Here I share how to make your own flavored liqueur (fruit liqueur) in all the colors of the rainbow, using homemade vodka infusions. You’ll never have this much fun making fun cocktails ever again! 🙂 I first showed you how to make shimmery liqueur (homemade Viniq) last year. Having come across Viniq at the liquor store, I wanted to figure out how to make shimmery cocktails myself at home, and I did. 🙂 The Flavor Bender was the first place where this cool trick and the science behind it was explained, and I decided to take it to the next level this time with FLAVORED SHIMMERY LIQUEUR – made with homemade infused vodka! As a side note – if you’d like to infuse your cocktails with rich buttery savory flavor, check out my post on fat washing alcohol (fat washed butter rum).
How and why shimmery liqueur works
I explained how and why shimmery liqueur works in my original post. The short version is that liquids with high viscosity and less density than water work very well for this effect, because those two properties enable the kind of light refraction that you need to see that beautiful shimmer when you add luster petal dust. In the original post, I made shimmery liqueur by mixing vodka and sugar syrup. So in order to get different flavors and make flavored liqueur, I used flavored vodka.
What is luster petal dust?
Luster petal dust is used in cake decorations. It’s basically a fine powder of colored pigment MIXED with fine luster particles to make it shimmer. You can find the normal powdered pigment, but you want to look for the LUSTER powder pigment (or Luster Petal Dust). I buy mine online, but you might be able to find them in your cake decorating store too.
Updated recipe video for fruit infused shimmery liqueur (fruit liqueur)
However I wanted something cheaper than having to buy vodka with different flavors, and I also wanted natural flavors, so I decided to make my own infused vodka to make flavored shimmery liqueur this time (i.e. flavored fruit liqueur). And I made a RAINBOW of colors and flavors! 🙂
How to make shimmery flavored liqueur at home (shimmery fruit liqueur)
GREEN – Creme de Menthe / Mint shimmery liqueur (mint infused vodka + sugar syrup) BLUE – Butterfly Pea infused Vodka (or Gin) liqueur. I use vodka or gin for this, because it is more neutral, and butterfly pea doesn’t turn purple. This liqueur doesn’t have a taste of it’s own, BUT it does, as a bonus, change color to make really fun cocktails when you add something acidic (read about it in my post on how to make color changing alcohol). PURPLE – Blackberry shimmery liqueur (blackberry infused vodka + sugar syrup) – this is the closest to the color (not flavor) of purple Viniq RED – Strawberry shimmery liqueur (strawberry infused vodka + sugar syrup) ORANGE – Orange shimmery liqueur (orange infused vodka + sugar syrup) YELLOW/GOLD – Pineapple shimmery Liqueur (Pineapple + Rum) You can use Vodka instead of Rum as well, but this liqueur tastes AMAZING especially a cocktail made with this liqueur + coconut water! I made an extra version of the gold liqueur, by just adding gold luster dust to St Germain Liqueur (Elderflower liqueur) and created a beautiful gold cocktail. You can check it out here in my gold shimmery champagne cocktail post! Another version which I will be sharing soon is Butterscotch shimmery liqueur (vanilla + salt + brown sugar + butter infused vodka). This liqueur uses another special technique called Fat Washing, which I have explained in the linked post.
To make fruit liqueur, I used fresh fruits and herbs to infuse the vodka and let the infusion take place for about 5 days. With the exception of the blue shimmery liqueur where I simply used a wine for the color, so it’s not actually an infusion. Once the flavors were infused, I added cooled sugar syrup (1 part sugar syrup to 3 parts infused vodka) and then mixed in the luster petal dust to create those magical, mesmerizing swirls! For some of the liqueurs you may need to add a drop of food coloring to really enhance the color, but that’s optional. Since luster petal dust comes in all the colors of the rainbow, it will add color to your infused liqueur as well.
I have shared 6 of the recipes here in this post, but the butterscotch shimmery liqueur recipe will be shared separately soon, along with a really fun way to use that liqueur! The flavors in each of these fruit liqueurs are so fresh, robust and delicious. You could easily make your favorite cocktails with these flavored liqueurs and WOW your guests with that hypnotic shimmer. 🙂
Ideas for fun cocktails made with homemade flavored liqueurs (fruit liqueurs)
Harry Potter themed Unicorn Blood Cocktail (perfect as a spooky Halloween recipe too). Just like with Viniq, the luster petal dust here settles to the bottom after a short while. You need to occasionally mix and re-disperse the petal dust to get that dazzling shimmer again. Another super cool thing you could do for a party or special occasion (like a Halloween party) is to purchase some dry ice and then add a little piece of dry ice to the flavored shimmery liqueur bottle when you’re serving it to your guests. The dry ice needs to be just heavy enough to sink to the bottom of the bottle or glass and it’ll “come alive and dance” inside the liquid, giving rise to an incredible shimmering, bubbling, smoky effect. This effect will last for as long as there’s some dry ice is inside the bottle/drink before it completely disappears. Halloween themed Witch’s Heart Cocktail OR how about this extra magical, COLOR CHANGING shimmery cocktail – The Phoenix Cocktail OR this simply Gold Shimmery Champagne Cocktail that is perfect to ring in the new year in style!
Important note on dry ice
Dry ice is frozen carbon dioxide. So DO NOT CONSUME DRY ICE! Only use food-grade dry ice, which is usually what’s available at grocery stores that have it (but ask anyway to make sure). Wait for the dry ice to disappear (melt) completely before you drink your cocktail/alcohol (which you will know when the bubbling stops). This does NOT equate to consuming dry ice because when dry ice “melts” it goes straight from solid to gas (sublimation), so it actually bubbles out of your drink. So remember never to close a bottle with dry ice inside to avoid that pressure build up. Use tongs when you handle dry ice and crush it or only add small chips of dry ice to your drink. The smaller it is, the quicker it will melt/disappear. The gas that bubbles out of your drink will form a smoke/fog and settle around your drink creating a fantastic “smoky cauldron” effect that’s perfect for Halloween parties, as you can see in the pictures and the GIFs here.
