Post #534483 by Okolehao on Sat, Jun 5, 2010 8:43 PM

Well I tried another batch using a tubo yeast made expressly for getting a high alcohol content. I made a 2 liter mash using a lot more ti root, brown sugar, rice, and a store bought can of concentrated frozen pineapple/coconut juice. I distilled it and got about a cup of eye watering, very strong white lightening again which trailed off to a couple cups of something more drinkable. It has a green plant sort of taste with a touch of sourness. It still doesn’t taste anything like okolehao though. There’s none of that vanilla taste and smell to it. I can see that if you aged the stuff it’d be a pretty interesting drink. Maybe something like a strange jungle tasting (literally) infused vodka. And maybe that’s what authentic okolehao made by moonshiners was. All the stories about it were that it was nothing like anybody had ever tasted. I've never tasted anything like this!

I’m absolutely convinced now that what was commercially sold had to have been an infusion of the root. The taste is there if you do it that way and it takes a lot less of the root for the process.

I'm going to try a new approach and come up with an infusion recipe of the root with other fruits and herbs. The root itself doesn’t have a flavor that seems that complicated. Just sort of vanilla-ish. There has to be more things in what we think of as okolehao. An infusion would also be easier if I use quality liquor as a base rather than me trying to come up with something from scratch. I've heard, read and been told that whiskeys like Makers Mark, Knob Creek, and Rebel Yell (which reviewers say has a medicinal taste to it, like oke)are a good place to start. My mixologist advises also mixing good brandy in with them to get an approximate okolehao taste.

Any suggestions for ingredients besides ti root as part of the infusion?

[ Edited by: Okolehao 2010-06-05 20:45 ]