What Is A Cocktail Infusion Mixer And How Do You Use It?
There's nothing that sounds quite as sophisticated at an upscale cocktail bar as a bartender referencing an in-house infused spirit, whether it's makrut lime-infused gin for a spicy gimlet or an Old Fashioned with a black tea infusion to impart additional smokiness and depth.
Infusing liquor comes with a few benefits. It extracts the essence of whatever ingredients you're infusing and preserves that flavor long past the time when the fruits or spices used would have gone stale. It also adds depth of flavor without diluting a drink and poses unexpected mixology opportunities — imagine a dirty martini with horseradish-infused vodka or a chai-infused hot toddy.
Making a spirit infusion for cocktails isn't nearly as involved as it sounds. But in case you don't want to go to the trouble of making sure you have the right balance of ingredients, there's an easy hack that will get you a tailor-made home infusion in no time: the cocktail infusion mixer, which went viral on TikTok after several content creators discovered them at Marshall's.
What is a cocktail infusion mixer?
Cocktail infusion mixers are bottles that come filled with dried fruit, spices, and/or powdered flavoring that are meant to be filled with alcohol and allowed to steep until the booze has been infused. While homemade liquor infusions often use fresh fruit or vegetables and need to steep for three to seven days, these store-bought infusion kits are much easier and faster to use, with some taking as little as three to five hours to infuse.
All you have to do is infuse your mixers with alcohol (the type of alcohol is generally suggested by each brand for each flavor) for the recommended amount of time while refrigerated, before straining into a glass. The result is a ready-to-drink cocktail that just needs a bit of ice. Be warned that leaving infusion mixers to sit for too long can produce a very strong flavor. However, if your infusion does come out too strong, it can always be diluted with juice or seltzer.
Cocktail infusion mixer brands
The cocktail infusion mixer brand that went viral on TikTok is the New York Cocktail Infusion Mixer, which also sells its mixers at TJ Maxx and Home Goods. The company sells an impressive array of mixers, covering classic cocktails like the Tom Collins, cosmopolitan, margarita, Negroni, Singapore Sling, mojito, and piña colada.
@_elaysia Trying this cocktail infusion mixer from Marshall’s! Would you try this drink mix? #foryou #fyp #elaysia #drinkmix
If you're not a fan of those chain stores or don' happen to live near one, there are plenty of other brands selling similar products. Rokz makes cocktail infusion mixers with slightly more unconventional flavors. You can try a Smoky Bloody Mary, Ginger Cardamom, Hope and Vine, or Citrus Blueberry infusion. These infusions need to steep for two to four days, but they contain fewer additives than the famous Marshall's brand and have no mysterious ingredients. You can also buy refills and reuse your original bottle.
Lou's Libations also makes cocktail infusion mixers, which are sold by the jar or in pouch form in innovative flavors like Rosemary's Paloma or the Cancun Kick. These have more of a loosey-goosey steep time, ranging from four hours to three days.
Finally, there's McKinnon's Dry Craft Cocktails, which sells charming mason jars of dried fruit and spices for every season from Hot Toddies and the Holly Jolly to Blueberry Mojitos and Cucumber Cilantro.