It’s time again for childhood and adulthood to collide in a most delicious way! You can infuse vodka with Jolly Rancher candies, much the same way we make Skittles Vodka or Starburst Vodka. Actually, Jolly Rancher Vodka is much easier, and the results are fabulous: tasty and gorgeous to look at. You can whip up batches of five Jolly Ranchers Vodka flavors in only twelve to fourteen hours with minimal labor on your part, so they make wonderful, affordable, memorable gifts, too.
The Materials:
I bought more than I actually needed: a 1.75 liter bottle of vodka and a 3.75 pound bag of Jolly Ranchers. With this, I could easily have made two batches (that is, two flasks in each Jolly Ranchers flavor) and still have had a bit left.
Jolly Rancher Vodka
Time to complete: 12-14 hours. That’s about 20-30 minutes of prep and the rest of the time, you’re just waiting for the infusion to finish. You’ll need:
- A full liter of vodka. You may have to buy a 1.75 liter bottle to get it. No need to spend much on the vodka – just choose one that goes down reasonably smoothly. I used Svedka, and it was very nice.
- 12 Jolly ranchers in each flavor you want to infuse (that’s 60 Jolly ranchers all together). The 3.75 pound bag I bought had at least 40 of each flavor, so a couple of pounds of assorted Jolly Ranchers ought to do it.
- Five flasks to pour it in. (You can buy these from Amazon – they hold 8.5 ounces, which is a nice amount.)
- Optional: a funnel to assist with pouring the vodka into the narrow necks on the flasks.
- Optional: something like a plastic sheet or newspaper over your counter, because little bits of Jolly Rancher fall out of the wrappers and stick to everything.
Step 1: Sort the Jolly Ranchers
Separate your Jolly Ranchers by color/flavor.
That’s watermelon, apple and cherry in front, with grape and blue raspberry in the back. As you can see, you don’t necessarily get equal numbers of every flavor in an assortment bag. I got more of the grape than any other flavor, and less of blue raspberry. But even with the blue raspberry, I had more than enough to do the whole experiment twice.
Step 2: Put Jolly Ranchers in flasks
Put twelve Jolly Ranchers of each flavor into each flask. Yes, you can put them directly into the flask instead of into a mixing container. The reason? Because you’re not going to have to skim anything out of it, like you do with waxy candies like Skittles. Every bit of the Jolly Ranchers – which are mostly corn syrup, sugar, flavorings and colors – belongs in the final product here. And that’s why Jolly Rancher Vodka is so much easier than a lot of candy infusions.
Once you’re done, you should have five flasks with beautiful colored candies in the bottom.
Step 3: Pour the vodka
Next up, you pour the vodka into the flasks over the candies. Stick a funnel (optional) into the neck of each flask, and pour your vodka down it. I filled mine to the top of the neck.
As you can see, they start taking on the color of the vodka immediately, as it begins breaking down the candies. There’s no need to shake them – just let them sit for about eight to twelve hours, and all the candy will dissolve completely with no mess, and nothing stuck to the glass. I’ve also tried it with shaking, and it took the same amount of time.
Your almost finished product will look like this:
I had been worried that the watermelon and cherry would come out too close to the same color. But as the picture here shows, the cherry is a nice deep red and the watermelon comes out a lighter red – sort of a coral, or a cross between pink and orange. Even next to each other, they don’t look like the same color.
Step 4: Chill!
Put your flasks into the freezer and let them chill for a couple of hours. Now they’re really ready for use.
What you have in your flasks now is nearly pure vodka, so they’re very strong on the alcohol. The flavors are exactly what you’d expect: at first, you just taste the Jolly Ranchers in liquid form, exactly like the candies always tasted. Then the vodka kicks in with its characteristic flavorless burn. You can definitely drink these straight up as flavored martinis or shooters, and they’re a lot of fun.
I often get asked how long these will keep. I don’t know a scientific way to test that, but I can tell you I’ve stored them as long as 25 days in the fridge, and there was no change in taste or color and they didn’t give anyone ill effects. I would suggest making them two weeks in advance or less, just to be safe.
You could also mix them into some cocktails:
- Make a Raspberry Kamikaze with Blue Raspberry Jolly Rancher Vodka in place of the Chambord. You’ll end up with a blue cocktail instead of a deep red one, but the taste is very similar and fantastic.
- Replace the vodka in a Tokyo Iced Tea with Apple Jolly Rancher Vodka. It’ll go nicely with the kiwi liqueur.
- Try a Grape Russian Tea with Grape Jolly Ranchers Vodka instead of the grape schnapps.
- Replace the grenadine in a German Cherry Bomb with Cherry Jolly Rancher Vodka. It makes for a chocolate covered cherry sort of flavor.
- Make a Love Bite with Cherry Jolly Rancher Vodka in place of cherry liqueur, except on top of the other layers instead of at the bottom.
- Make a Laffy Taffy, but with Watermelon, Apple and Raspberry Jolly Rancher Vodka instead of the schnapps and DeKuypers the recipe calls for.
- Mix any of the flavors with some mineral/soda water or 7-up or Sprite.
- A touch of Rose’s Lime contrasts nicely with the Watermelon, Grape, Blue Raspberry or Cherry.
- You can definitely serve these over ice or simply water them down a little if the straight vodka’s too strong, but you don’t want to dilute the flavor with another flavor.
