Spring Cleaning: Three Handy Household Uses for your Old Vodka

There’s no wrong place to enjoy a 100 Proof Martini.

Photos by Joey Wharton.

By now, you know that you deserve to replace your vodka with something ‘shinier–but that doesn’t mean you have to throw it away! We’re not monsters, after all. Vodka has plenty of practical uses that don’t involve your cocktail glass.

Just in time for Spring Cleaning season, we’re sharing some tips to put that tired old spirit to good use–and leave your house looking spotless in the process After countless experiments (and even more cocktails), our Director of Marketing, Brandon Day, developed these three easy ways you can repurpose your old vodka into the perfect Spring Cleaning tool. Oh, and since you know we won't clean (or do anything, really) without a cocktail in hand, we're also sharing a few cocktail recipes to make the whole dirty process a tad 'shinier. Let’s dive in!

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Cleaning Tip #1: Remove Old Labels

We all know the old adage: Reduce, reuse, recycle, Rihanna. One of our favorite ways to cut back on trash is to repurpose glass jars and bottles, but getting those pesky labels off can be a bit of a struggle. The burn of your old vodka is exactly the kind of firepower you need to get those labels off.

1. Generously dab a cotton ball with vodka.

2. Apply vodka generously to the label, then let it sit for a few minutes.

3. Peel the label, applying more vodka where needed so the label comes off completely without leaving any residue behind.

While you let the vodka sit on the label, kick back and enjoy a sip of this new, improved take on the Harvey Wallbanger, made with our latest infusion Belle Isle Blood Orange.

HARVEY SHINEBANGER

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ oz. Belle Isle Blood Orange

• ½ oz. Galliano

• 4 oz. fresh OJ

Preparation:

Add all ingredients to a mixing tin over ice. Shake and strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice.

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Cleaning Tip #2: Sanitize Surfaces

We’re not saying you should dump your vodka down the drain, but did you know you can DIY a simple surface cleaner with it? All you need is vodka, water, and your choice of essential oils combined in a spray bottle.

Even though you just cleaned your bathroom, now it’s time to treat yourself by dirtying things back up. That’s right - we’re talking about our take on the classic Dirty Martini, swapping out vodka for the smooth taste of Belle Isle 100 Proof.

1. Fill a spray bottle with equal parts vodka and water.

2. Add a few drops of your favorite essential oil. We like lavender and orange!

3. Spray your new cleaner on any surface you want to sanitize, then wipe away with a clean cloth.

100 Proof Martini

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ oz. Belle Isle 100 Proof

  (or Black Label)

• ½ oz. dry vermouth

• ½ oz. olive juice (optional)

Preparation:

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir. Strain into a martini glass and garnish with olives, lemon twist, or any other garnish you'd like. Feel free to customize this recipe to make your ideal martini!

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Cleaning Tip #3: Fight Off Home Invaders

Vodka’s amazing ability to burn your tastebuds is surpassed only by its capacity to kill pests that can infect your beloved houseplants. Vodka is a great alternative for stopping insect home invaders, as it is much gentler on your plant than harsh, chemical-filled insecticides. If you were hoping for a vodka-based solution to stopping actual home invaders, we’d suggest a taser instead.

1. Gently mist your plant’s leaves with water.

2. Use a cotton ball to apply alcohol to any infected area on the plant.

3. Wipe the infected area again with a clean, dry cotton ball to remove any pests or residue from the leaf.

Saving your plant from invasion is hard work. As a reward, mix yourself up this floral-inspired twist of The Aviation, featuring a splash of citrus using Belle Isle Ruby Red Grapefruit.

The Earhart

Ingredients:

• 2 oz. Belle Isle Ruby Red Grapefruit

• ½  oz. Luxardo Maraschino liqueur

• ¼ oz. Creme de Violette

• ¾ oz. fresh lemon juice

• Luxardo cherry garnish

Preparation:

Drop one Luxardo cherry into a chilled coupe glass. Combine remaining ingredients into a mixing tin with ice. Shake vigorously and strain into coupe.

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HAPPY CLEANING!

Still thirsty?

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Belle Isle Moonshine is a premium, handcrafted spirit proudly hailing from Richmond, Virginia.

We take the name Belle Isle from a small, 540-acre island located smack dab in the middle of the James River where Civil War soldiers used surplus corn rations to make moonshine in copper kettles.

