Ian wrote:

> I am trying to find a recipe for chocolate flavored vodka, white chocolate
> flavored vodka, cherry vodka etc..
>
> Obviosuly I could just melt the chocolate into the vodka but anyone knows
> how long this will last ... what is a BEST DRINK BEFORE DATE??
>
> Does the vodka preserve the Chocolate, cherry etc??

Use extracts and flavorings rather than trying to use real chocolate.
It's a waste of good chocolate. Note that whote chocolate is nothing
but cocoa butter, and bears almost no relationship to real chocolate.
I'm not sure how you'd recreate that taste.

But go to a store that has baking supplies, get some chocolate extract
or flavoring, and stir it into your vodka until you like the flavor.
Probably two tablespoons will be more than enough for a liter of vodka.
Sweeten to taste. Don't use really cheap, nasty vodka - you'll taste
the difference.

I find that liqueurs I make last from 1 to 3 years before they go stale.
Alcohol is, as you suggest, a great preservative, and your liqueurs
won't rot or go poisonous. But they'll just start to taste nasty as
oxygen eats them from the inside. While the vodka would probably
preserve the cherries, you really do want to remove them after a couple
of months - after your primary steeping period, basically. But if you
can find cherry flavoring, you're probably better off than trying to
work with real cherries. Unless you have a reason to need to use real
cherries.

Gunther Anderson