See sometimes, inside jokes between your friends can produce something potentially amaZING. In years past, several of my friends and I would joke around about the ridiculously horrible dipping sauces and coatings that seem to be slathered onto foods served in chain restaurants like Fridays, Ruby Tuesday, that sort of thing. The game would usually be to come up with the most elaborate and ridiculous sounding mixture, which almost always ended being something along the lines of “Sun-dried-tomato-mayo-lucky-charms-jack-bourbon-bistro sauce.” This process repeated itself until one such point in time that we ended up coming up with “Honey Maple-peño dipping sauce.” No sooner had we done this than a favorite show of ours, Sealab 2021, came up with a virtually identical premise in a commercial for their very own chain restaurant, Grizzlebee’s (link to said commercial pending).

Five years later, following the success of Bacon Vodka, I have decided to create Honey Maple-peño Vodka.

Fortunately for most, the combination of sweet and hot/spicy is one that is easily tolerated, moreso than a meat-based vodka, so the process is pretty simple and should be relatively open/shut. I started with the following ingredients:

1 bottle (5th) of Absolut Vodka (left over from a party)
2 jalapeños, medium
1 tbsp. Pure Honey
A few drops of Maple Syrup (just so I can add ‘Maple’ to the title), to taste

Mixed all of these things in a Mason jar on Sunday, placed it in the fridge, and let it sit. Took a little sampling of the stuff last night (Wednesday) and it seems to be faring pretty well. Although the jalapeños were floating at the top of the jar, so I made slits in the sides of them to sink them to the bottom. The flavor is just spicy enough, but at this point it tastes mostly like a green pepper with a very vague sweetness to it. I will more than likely add another tablespoon of honey to the batch and let it sit an additional week to two weeks before trying it again (pictures to come as well).

In the meantime, I will be attempting to brainstorm drink ideas for use with this concoction. Some seem to think this would make a good bloody mixer, but I think aside from the spicy jalapeño flavor the honey/maple sweetness probably wouldn’t be very complimentary. BUT I for some reason in my head think it would go fairly well with tonic? Perhaps with a bit of lime and garnish?

DISCUSS

Related posts:

1. Chambourd and Vodka (alternate: If Cosmopolitans Tasted Good)
2. More fantastic bourbon amazingness
3. The Bacon Vodka Chronicles – pt. 3 OMEGA
4. The Bacon Vodka Chronicles, pt. 2
5. The Bacon Vodka Chronicles pt. 1