SKYY Ginger Infused Vodka

Recently at the palatial Foodopolis estate we held our annual Tiki-tini party to benefit the Salvation Army's work. Such a great cause and one of the truly great charities out there. We had the opportunity to try out the latest infused concoction from SKYY Vodka. It's infused with the essence of one of my favorite little roots. The ever so humble and yet so powerful, ginger root. Just a a few slivers will change the complexity of any dish from bland to exotic. A little to much of it and it will take over, overpowering everything in its sight. So I approached this bottle of enticingly infused spirits with some trepidations. Visions of overpowering "Monster" type "power" drinks danced in my head.

Prior to the event we made up or changed is more like it, drink recipes that we thought would match this ginger vodka concoction. The menu, of course, was purely 50's Trader Vic's "Polynesian". And the Hawaiian shirt dress code was strictly adhered to. Guests entering without proper attire, were quickly whisked to a rack with assorted thrift shop Hawaiian attire and held at drink point, (no drink,until changed) until they relented and changed into one of them.

 OK, so back to the SKYY Ginger Infused Vodka. So, I sat back prior to mixing anything with it and after making sure it had a nice stay in the freezer. I lined up a few Snifter glasses of the stuff so we could try it out. Most of my friends are into very exotic brands of Vodka, that I won't mention here, But I find most to be just average at any cost. So this was going to be interesting.We lined up a finger of this ginger vodka in a few glasses and studied it at first like those apes from 2001, poking sticks at a monolith. we smelled, talked, smelled some more, talked, took the lightest of whisper vapor amount into our mouths and finally tasted the stuff. I was shocked. It was good! It was light and the ginger was a note in the vodka and not the star. the ginger was infused to the right level. it hung in the background without overpowering. To say the least we were pleased and delighted with this Vodka, which now will become a staple at our bar.

We came up with a few variations of those classic Tiki drinks and here are a few.


BLUE HAWAIIAN
An Island, Delight with Hues of the Ocean. Made with SKYY Ginger Infused Vodka, Blue Curaco and Pineapple juice.
The blue Hawaiian, we just throw copious amounts into a shaker and let the requester shake it up on the dance floor. Grass skirt is required.

RED-HEADED ZOMBIE

• 1 oz. Matusalem Gran Reserve
• 1 oz. Appleton V/X
• 1 oz. Mount Gay XO
• 1/2 oz. 151
• 1 oz. grapefruit juice
• 1.5 oz. SKYY Ginger Infused Vodka
• 1 oz. orgeat
• .5 oz. cranberry juice
• .5 oz. pineapple juice

We can go on and on. It will mix very easily into your favorite Polynesian drink and we even substituted it for rum on a few occasions. As I'm not a fan of rum. I know, I know, 90% of all Tiki drinks are made with rum. but I would rather have Vodka in them.

You know the best way I like this vodka is just plain, chilled and straight from the freezer and substituted for Saki with a nice plate of sashimi. I find she can be a party girl but she can also be an elegant dinner guest. It is the perfect compliment for classic Japanese. And like a good dinner date it doesn't over power you with talking about itself all night, but brings something to the table and makes you want to spend the whole evening with her.

So if you are in the mood for a slight change of the regular. This is good stuff.

Chow


Michael