Coming Attractions!!

Well, January slipped by us with lots of rain and little time for tini tastings. However, never fear shaker fans, we have some special events planned for February that you will not want to miss.

Check back next weekend for an event so spectacular, so mind blowing..............it just may be our most outrageous shaker night to date. We don't want to give away the surprise just yet, but imagine one of God's most perfect foods.....and then put that in a martini. Hell, put it in everything. We're going to.

See you next saturday for an epic shake!

Variation in T(ea) Minor

Good evening martini lovers. Shaker One had just enough of the Earl Grey Tea infused vodka left over from the last post to make one more teani. I had the idea to add pomme juice to it....sort of fruit it up a bit. I also decided to forgo the egg white for this one.


Upon pouring this out of the shaker, I noticed a really deep tea color. The pomme juice barely made it's presence known. After a taste, I understood why. There is a distinct bitterness to the vodka now which was definitely not there when it was freshly infused. Although I filtered the tea leaves out through both a fine mesh filter and a coffee filter (and no sediment was left whatsoever) the tea seems to have continued to steep. It's less than a week since we made that infusion and the vodka is just about too bitter to drink. I tried to add sweetness with some additional simple syrup, but it's not an issue of lack of sweetness. The result isn't terrible (and I do like bitter/strong flavors), but I would not repeat this.

So note to self: When infusing vodka with tea for Teanis, only make as much as you plan on using that day/night. This infusion, unlike many other infusions, does not improve with age. A very good thing to know actually, as Shaker 2 and I have designs on a few more teanis and I would have hated to waste a good bottle of vodka.

There will be more Teanis in our shaking future, but we shall know to freshly infuse the vodka in small batches.

Experimentation is good. Without small failures great successes would not be possible.
Shaker One out.

Mar-tea-nis~!

Tonight we have high tea- Red Shaker Style. Two tea based martinis to try, something a little different. And what goes with high tea but finger sandwiches!

First up is a plum and green tea martini

(Due to a technical SNAFU, the picture for this one.. and the main shots of the next martini, were lost. grrrrrr) [Shaker 1 again- just imagine plates full of deletable tea time treats]

As Pavillions was out of plums, we substituted a pluot. This martini incorporates green tea and honey simple syrup, citrus vodka, pear vodka and muddled plums. The color is gorgeous. The taste? Shaker Two nailed it: you can't taste any one of the flavors, but you can taste all of them. Sort of an odd result. Not unpleasant, but neither of us can say we enjoy the flavor.

Overall this gets high marks for looks, but 2 olives for taste.

Moving on to our next Teani:

The Earl Grey Marteani-

This uses vodka infused with earl grey tea, simple syrup and lemon juice, foamed up with an egg white. (Note: the original recipe calls for gin.. but we are vodka girls.. so use whichever you prefer) First impression is an intriguing tea aroma and an unusual color. Both Shaker Two and I tasted with some trepidation. The result? Hello gorgeous! This is a surprisingly delicious drink! You definitely taste the tea, but it's not overwhelming or bitter. Rather somewhat sweet/somewhat sour from the lemon, an incredibly balanced beverage. We like this one a lot.

4 3/4 olives!!

This one might even hit a 5. The more we taste, the more we love. Seriously people - go out and make this drink.

This also gives us many ideas for more tea infused vodkas and teanis. Brilliant. Now if we could only remember where we found this recipe in the first place. Whoever you are, we love you!

Feeling a bit under the weather? Forget hot tea with lemon and honey, make yourself a teani.
We liked this so much that we made another round to go with our berries and cream, lemon bread and meyer lemon curd. After pouring out the first teani, we were very pleased to enjoy the second so much. Martini success!

Remember, don't be afraid of martini failure. If you don't enjoy it, pour it out. There are so many wonderful options. Try again until you find something you love.

Shakers One and Two will close out this mid week tea-ni fest with a Happy New Year to all our tini faithful.