Cordials are my new favorite thing. Although the ingredients—fresh fruit, sugar, and vodka—have all been my favorites for quite some time. Ahem.

These vodka infusions are so easy to make, yet no one will believe you made them yourself. Just grab your favorite fruit, but if you don’t know where to start, try a naturally sweet or familiar taste like banana or strawberry.

In Central Texas we have a wild blackberry called the dewberry, and boy are they delicious. Today I’m making a half-batch of dewberries that my dad picked from a field on our Fayetteville ranch, and a full batch of fresh peaches from a tree in my backyard in Bastrop.

The cast of characters: sugar, fresh fruit, and vodka. Any brand of vodka 80 proof+ (40% alcohol by volume) will do, but my go-to vodka is Tito’s Handmade Vodka out of Austin. Affordable but super smooth.

Today I’m using another Austin brand: Deep Eddy Vodka, because it’s what I happened to have in the freezer, LOL. I find Deep Eddy to be smoother than Tito’s, but it’s a bit more expensive.

Step 1: Wash and cut your fruit. Or if you’re using berries, just clean and measure them out.

The ratio for this recipe is 2:1:2 of fruit, sugar, and vodka.

My favorite way to do this is to use a full-sized Ball jar (1 quart). The perfect fit for one of these is 2 cups fruit, 1 cup sugar, and 2 cups vodka.

Step 2: Pour your sugar into the jar, then dump in your beautimous fruit.

Step 3: Pour the vodka over your fruit. It should just cover the top of your fruit. If not, add a bit more vodka until all of the fruit is covered.

Step 4: Make a tight seal with the lid and label your jar (I like to use a chalk pen). The jar will become colored with the fruit juice over time, so it might get difficult to see through if you’re working with something dark like blackberries.

And you’re done! Put your jar in a cool, dry place and shake it once a week. It’ll be ready in 2-3 months.

Don’t worry about it going bad–this is vodka, after all. Just take a little sip to see if it’s saturated to your liking. Fruit with a more subtle taste might take longer to infuse.

When you think it’s done, strain the fruit out with a tiny-holed metal colander. Then run it through a coffee filter to get the smaller pieces out. I hear the leftover fruit makes a great ice cream topping!

I’m totally going to make these in the fall for Christmas presents. They should come out to around $10 a piece, or even less if using hand-picked fruit. It’ll be hard to go wrong with these as gifts!