Make A Thing: Infused Rum

It’s Christmas! If you’re reading this post on Christmas and even the day after, rest assured that I am getting appropriatelyinebriatedin the company of my relatives. If you’re also this brand of holiday person, perhaps you’re drinking something great. I’ll be drinking my brother’s Christmas present: infused rum!

Let me tell you, this stuff turned out delicious and it was easy to turn into a gift. Here’s how I did it.

How to Make Infused Rum

Making Infused Rum is easy and you could probably make it while extremely intoxicated.

  1. Get Your Infused Rum Ingredients Together

    You will need white rum, an orange, two vanilla beans, two cinnamon sticks, jars, patience, funnel, coffee filters.

    Supplies needed: White rum, an orange, two vanilla beans, two cinnamon sticks, jars, patience, funnel, coffee filters.

  2. Clean out all of your jars

    Self-explanatory.

  3. Prepare your infusions

    Peel the orange skin and split the vanilla bean, scraping out the beans. Toss everything in separate jars. I got crazy and added a little vanilla to the orange, but do whatever your tastes will allow. I found infusion inspiration from this website, which also has a lot of vodka infusions if you’re a vodka person.
    3-picture diagram of vanilla + orange jars

  4. Fill, Shake and Store

    Fill the jars up with your rum, then screw the lid on tight. Give it a good shake, then store it in a dark, cool place. I recommend the linen or medicine cabinet, right next to the children’s Advil and generic flu relief medicine, personally.Jars of ingredients in a medicine cabinet

  5. Let the Infusions Sit For 3-4 Days

    The infusions have to sit for 3-4 days, but I accidentally left them for a fifth day and they were still great. Each day, take out your jars and give them a good shake.
    A diagram of the infusions in jars progressing From Day One, Day 2 to Day 3

  6. Taste Them!

    When your infusions are done, give them a little taste. They should be pretty tasty!

  7. Filter Your Rum

    Now you’re going to filter the rum. Place a coffee filter inside of a funnel and pour the rum into a glass. For the vanilla infusion, I strained it twice because it was still a bit murky. Then we just poured them back in the jars. I also left some of my vanilla beans inside the jar because they tasted incredible.
    picture of rum being filtered

  8. Optional: Design Your Lids!

    My lady friend designed some lids for the jars to match the glasses I stencilled for Broseidon and then they were done! Easy as that. No one would be sad to get this for a gift, I’ll tell you that.
    Shot from above of jar lids that have been decorated and labeled

Enjoy!

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Hansen

Hansen is the former DIY & Food Editor of Autostraddle.com and likes to spend most days making and cooking and writing. She teaches creative writing at Colorado State University and is pursuing a Masters of Fine Arts in her free time.

Hansen has written 189 articles for us.

21 Comments

  1. Definitely doing this! I recently made cranberry/lime infused vodka for a Yankee gift swap.

    Your brother sounds pretty neat.

  2. I’ve made my own tea. Buy different loose teas and mix them however you’d like. Use coffee filter paper and pretty string for the bags.

    And every appreciates homemade apple butter/pumpkin butter.

  3. Wow, just 5 days? Everything I found the other day was saying 1 month. Not waiting 1 month would be good since I don’t plan so far ahead well.

    But I also got overwhelmed reading things online and just bought a sachet from a store to do it, though it sounds pretty much the same except a bit of anise and some sort of leaves involved. My girlfriend is a big fan of infused rum (the sachet/rum was one of her Christmas gifts) and I’d love to know how to make more ourselves, if anyone else has additional recipes to share!

  4. Just to clarify: do you not include the vanilla beans in the infusion if you’re scraping them out of the pod?

    • Definitely include them! Not only is that shit expensive, but really flavorful. You scrape them out to get the most flavor out of the vanilla bean. Cutting it and scraping releases all of the oils that will flavor the rum.

      • Okay, that makes sense! I was confused before, but I think I was having a little logic-not-functioning moment. Hooray rum!

  5. Well now I know what I am getting EVERYONE next year. Also what I’ll be doing for the next three weeks!

  6. Well this will keep me warm during my January study sessions. And “study sessions.”

    Thank you, Hansen!

  7. i’ve been waiting for this to go live! so excited to make this…definitely not waiting for next xmas.

    (also putting in a request that i hope this column doesn’t end just because the holiday season is over — teach me how to make more things, hansen!)

  8. Yes. Put rum in all the things. Put rum in eggnog. Put rum in coke (coca cola). Put rum in rum. Rum in everything.

  9. Yeah, this sounds like a project to start as soon as I get back to my school and its horrible policy of banning alcohol. “Store in a dark, cool place” – ah, like the back of my closet!

    I’m willing to risk a warning, it’s rum after all.

  10. Definitely going to try this, this means that I can actually make an alcoholic drink instead of drinking stuff my little sister brings home! Also “sugar is photobombing” made me laugh probably more than normal. :)

  11. How long will this keep on the shelf. Most liqueurs or infusions I’ve made state up to a year. Don’t think mine would last that long, but if giving for a gift (which I will definitely do) I’d like to include info on how long it will last under what conditions, and some suggested uses. Sounds so wonderful. Thanks.

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