The Caipiroska is the perfect cocktail to use as a foundational base for experimenting. Since many fruits pair well with lime, just pick your favourite and add it to the ingredients. Both fresh or frozen will work well, as long as they are able to be crushed easily. We particularly love adding strawberries, passionfruit – or both!
Adding herbs and even edible flowers to your Caipiroska is another great option. Mint will bring Mojito vibes, while rosemary or lavender will add a subtle, refined flavour to your cocktail. Adding some grated ginger gives it a spicy kick, and you can even swap out the sugar syrup with honey syrup to complement the ginger. The options are delicious – and endless.
When it comes to the mixing method, you could also skip the shaking and stick solely with the muddling. Here, you would place the lime wedges and sugar syrup in the bottom of your glass of choice, and gently mash with a muddler before pouring in your vodka and stirring, and adding ice. This will release even more flavour.
To achieve a similar dilution to shaking, and for a slushy-like consistency, you might like to use use crushed ice. There are a few quick ways to achieve crushed ice. If you have a blender, simply throw some ice cubes in and pulse until you have the desired consistency. Strain to get rid of any water, then store any excess back in the freezer in a bag. If you don’t have a blender handy, you can use good old elbow grease by putting ice cubes in a cocktail shaker, holding it firmly on a hard surface and using a muddler to repeatedly smash the ice until it's the right consistency.