Belle Isle Moonshine is distilled from 100% organic corn, grown by three family farms and responsibly sourced. Once triple-distilled, we charcoal filter Belle Isle four times over. Then, we cut it with purified water right from the James River. Our infusions are made with 100% real ingredients, never artificial flavors or color. We use real grapefruits sourced from Texas and California, local honey from the Shenandoah Valley, organic habaneros grown an hour away, and freshly roasted coffee beans from the most socially conscious roastery in Richmond, Blanchard's Coffee Roasting Co.

From there, each bottle of Belle Isle Moonshine is filled, corked, labeled, and packed by hand by our Production team, who check each bottle and batch for quality assurance. Since Belle Isle is made in small batches, you can find the batch number handwritten in the bottom right corner of each bottle.

Distilled from good times and 100% organic corn.

Curated Wedding cocktails with Roberts and Co. Events // Part 1

Want the bar at your wedding to offer something more interesting than light beer and watered-down rum and cokes? Your cocktail menu should make you feel as special as everything else on your wedding day, and Bryce Carson from Roberts and Co. Events is here to show you how to make that happen! With some help from the Good Times Experts here at Belle Isle Moonshine, you and your significant other can choose personalized cocktails that really say something about yourselves and your love. 

Cocktails make the heart grow fonder. All photos by Alyse Michelle Images.

In the seven years since I started planning weddings, they have become more lavish, more expensive, and more competitive. As couples jump into the planning process, they look to Pinterest, magazines, and past weddings they have been to for inspiration. This is where, as a wedding planner and designer, I step in and say, "stop"! I love these sources for inspiration, but if my couples cannot tell me how we can relate this to their personal story, then maybe we shouldn't do it.

Belle Isle's cocktail curators, Erica and Von.

I believe in creating and designing a personalized experience for my clients. Your groom is from Western Pennsylvania? Awesome! Have a cookie table. Your bride spent her childhood in Scotland? Work some thistle into her bouquet. Weddings are about telling the story of your past and giving a hint to your future.

I am so happy I have been able to partner with Belle Isle Moonshine on creating one of a kind experiences for my clients. So often the bar menu at a wedding is overlooked. In the final months of planning, clients will run to the liquor store to buy a mix of spirits and hope they have enough. Well, now Belle Isle Moonshine is offering a program that lets clients personalize their bar menu with the same level of detail that went into designing their wedding cake and floral arrangements. 

Belle Isle Moonshine partners with wedding planners to bring in their clients for a private cocktail tasting. I brought in Adrian and Brian for a tasting for their upcoming Spring 2018 wedding. Erica and Von created six craft cocktails based on a survey of my clients' preferences, wedding theme, and unique requests (beer cocktails). The results were nothing short of perfection, and luckily the talented Alyse Michelle Images was there to capture the experience. 

One of the big winners, the Pipeline Painkiller.

Adrian and Brian are fun, quirky, and looking to throw a wedding to be remembered. With funky centerpieces containing citrus fruits and a family-style BBQ and taco bar, they are looking to seamlessly blend their signature style across their entire wedding day. Adrian fell in love with the Pipeline Painkiller, a mix of Belle Isle Cold Brew Coffee, pineapple, and citrus. This drink packs enough punch to liven up the dance floor, but also look stunning on her tables. Brian's choice, the Belle's Eye, will be the perfect compliment to the tacos and BBQ, mixing Belle Isle Black Label, Coors Light and ginger beer. 

The tasting process is so fun and easy. Adrian and Brian were able to start off by tasting each moonshine on its own and then moved to their six signature cocktail choices. Von showed us exactly how to present each cocktail, from the proper glassware to the perfect garnish. Erica provided us with a cocktail calculator to make the trip to grocery and liquor stores a breeze after getting final guest counts. 

Decisions, decisions

The Belle's Eye

Cheers to a job well done!

With their signature cocktails selected, Adrian and Brian were able to check one more task off their wedding to-do list. Not only did they leave feeling accomplished, but they know they are going to have something their guests have never experienced before.

Stay tuned for Part ii in May to see it all come together, with another cocktail surprise for the couple's guests!  

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Bryce Carson is a Washington D.C. and Richmond-based wedding planner with Roberts & Co. Events.  He specializes in creating unique and personalized events tailored to each couple. Follow him on Instagram @brycetcarson, and follow Roberts and Co. @robertsandco. 

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Belle Isle Moonshine is a premium, handcrafted spirit proudly hailing from Richmond, Virginia.

We take the name Belle Isle from a small, 540-acre island located smack dab in the middle of the James River where Civil War soldiers used surplus corn rations to make moonshine in copper kettles.

