Skittles Infused Vodka

Taste the rainbow...with vodka!  This was a bit more time consuming than the Jolly Rancher vodka infusion, as the wax candy that is within the skittles does not break down entirely, and has to be strained out.

Ingredients:

One 1.75 liter bottle of vodka

Five 8.5 ounce flasks or bottles

Five empty bottles or containers with lids

1 pound bag of Skittles

A funnel

Coffee filters or a clean, white t-shirt (odd, I know, keep reading!)

Instructions:

Separate the skittles into piles of each flavor until you have 60 of each.  Place in the bottom of empty jars.  

I used mason jars, which are cheap and come by the dozen, so that I had plenty to rotate between the infusing and the filtering.  Next, pour about six ounces of vodka into each jar. It doesn't have to be exact – you can always even it out later by pouring in more vodka.  Basically, the ratio is 60 skittles to each 6 ounces of vodka, so you can simply use that ratio to fill whatever size bottle you choose.

The vodka will almost immediately start taking on the color of the skittles.  Shake each bottle several times.  After shaking them, set them aside for a few hours.  Shake them again each time you happen to remember, and by morning most of the skittles should be dissolved.  There will be quite a bit of white muck floating at the top.  It will look like a science experiment gone severely awry, but never fear, that gross looking foam will be extracted.

There are a number of ways to strain this and get the white gunk out.  I started with coffee filters, which seems to be the preferred method.  Paper towels were another option I read about, but didn't have much luck with.  For the filters, I used about 3-4 at a time, placed them inside a measuring cup and let the mixture drip, drip away.

After a couple of hours of this, I got impatient and decided to try something different.  Through a bit of internet research, I learned that the best way to filter something this small is through a clean white cloth or t-shirt.  Yes, a t-shirt!  I found the newest, most freshly laundered one in the house and from there, the process went much faster.  Obviously, the t-shirt had to be thrown away afterward.

For some reason, the orange and green flavors needed more filtration than the others. 

In the end, you should be left with 5 clear, bright bottles of skittles vodka.  These can be mixed with any type of soda or seltzer water, ginger ale, etc or just served on the rocks (keep in mind that it's straight vodka!).

Although this was a bit time consuming, the skittles flavor comes through very intensely in the end. Personally, I preferred the Jolly Rancher infused vodka, because I thought the taste was more clean and bright.  Kyle liked the skittles ones though, so I think this is just personal preference.  Either way, it was a fun experiment.  Besides, skittles has some flavors that jolly ranchers does not (orange, lemon, lime), so if you want to have a full bar of candy flavored vodka like I do, you may need to make both!

We both agreed that the best one was the orange, which has a nearly dreamsicle flavor.  In fact, I mixed it with some heavy cream to enhance that, and the resulting drink was pretty delicious. The lemon and lime kind of taste like Otter Pops. Enjoy!