Egg and Soldier is currently on location in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where I’m visiting with the paternal wing of my family.

An afternoon-long festival of vodka infusion is now a traditional highlight of our annual November gathering. It began a few years ago as an orderly affair following the guidelines provided by infused-vodka.com, and is now something of a fruit free-for-all. Either way, the results are delicious and a brilliant base for holiday cocktails.

This year’s infusions are vanilla-coconut, sundried-tomato and cilantro, five-berry, fig, and pumpkin spice. The five-berry infusion includes a handful each of cranberries, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries, and is inspired by the “Very Berry” cosmopolitan served at Tavern on the Green in New York. The sundried-tomato and cilantro vodka makes a Bloody Mary even more savory, and the vanilla-coconut vodka can be mixed in with or in place of rum in a Piña Colada. Of course, all of these make for delicious sipping on their own.

Recipes using a few of my favorites to follow.

View photos of our vodka infusion project.