Fruit Loop and Cookie Dough Vodka Cocktails

I am a big fan of cocktails made with strangely flavored vodkas. My first vodka discovery was Van Gogh Vodka. At the time Van Gogh had such exciting flavors as Acai-Blueberry, Mojito, and my favorite, Double Espresso. More recently, I've been getting into Three Olives. At first, I bought their Triple Espresso for the sole purpose of comparing it to the Van Gogh Double Espresso; Three Olives blew Van Gogh out of the water. Then I fell in love with Bubble -- Three Olives' bubblegum flavored vodka. Ridiculous and delicious. The husband and I even have bacon vodka (hint: scary) and smoked salmon vodka (good for Bloody Marys!) on our shelf. I know a lot of people are not huge fans of vodka, especially weirdly flavored vodka, but I can't help but love things that make drink-making easier. Typically, to allow the flavor of the (weird!) vodka to come through, all you need to make a delicious cocktail out of a flavored vodka is one to two other ingredients. It's simplicity itself.

When I visited my sister most recently, I left my hubs at home so we could have some quality girl time. To facilitate said quality girl time, we knew we had to stock up on strange vodkas for the weekend. Our choices? Three Olives Loopy (fruit-loop flavored vodka, what?!) and Pinnacle Cookie Dough vodka.

For a quick cocktail with the Loopy, just grab your favorite plain-ish soda -- Sprite zero was most convenient for us. Then, mix 1-2 parts Loopy to 3-4 parts soda (depending on your love of strong drinks). Stir, and sip -- or gulp. It tastes exactly like drinking fruit loops, which is surprisingly not nearly as weird or disturbing as it sounds.

When I saw the cookie dough vodka in the store, I knew that it would go perfectly in a cookie dough White Russian. And boy, was I right on that -- the result was rich, creamy, and ever so vaguely cookie-ish. This was the best White Russian I've ever had. Want to make one yourself? Just 1 part coffee liqueur, 2 parts cookie dough vodka (or get creative! Try another flavor!), and something creamy to top it off.

These drinks were amazing. Seriously, if you're weirded out by strange vodkas, try to fight past it. There's a lot of fun flavors out there, and some truly outrageous ones: Van Gogh recently came out with PB&J (?!). I still haven't worked up the nerve to try that one, but maybe someday.