How To Make "Christmas Shopping Night Chocolate Vodka"

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It was on a frosty autumn evening almost exactly eleven years ago that Clare had the bright idea to make chocolate vodka to give out on the Christmas shopping night.

Well, Clare can take credit for the idea, but the execution is mine! And now, because sadly there is no Christmas Shopping Night this year, I pass it on to you, dear reader.

So here is how to make Merry + Bright’s signature Christmas Shopping Night Chocolate Vodka (Spoiler alert: it’s very easy!)

You will need:

150g Galaxy chocolate
1 litre of vodka

  • Break the chocolate into pieces and melt in a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water.

  • Once it’s completely melted, start to pour in your vodka, just a little at first, and whisk it until it comes together. It may get a bit claggy at this stage, but add a little more and keep whisking until it’s smooth.

  • Take the bowl off the pan of water and start to pour in the rest of the vodka, whisking as you go, until it is all combined and smooth with no big bits floating about.

  • Use a funnel to pour this back into the vodka bottle (or another clean, sterilised bottle if you like) and screw the top back on.

  • You will have some excess, so you can keep that in another little container if you wish.

  • Put the vodka in the fridge or just somewhere cold for at least a few hours, preferably overnight.

  • When your return to it, you’ll see that some solids will have collected in the neck of the bottle.

  • Put a sieve over a bowl or jug and pour the vodka through it, leaving the solids in the sieve.

  • Clean out the bottle and pour the chocolate vodka back in.

  • Et voila! Your chocolate vodka is done. Please remember to drink responsibly. It may look a bit like Baileys, but as you’ll know if you’ve tried it, it is much stronger!

We hope this will tide you over until we can all get together again. This year has been so hard and so many joyful Christmas events won’t be taking place, but with strength, patience, kindness (and the occasional Chocolate Vodka) I’m sure we’ll come out the other side with a new appreciation of all those things that we’re having to do without.

Take care xx



Anthony Bowers