Here’s How To Make Cheap Alcohol Drinkable

Unsplash

Cheap alcohol is just a part of life. Whether you like to admit it or not, you’ve definitely bought a bottle of nail polish remover-esque vodka for one reason or another. Maybe you’re on a budget and handles of Tito’s and Grey Goose are just unattainable goals. Whatever the reason, you might find yourself with a bottle of crappy vodka at some point and it would be great if you could make it taste a little smoother. Here’s how you can make cheap alcohol drinkable right at home.

It turns out that if you have a water filtering device in your kitchen, you can improve the taste of cheap vodka. America’s Test Kitchen — a half-hour-long cooking show based in Boston that experiments with recipes and discovers why they do or don’t work — experimented with pouring vodka through a Brita to improve the taste. On a general note, the better quality vodka is filtered more, which makes it taste more neutral and easier to drink.

The vodka was poured through the water filter four times and the results were successful. After all of the extra filtering, the vodka was ready for making satisfying cocktails. You may notice the difference if you drink the vodka on the rocks, but when it comes to mixed drinks, this water filter hack will do the trick.

Pixabay

One thing to remember with this technique is that you shouldn’t use the Brita for actual water filtering after you use it for vodka. When the water filter is on its last legs, maybe a week or two before you’d throw it out anyway, use it to improve your crappy vodka and then toss it.

Another way to improve the taste of your cheap vodka is to add activated charcoal tablets (food grade) to the bottle. (Bonus: activated charcoal has a grocery list of benefits for your body.) All you have to do is shake the bottle for a few minutes every day for a week or so. If you’re anxious, a week will do. Make sure to use the proportionate amount of tablets for the amount of alcohol you’re dealing with. Strain the vodka afterward to remove the charcoal and you’ll be good to go.

Unsplash

If you’re not trying to get involved with a whole filtration process, you can make your cheap alcohol more drinkable by infusing it with other flavors. Pick your liquor of choice and whichever ingredients you’re inspired by. Plan to soak the ingredients in the alcohol for anywhere from 36 hours to two weeks before making cocktails with it. A couple of fusion ideas you could try are blueberries, jalapeños, watermelon, pickles, pineapple, cardamom, peaches, strawberries or bacon. No one will ever know you tried to save a few bucks on liquor when it’s infused and blended with other ingredients in a cocktail.