Two out of three ain't bad

I'm calling the lemon and vanilla extracts a success. The mint is technically still unknown, but I'm fairly certain it was a fail.


1 liter vodka, 4-5 vanilla beans. 7 weeks in a dark closet. I split and scraped the beans and added the scrapings to the vodka along with the beans. We decanted some of it after 7 weeks because I had just run out of the last batch. So about half is still in the dark closet with the beans. The color is a gorgeous honey-brown and the scent of vanilla is wonderful. And the taste.... whoa...


Empty the bottle of vodka into a bowl. Pour the juice of at least 5 lemons into the bottle along with strips of zest from at least 4 lemons. Fill the bottle with vodka and let it sit on a shelf for at least 4 weeks. I let it sit for almost 7 weeks before straining. The smell of lemony citrus was fantastic and the taste was a great balance of lemon and alcohol.

We won't discuss the mint here...