DIY: Candy infused vodka

Postaus on kokonaan englanniksi

About a two weeks ago I had one of my best friend's housewarming party. As if she would have not been living in this town for several months already. Anyways, I wanted to do something special as a housewarming gift. Roosa, however, is a very prepared person and hence would have not needed household appliances (as many other young people moving away from home). So when I saw this DIY in A Beautiful Mess -blog, few weeks back, I was reminded that I had heard about this before too. One of the best shots I have actually ever drank was a Skittles-shot we made with a group of friends.

So infused vodka it was. It took me some time to decide which flavors I would do, and some not so successful test runs. In the end I just walked in to a candy store and picked up two candies that I thought would be good for infusing, hard peppermint candies and pineapple jellybeans, and hoped for the best.

All I needed was the following:

1 handful of peppermint candies

1 handful of pineapple jellybeans

2 little bottles (I used recycled mini smoothie bottles of 250ml)

2 bottles for mixing (don't have to be pretty)

4 labeling stickers

0,5 liters of vodka

Infusing was super simple!

I simply just put handful of candy on the bottom of the bottle and pored vodka on top of them. After this I let them sit a while (shaking them every now and then) and over night. 

Peppermint-vodka was way simpler than pineapple one, since all of the candy infused to the vodka overnight. Jellybeans, however, left somewhat gross slimy beans behind. But that was easy to fix. Simply by putting the mix through coffee filter paper the problem was solved. The only thing that was compromised a bit was the color, which lost bit of its brightness, but very little.

The taste in both was great, but our favorite was Peppermint. Not only is it superduper cute in color, it also tasted exactly like the candy. Better than any other mint vodka I have had. It blended great with chocolate milk too, and I think would make the perfect drink for winter with hot chocolate.

Interrail: Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre

Right after Bern we rushed to Italy. With the wrong train though. That is why we missed Stresa. From here on we would spend 3 whole weeks in Italy.
We had been asking about the best places to visit in Italy from H's godmother, who happens to be a tour-guide in Northern Italy. This is why we just passed through Milan. City full of amazing fashion and noise. I left my drool on Michael Kors' window. I wasn't inspired to take pictures though. The city and the shopping street was that boring to me.

Bernin jälkeen rymistettiin sitten Italiaan. Väärällä junalla tosin. Siksi jäi Stresa näkemättä. Kolme viikkoa tästä eteenpäin tulisimme olemaan Italiassa.

Oltiin siis jo kyselty H:n kummitädiltä parhaita mestoja Pohjois-Italiassa isojen kaupunkien lisäksi. Turistioppaan neuvoja meinaa oltiin valmiita jopa toteuttamaan. Siksi suuntasimmekin vain hetkeksi Milanoon. Kaupunki oli meluisa ja täynnä upeaa muotia. Jätin kuolani muun muassa Michael Korsin ikkunaan. Kuvia en kuitenkaan jaksanut paljoakaan ottaa. Sen verran tylsän oloinen oli kauppakatu jota pitkin eksyskelimme.

From Milan we continued to Cinque Terre, like the godmother suggested. Cinque Terre in short is a group of five little villages in Ligurian Coast and one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites. You can only access the villages as a tourist by train. From the five villages, Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore, we choose the last one by chance because I found an amazing little hotel in it.  

Milanosta kuitenkin jatkoimme kummitädin ohjeiden mukaisesti Cinque Terreen. Cinque Terre on siis viiden kylän kokoonpano Ligurian rannikolla ja UNESCOn maailmanperintökohde, eikä suotta. Kyliin itsessään pääsee turistina vain junalla. Kylistä Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola ja Riomaggiore valitsimme summamutikassa Riomaggioren kun sattumalta sieltä löysin suloisen ja ihanan ylellisen pikku hotellin.

The whole Cinque Terre area was breathtakingly beautiful. I would recommend it to anyone visiting Italy and actually texted my mom that I found her retirement place (option before has been Key West). Villages however are super small and do not take a lot of time to get to know. We spend 2 nights in Riomaggione and roamed around for 2 days, which was quite enough. 

Koko Cinque Terren alueesta ei voi oikein muuta sanoa kuin että se on henkeäsalpaavan kaunis. Suosittelen ehdottomasti kenelle tahansa visiittiä kyliin. Kylät ovat kuitenkin TODELLA pieniä eikä niiden katseluun mene kovinkaan montaa päivää. Itse yövyimme kylässä 2 yötä ja kiertelimme katuja 2 päivää.

We got to see almost everything in 2 days. Most of the time we just spend relaxing and eating. We also checked out the beach, although neither of us is really beachfriendly. For my misfortune my blistered fett did not like the rocky bottom of the beach, although I usually love a nice clean rocky beach. Other than that, we mostly just ate. 

Our favorite, Bar Centrale was located right in the middle of the only road going through the village. It also proved to be an amazing place to go to when bored. The guidebook our lovely hotel staff loaned us was able to tell us that Bar Centrale would serve the best mojitos in town. We however had to conclude that the 50-50 mix ratio was not really for our taste. 

Lähes tulkoon kaikki kolot tulivat kahdessa päivässä nähtyäkin. Kulutimmekin siis suurimman osan ajasta syöden ja rentoutuen. Rantakin käytiin tsiikaamassa, vaikkei kummatkaan mitään rantaleijonia ollakkaan. Harmikseni rakkoja täynnä olevat jalat eivät oikein ottaneet yhteistyö ehdotuksia vastaan kivipohjaisella rannalla. Tämän lisäksi oikeastaan ei hirveästi muuta tehtykään kun syöty. Bar Centrale keskellä kylää ja sen ainoaa katua osottautui mahtavaksi paikaksi ja tylsyyden iskiessä suuntasimmekin yleensä sinne. Ihanan hotellihenkilökunnan lainaama matkaopas osasi kertoa meille että kyseisessä baarissa tarjoillaan kylän parhaimmat mojitot. Totesimme tosin että etelän 50-50 sekoitussuhde ei oikein ollut meidän mieleemme.

In Riomaggiore, you really felt the relaxedness in your bones. No hurry to anywhere. On our first night we decided to buy a pizza and go enjoy the sunset on the beach. We got the pizza for under 10 euros, and it was said to serve 8 people, so we got a nice evening meal, night snack and breakfast out of it. Happy traveling wallet. 

Riomaggioressa ei todellakaan ollut kiire minnekään. Sain kirjanikin luettua loppuun. Ekana iltana päätettiin mennä nauttimaan auringonlaskusta pizzan kera. Saatiin alle kympillä pizza, joka mainoksen mukaan riitti 8 ihmiselle. Meille siitä riitti iltaruokaa, yöruokaa ja aamupalaa. Sanoisin että hyvinkin kannattavaa budjetilla matkustavalle.