It’s mid-January and by this point many of you are off to the races as far as your resolutions are concerned. You’ve detoxed, cleaned up your diet, and are hitting the gym as frequently as a Playboy bunny who’s about to be cut from the squad.

However if you’re like me, 2010 didn’t really start off with a sprint to the gym, but rather a slow crawl to the yack-box. In fact I’m already breaking a resolution to not blog at work. And if you really are like me, and you don’t care too much for colonics and kale and banana smoothies, but want to feel like you’re at least taking some steps in the right direction to renew and rejuvenate your body, then I have the perfect elixir for you.

It’s called The Detox, and with it’s potent yet tasty blend of vodka, lemon juice, honey, rosemary, and chiles, it’s sure to kill any toxins (even the good ones) living inside you, and it tastes good to boot. Best of all you won’t need a yoga mat nor a gym membership. All you’ll need are a few key ingredients and your trusty cocktail shaker–and how often has your shaker, under my steady guidance, steered you wrong? Riddle me that if you will.

The Detox
3 oz vodka (I used Martin Ryan)
2 oz fresh lemon juice
1 oz honey-rosemary syrup (see recipe near bottom of this post)
dash cayenne pepper
For the rim: cayenne, puebla chile powder, and date sugar (recipe below)

Glass: cocktail glass
Tools: shaker, strainer

Rub a lemon slice along the outer rim of the cocktail glass and dip it in the chile and date sugar mixture. Pour the other ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice and shake until well chilled. Strain, enjoy, and repeat until your system is fully cleansed.

To make the rim mixture simply blend together 3-4 tbsp date sugar (found at most health food stores) with 1 tsp puebla chile powder and 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper. If you’re spice averse you can exclude the cayenne pepper on the rim, since there’ll already be a dash of it in the cocktail.

Although I am not a vodka hater, in the world of craft mixology vodka is often treated worse than a biracial illegitimate stepchild. However I chose vodka in this cocktail for many of the same reasons it is hated: its purity and lack of dominating flavor which enable it to act more as a blank canvass in a cocktail than as a flavor component. I used Martin Ryan vodka because unlike most vodkas which have their souls distilled out of them, this still retains a bit of the spirit and essence of its origin distillate base, Oregon grapes.

So who needs all those new age detox diets and such when you have so many cleansing botanicals in one cocktail, right? Here’s to a starting the year on a healthy note. Cheers!

*Got a cocktail question? Hit me on twitter @paystyle, email me at payman(at)lifesacocktail(dot)com, or simply drop me a comment below!

**Paystyle was born in Tehran and grew up in Los Angeles (aka Tehrangeles) before moving to Brooklyn with his wife and co-pilot Vanessa Bahmani who provides the stunning photography of Pay’s cocktail concoctions. Return every Wednesday for his weekly Happy Hour column.

For this installment I’m sharing with you a chile pepper infused vodka and a cocktail I made with it. It’s really easy to infuse your own liquor, and vodka is my vehicle of choice because its neutral taste really enables it to take on the flavor of whatever you’re infusing it with. You can virtually use anything, from vanilla beans to fruits to spices.

Infusing liquor has been a very common practice throughout history, usually as a means of masking the flavor of spirits that were harsh, unrefined, and often homemade. In Iran it’s quite popular to infuse vodka (usually of cheap bootlegged or smuggled variety) with cherries.

It goes without saying that the higher quality your ingredients, especially when it comes to your choice of liquor, the better final product you’ll have. It may seem counterintuitive to “dilute” a high quality spirit with other ingredients, but a cleaner and purer liquor will make for more effective flavor infusion. So when it comes to vodka, the more times it is distilled, the cleaner and purer it is. I opt for vodka that’s at least triple-distilled; this time I used Svedka vodka, which is distilled 5 times, and not as expensive as some of the better known brands.

While I normally stick to fruits–I was set on using mangoes–this time I made a departure at the behest of my wife, and decided to infuse the Vodka with spicy chile peppers. I used a bunch of chiles of different varieties: Anaheim, Golden Cayenne, Holland, and Serrano. In order to make sure the peppers effectively release all that good heat and flavor, I took a knife and cut a slit down the side of each chile.

The next step was to add them to the jar, pour in the vodka, and store the jar somewhere away from direct sunlight. The length of time really depends upon the level of flavor infusion you’d like to achieve. For peppers I like to infuse for at least a couple of weeks, but then again I have a higher heat tolerance than most–and believe me, this vodka was no joke when it came to heat!

Dragon Tail

Here’s a drink I call a Dragon Tail, created from the spicy vodka and inspired by the upcoming Beijing games, and that will hopefully make you forget how badly the Olympics suck:

1 part Passoa passion fruit liqueur
2 parts chile pepper infused vodka
4 parts mango juice or nectar
Chile pepper for garnish

Combine all ingredients in a shaker filled with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with the chile.

*Why not add some of this chile pepper infused vodka into your Bloody Mary? It’ll cure your hangover quick!

Come back every Wednesday for Paystyle’s weekly Happy Hour column.