Inspired by the popularity of salted caramel as a flavor, I started wondering what it would taste like if you infused vodka with chewy caramel candies and just a touch of salt.
Sure, you can buy salted caramel flavored vodka off the shelf, but I prefer infusions because they keep the essence of what you’re infusing them with. This is my Salted Caramel Vodka infusion.
Sometimes people ask where I got this glass. The set is no longer made, but you can buy them or very similar ones on eBay. Or this set on Amazon.
Salted Caramel Vodka Infusion
Turns out this is a really easy infusion. For each bottle you are making, you will need:
- 20 soft (chewy) caramel candies (approximately 150 grams)
- 1 750 ml bottle of vodka
- Pinch of salt
For the caramels, I used First Street, which is the brand for the huge bags of candy they sell at Smart N Final, and they had a very good flavor and texture.
For the vodka, I went with Three Olives because this recipe needs a vodka that’s smooth and drinkable on its own. For the salt, anything will do but I used sea salt from Trader Joe’s.
I started by counting out my caramels:
Then I unwrapped them and, looking at how narrow the neck of the vodka bottle is, I chopped each one in four. This also helps it infuse faster, because there’s more surface area for the vodka to touch.
Looking at them, I made a guess about how much of the vodka in the bottle they would displace, and poured myself a shot of vodka, which I enjoyed while I worked. It turned out this was exactly the right amount of vodka to pour out.
Then I stuffed the caramels into the bottle.
Once they’re all in, they tend to clump at the bottom of the bottle.
And now comes the shaking. Twist the lid on securely, and give it a really good thorough shaking to get started.
Over the next few days, you’ll want to shake it periodically a few times a day to keep the process going. After three or four days, it’ll look like this all the time, and shaking won’t make any difference:
You could stop here, but I wasn’t wild about the white frothy stuff at the top. I’m not sure what it is, probably an additive from the caramel candies, but I just wanted the whole thing to be perfectly uniform.
So I strained it once through a coffee filter. Unlike the Skittles Vodka Infusion, I found it worked best if I poured a few ounces through a filter, then swap out a new filter for the next few ounces. Otherwise, the frothy stuff would clog up the filter and make it slow.
At this point, I cleaned the original vodka bottle. It actually took some Dawn to get out all the white gunk. Then I poured the strained infusion back into the clean bottle.
Then I added a pinch of salt – seriously, that’s part of an eighth of a teaspoon. Do not get too much! You can always add more later, or even add it to drinks individually. You can also rim the glasses with it.
And there you go – the finished Salted Caramel Vodka.Since people always ask, you can order these gorgeous flasks from Amazon.
Our Pick
Bormioli Rocco Fiaschetta Glass Flasks, set of 4
$34.99 ($8.75 / Count)
These 8.5 ounce (250ml) are the flasks we've used for all our infusions on this site. Pictured here is our Jolly Rancher Vodka Infusion. We infused it in these bottles and also served it in them.
03/14/2024 07:49 pm GMT
So how does it taste? Like caramel sunshine. It’s sweet, but not as much as I expected. You don’t taste the salt itself – it cuts the sweetness and enhances the flavor.
Mainly, you get this buttery caramelized sugar flavor that’s strong but not heavy. It’s lighter than, say, Baileys or Kahlua. The goal had been to create something that was sweet but sophisticated, and this surpassed my expectations.
Of course you can make it more or less sweet depending on the number of caramels you use.
It’s delicious straight:
But it’s also great in cocktails. Be sure to try it in the Caramel Candy or William’s Caramel Appletini!
Yield: 1 batch
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 3 days
Total Time: 3 days 30 minutes
You can infuse caramel candies into vodka, and it's so much better and richer tasting than store bought caramel vodka
Ingredients
- 20 soft (chewy) caramel candies
- 1 750 ml bottle of vodka
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Cut the caramels into quarters (optional - makes them infuse faster)
- Pour out a shot of vodka from your bottle (so they won't make it spill over)
- Add the caramels into the bottle of vodka
- Shake it well several times a day to keep the caramels infusing
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Read Next:
- Caramel Candy Cocktail Recipe
- William's Caramel Appletini
- Vodka Guide + Our Best Vodka Cocktails
