The Candyhol Project, First Post

Welcome to Bad Spirits, a blog about our alcohol-related experiments. We'll be hopefully making at least a post or two per week documenting our creations. We'll offer step-by-step instructions as to how you can duplicate our experiments at home, along with pictures, commentary, and potential drink recipes.

Our first major project involves candy + liquor, in as many different permutations as we can invent/afford. This was inspired by SkittleBrau but more directly by a fellow blogger who created Skittles vodka (unfortunately I can't find the original blog post, link goes to wikiHow page). I was mesmerized by the photos of the finished product, as these infusions have eerily bright glows not found in nature.

Here is what we started with:


The makings of a great Friday night.

We quickly discovered that a regular-sized bottle of vodka is just enough to fill five small Mason jars. Taking that as a good omen sent from the alcogods, we added the vodka to the Skittles. I'd expected the bright colors to take hold only after letting the mixture sit for at least a few hours, but no sirree! The moment the vodka touched the candy, the mixture instantly took on the aforementioned eerie glow. It was a thing to behold.

After taking turns shaking the jars for a couple of hours, the Skittles had almost entirely dissolved, leaving little evidence of their existence other than a couple tenaciously sticky lumps at the bottom and a thin layer of whitish sludge forming on top. We tried first filtering through cheesecloth, but quickly found that one layer didn't catch all the sludge, and two layers clogged up too quickly, making the whole process tedious. We finally settled on using a coffee filter, pouring a little in at a time, then squeezing it out and beginning anew.


Midway through the straining process.

Finally, it was time to sample our unholy creations.


Five flavors, five friends.


Our faces upon realizing that, yes, we ARE drinking SkittleVodka.

The aftermath:

Red: Tasty, with a fruit-punchy sweetness.
Orange: Had a vaguely Orange Cream-like flavor.
Yellow: Very lemony-fresh. One person dubbed it "Ghettocello" from its sticky-sweetified resemblance to Limoncello.
Green: Strong smelling and bright slime-green. Sweet but not strongly tart. Overall flavor similar to a lime popsicle.
Purple: Probably the crowd favorite. This one actually had a depth of flavor that the others lacked. Wasn't nearly as punch-you-in-the-mouth-GRAPE as I was expecting/fearing. Would be excellent mixed with any berry-based drink (Chambord, perhaps?).