Belle Isle Moonshine is distilled from 100% organic corn, grown by three family farms and responsibly sourced. Once triple-distilled, we charcoal filter Belle Isle four times over. Then, we cut it with purified water right from the James River. Our infusions are made with 100% real ingredients, never artificial flavors or color. We use real grapefruits sourced from Texas and California, local honey from the Shenandoah Valley, organic habaneros grown an hour away, and freshly roasted coffee beans from the most socially conscious roastery in Richmond, Blanchard's Coffee Roasting Co.

From there, each bottle of Belle Isle Moonshine is filled, corked, labeled, and packed by hand by our Production team, who check each bottle and batch for quality assurance. Since Belle Isle is made in small batches, you can find the batch number handwritten in the bottom right corner of each bottle.

Distilled from good times and 100% organic corn.

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Wanna learn more about us?

Belle Isle Explore: Daniel Torraca / Studio Two Three

In a new collaborative series, Belle Isle Craft Spirits is teaming up with local artists, designers, and creators to delve into the true meaning of "The Spirit of Exploration", an idea and energy that we hold near and dear to our hearts.

We had the good fortune of partnering first with Daniel Torraca of Studio Two Three, a Richmond-based illustrator and designer whose work ranges across a spectrum as harlequin and vibrant as his illustrations themselves. Belle Isle Explore brought Daniel the prompt of "The Spirit of Exploration", and he turned it into a small batch of locally screenprinted shirts, featuring his own fantastic design.

We went into the studio to talk to Daniel about his inspiration and see first-hand the process behind producing and screenprinting his design. You can grab a limited edition shirt featuring Daniel's design on our store here.

How did you become interested in art?

I’ve always drawn and been interested in art but it really wasn’t until I realized I needed to go to school for something I wouldn’t hate in 10 years that I decided on a career in the arts. I figured the most consistent thing that I had enjoyed for the longest was a safe bet to put my future on. Also, there’s a lot of things I don’t understand and art has become the best way I can figure them out.

What inspires you?

I’m most inspired by subcultures and sects of society. I’m very inspired in both my work and life by cult films, obscure Onion articles, and punk music.

Tell us about your process.

I usually work from word lists, to thumbnails, to pencil drawings, and then to inking with a brush and inkwell. Beyond that, I sometimes scan my work into Photoshop and add in textures and fabrics to help colorize them and further establish mood.

Tell us about your studio or where you work.

I do a lot of my work at my home studio on a little prop-up drafting table that fits my paper perfectly but when I’m not there I work quite a bit at Studio Two Three in the digital lab or in the washout booth prepping screens.

Who are some of your favorite folks to collaborate with?

I’ve really enjoyed working with Sink/Swim Press (Dialogue Magazine and Little Red Fish), as well as with Studio Two Three and I really enjoy poster work when I can get it.

As far as collaborators and people to work with, I really enjoy working with close friends or artists who have similar themes to me as far as content choices go. I would love to name names but honestly there are too many incredible artists making work right now that I’m worried I’d forget someone!

What does “The Spirit of Exploration” mean to you?

Exploration means childhood to me. It’s one of the best ways that I can think of to describe how a child sees the world. Everything is new and an adventure and that’s how I’d like to be in my creative process and my life: perpetually excited and a little scared.

Tell us about your design.

I interpreted exploration as mystery and intrigue, and that’s where I tried to take the viewer with my design. I wanted more questions than answers, along with excitement and an energy. I was heavily inspired by camp-y ‘90’s movies about adventure. I tried to emulate, essentially, what a 12 year-old boy would think was cool and scary.

If you had to pick someone from your personal life, pop culture, or history to embody “the spirit of exploration”, who would it be and why?

I don’t think I can pick just one person. I think, in my head, it’s an amalgamation of people that create one mega human. That person’s sort of a combination of Mikey (The Goonies), Henry Rollins, Mohammad Ali, Sigourney Weaver (think Alien), and Daenerys Targaryen (Mother of Dragons).

So, yeah, all of those, plus probably 8 or 25 more to make up the “spirit of exploration”. It’s a little frightening to think about.

Where can we see your work?

I’m one of the few Daniel Torraca’s on Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr, but you can also see my work at danieltorraca.com.

Do you have a favorite drink?

I drink the Champs of Beer: Miller Highlife, but that’s more a budget choice than a preference.

You can purchase your own limited edition shirt below, or on our Belle Isle Craft Spirits store. Again, there's only a small batch of shirts available, so grab yours now before they're gone!