Naturally Flavored Strawberry Vodka

I promised this was coming and it has come.  In all of it's glory. 

And I figure everyone could probably use a drink this week, it's been tough.

Step One:  Pick delicious berries.  Don't steal any from your friends because that makes them mad and you aren't in the business of losing friends. 

Organic berries are best as the alcohol pulls out all flavor from the berries including all of the pesticides if those are present.  If you really cared about your body you'd probably not be drinking vodka but I'm just throwing that out there.  Cheers to balanced living:)

Step two: Get the supplies together.  Save the empty vodka bottles as I funnel my finished product back into the bottle.  I used a bottle and a half because I had two mason jars I wanted filled. 

Step three:  Chop up strawberries.  I cut mine into quarters because I felt they would let go of their sugars more quickly.  There is no science to back me up and I am no scientist so feel it out.  I cut enough berries to almost fill one half of one mason jar.  I would imagine the more berries I added the sweeter the vodka would get but this is how much I used in a prior batch and thought it was pretty darn good so why mess with good?

Step four: Fill to the brim of mason jar with vodka.  It should drip over the sides some it is so full.  In my mind this created an air proof seal once the lid was screwed on.  Again, I'm not a scientist and there may be a microbiologist out there shaking her head with disgust at my theory.  Or maybe I just like licking vodka from my kitchen counters.  Either or. 

Step five:  The waiting game.  Place jar (s) in a cool, dark place for a few days.  Each day, agitate the jar by turning it upside down a few times.  I didn't shake mine because I didn't want to mess up the berries but there is no real reason behind that. 

Step six:  Open jars and use a funnel to separate the berries from the vodka.  The berries are almost white and do not taste like "drunken fruit" like at the bottom of your sangria.  They taste like vodka.  Like straight up vodka.  I decided to forget my lesson last year and taste one right before I went running.  Needless to say, it was a great run.  I don't know what you could save these for.  Maybe to bulk up a margarita?  After separating the berries from the vodka, I strained it some to remove some seeds.  Some people don't like any floating bits in theirs so you could use a coffee filter to remove anything that remains.  I just decided that I do not like the word "bits". 

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