When we were in Russia, we tasted a whole lot of different vodkas, including some lovely flavoured ones. My favourite was a delicious honey pepper vodka(actually from Ukraine) which had a wonderful piquant sweetness that warmed the throat. But we couldn't find any to bring home and certainly you can't buy it here. So I decided to try making it and by dint of looking up in various Russian cookery books we have, found a sort of recipe--I say sort of because actually it just talked of pepper vodka, and I had to experiment myself with the honey. Anyway I made it and it turned out just wonderfully, and very reminiscent of that Ukrainian tipple!
I used Russian Standard vodka(by far the best vodka you can buy in Australia, in my opinion--it's from St Petersburg and made with the pure cold waters from massive Lake Ladoga)as a base, then added 10 whole black peppercorns, let it steep for 10 days, then after 10 days, strained the vodka, which had now turned a pale brown colour, and added one large tablespoon of Manuka honey(which happens to be my favourite honey), stirred it, and let it steep for another 3 days before drinking it. Great as an after dinner liqueur, though it can also be drunk as an aperitif. (In both cases in shot glasses).
