A Case of Beer - Fruity Vodka - [a case of the summer]

There's a reason why this feature is called "A Case of Beer" -- it's because I don't particularly care for hard alcohol.  I don't like the taste, I don't like the price, and I find it socially limiting.  You can sit at a bar for hours and enjoy a few beers while talking with friends.  Aside from doing a group shot, hard alcohol just doesn't seem to lend itself to a social atmosphere.

Having said that, there was one type of hard alcohol that my friends and I all loved in college.  In fact, it was so beloved that my friends from high school used to request that I buy some on their behalf.  And it made a great gift, too.  What was so special about it?  It was pure vodka -- but didn't taste a thing like vodka!  And I mean that.  There was no aftertaste.  Just pure, fruity deliciousness.

It was completely home made by one of my good friend's mom.  She would fill a jar up with vodka and would add slices of fruit (my personal favorite:  strawberries).  She would then put the jar out in the sun for months at a time, until the vodka absorbed all of the juice from the fruit.  So, for example, when strawberry slices are added to the vodka, the vodka turns dark red (and it truly does absorb all of the color....the strawberries themselves seem to turn a pale brown/dark yellow).

And to make the shots even stronger, some "lucky" participants would get a slice of the fruit when being poured a shot.  Now those things were chock-full-o-alcohol (and not quite as tasty)!  Like I said, this stuff was so good that I'd have people requesting orders of it.

I sent a text to my buddy (the one whose mom created the stuff) to get better details on how she actually did it.  So stay tuned for an update should I hear back from him.

UPDATE:  Here's a more detailed description from my friend:

She used to take plain vodka with various fruits with a little bit of sugar in a mason jar.  Then every day for 30 days she would put them outside in the sun to infuse the flavors.