Cheers!
m1k3y says
I tried this with the sour jolly ranchers. It turned out great! So far I’ve only tried sour watermelon but i think the extra tart makes it more refreshing. Mixed well with sprite and pineapple slices.
Jen says
That sounds delicious!
Carrie says
Hi,
I am trying these this weekend. How long is the finished shelf life?
Nadine says
Can you make jello shots using the Jolly rancher vodka? Do yo have a recipe for this? I would lie to make this but I am not sure if I should use flavored jello with the different jolly rancher flavors vodka or use unflavored gelatin
Jen says
Hmm, great question! I’m adding that to the list of things I need to experiment with!
Carol Span says
They have jolly ranchers jello just add the vodka.
Troy says
My girlfriend and I made these day before yesterday, but we haven’t opened them yet. We used mason jars (‘cuz we didn’t want to wait for the flasks to ship from Amazon) and Skyy (My favorite inexpensive vodka [Only runs a couple bucks more than Svedka for the 1.75L]). I’ll come back tomorrow and tell ya’ll how they turned out.
Nieieieee says
I heard that Jolly Ranchers Vodka was better than Skittles or Starburst. I was hoping to make a gift, which do you think is the best one?
Jen says
Hi Nieieieee,
I’d go with the Jolly Ranchers Vodka. It’s much easier and quicker to make and there’s absolutely no gunk in the Jolly Ranchers vodka. Plus, I’m partial to Jolly Ranchers candies, and all these infusions taste almost exactly like the candy you make them from.
Casey says
Does anyone know any other hard candies that this would work with? We don’t have Jolly Rangers in Australia but I really want to try this because it looks so easy and good for parties. Thanks!
Troy says
Short answer: Does it contain anything that can’t be filtered out? No? Then you can probably use it. Skittles and Starburst are also featured on this site, and between the three they kind of cover all the bases on different kinds of sweets.
chenell says
How long do the finish product last after making it? And do you keep it in the fridge or out once done
Jen says
It will work with any hard candy. Most hard candies are basically just sugar, something like corn syrup, and flavor. If it has additional ingredients, you could find you need to strain it a little, like Skittles Vodka only not that much, but it will work.
chenell says
How long do the finished product last once done? And do you store it in the refrigerator or out
Jen says
I’ve stored them for about 25 days in the refrigerator. I would think even outside the refrigerator, they should last as long as the candies themselves would, which is years, but I don’t want to test that, LOL.
Debbie says
I have tried to do jolly rancher moonshine and why did my jollyranchers never resolve?
Jen says
I’ve never tried to do them in moonshine, but I would have thought it would work (I’ve done candy corn in moonshine and it dissolved nicely). A couple of people in the comments had trouble with certain brands of vodka (or candy), but we’re not sure why. Sorry, wish I had a definite answer for you.
Jeni says
Its been over 16 hours and my candies still havent dissolved all the way. Any advice
Jen says
Are they close to finished? I’ve had them take 20 hours before. Keep shaking them. But if they’re not even close, I have heard that putting them in the dishwasher while you’re running it helps. I haven’t tried that, but I read it from somebody else.
Drew says
does it need to be in glass? or could you use a plastic water bottle?
Jen says
Some people say it does okay in plastic, but others say it can get a weird taste. I’ve never tried it in plastic.
Tina says
Can you keep them in the freezer or do they need be be refrigerated? I would prefer to sore them higher if possible so the little ones don’t think it’s a fruit drink.
Jen says
I have always kept them in the freezer with no problem. I think the fridge would also be fine – it’s not like they have ingredients that are likely to spoil anytime soon (look at the expiration dates on the candy bags to get an idea how long this stuff can last). Obviously, whatever keeps them from the kids is your best option!
If you’re asking whether you can just not refrigerate them at all, I haven’t tested that myself, but I would bet you can. Like I said above, look at the expiration date on your candies. The alcohol is a preservative, so they should last a long time in a cabinet.
Rosie says
Can you mix the flavours? So like put watermelon and cherry in together?
Mixy says
Absolutely!
Phillip says
Can you recommend any flavored vodkas to use?
Mixy says
Any of them that sound like a match. Cake and whipped cream vodkas are fairly neutral and add some sweetness. But you can also do a watermelon infusion with, say, a lime vodka, and it’s like a watermelon lime cocktail.
Sion Jesse says
I laughed a little bit because for most of my adult life, I’ve been drinking two of those 1.75L bottles of Svedka every week (high alcohol tolerance, had to drink that much to just barely feel it). Now I drink one of those larger bottles in 10 days and I’m doing much better with it, thanks to Zoloft which, in addition to treating depression, significantly lowers a patient’s alcohol tolerance. It’s a lot healthier for me and I’m grateful for it.
That said! I bought a bag of Jolly Ranchers just for the cherry and grape ones, which I love, and then I had all these apple and watermelon ones I don’t like in usual form. In vodka form, they’re pretty good! I already drink vodka tonics almost exclusively due to how cheap it is, but this is a fun way to mix it up (no pun intended). I won’t eat the blue ones, though, I hate them (like pure sweetness, not tart–utterly pointless in my opinion, even though blue is my favorite color).
My second favorite Jolly Rancher flavor after cherry is actually lemon and you can’t buy them in the assorted bags anymore. They are the cheapest ones to buy in bulk, though. I’m going to make Jolly Rancher lemonade vodka when I order a bulk bag on payday. Very excited to try it. I only wish there was an affordable option to buy all cherry ones!