondly? I should probably pull over, and stop drinking. I was searching the stores on New Years Eve for a drink to share with the world, as I had just traveled to Vancouver, and wanted to keep content flowing on my Candy + Booze website.