Frozen Vodka on the Vertical; The Demise of the Ice Cube
When we take the family skiing to
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the first thing I do after that grueling yet picturesque drive bordering the Sierras, is go to the fridge and crank the freezer to max cold and throw in the bottle of Level vodka. I learned this little trick. If you get the freezer to 8 degrees below, not only does this make ice faster than you can say avalanche, but it makes your vodka into this syrupy semi frozen drool that you actually have to encourage to get out of the bottle. Kind of like the consistency of lava only colder.
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Talk about an incredible martini. None of this stuffy “shaken or stirred?” Bond crap. You don’t need a cocktail shaker, no need for stirring. Just pour it into a martini glass. Preferably near a bottle of vermouth but not too close, and drop two olives in. There is no better martini in my mind. Maybe it’s the altitude, but Level vodka at 8 below is silky smooth and very potent. Like a martini should be. It even stays cold up until the last drop. That’s not speed drinking either! And if you are the real purist you can’t beat it. This cocktail trick spares you from polluting your expensive vodka with some rusty, tape water made ice cubes. -8 taste’s great!
Ok so this cool cocktail trick is great for a drink at the cabin so why not try putting frozen
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It reminds me of a school science project cause the flask turns to ice right up to the fill line almost instantly. And, like the martini, it stays cold for a long time. Just don’t get the frozen flask too close to your skin. It’s kind of like when you lick a chair lift…it sticks. That you do only once. The bottom line, or the message I am trying to convey is, frozen vodka is better. Its better at home, it’s better at the slopes, and it’s better in the glass. You just need a freezer that will go to -8. Down side? This arctic vodka cellar that we turn our refrigerators into turns your ice cream into concrete, necessitating a microwave just to scoop out…….You shouldn’t eat ice cream anyway.
Words by Eric States
June 8th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
The freezer trick is a good one, vodka should be a staple of the freezer, right under ice cubes (and hey, if they are cranberry or even olive juice ice cubes you can’t go wrong). You should try it with Rain Vodka…One of the smoothest I have tried.
November 8th, 2007 at 12:19 am
Several Questions from a vodka/martini regular looking to become a connoisseurr….I had a bottle of goose in the freezer which got thick after about 3 days, was the freezer really cold, or did my roommate dillute my booze? Also, I’ve been calling my drink of choice as of the past 3 years a very dirty martini on the rocks..given the fact that it comes in a rocks glass as I prefer, and has no, I repeat NO vermouth, does it still qualify as a martini? Also, I work at a restaurant now, where both owners claim that Absolute is God’s gift to vodka…I think that it is highly inferior to other brands, ie. Grey Goose would be my first, Kettle One a close second, and Titto’s out of Texas a third tied with Stoli….Tito’s is certainly the best bang for the buck…does this reflect a difference of opinion, or does this reflect my preference for alchohol that doesn’t taste like anything…or does this reflect this foodies damaged/inferior palate, in my years as a martini drinker, I’ve come to enjoy the vodka’s that taste the lease like anything else…easiest to drink straight or on ice, have the least after taste, etc. if there is a definative book of reference for the quality of different premium vodka’s, I’d be very interested to read it, but the only info I can find on quality comes from my tounge, or “an international panel of taste testers” that seems to make it’s way onto every magazine add that I read…Why is there no good info about premium vodka’s as there is about Boudreaux…is it that vodka is relatively cheap and takes no time to make…what gives
thanks
Dave
November 9th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
Dave,
The water in the vodka trick is something i tried to pull on my parents for years. At the time putting your booze in the freezer was not a practice. Maybe it was the limited room in those old ice boxes. (Dataing myself here) Being heavily into their vodka, with them mostly gin, they could almost tell by the look off the booze before even tasting it that I had rained on their parade. It was fun.
As far as the watered down vodka in the freezer goes, yes that will have an effect on raising the temperature that the vodka will, shall we say congeal, but if your fridge is cold enough, around -8 degrees, your booze will get syrupy. If you like a very strong martini than this is the way to go. But sometimes it’s a bit too powerful. I even thought about making a mix with water for the sole purpose of creating a longer lasting drink. So yeah my tricks on my parents are coming back to bite me but the vodka that I drink today is more potent than theirs was.
Qualifying as a martini;
If you use the classic martini glass and pour vodka into it without adding any vermouth than yes it’s a martini. As long as there is a bottle of vermouth some ware within 2 mile radius. That’s close enough to call it a martini.