infusevodka

Infuse Spirits is a Santa Monica–based premium small-batch spirits company specializing in all-natural, gluten-free infused vodkas. Those of us who work here don’t see Infuse as just a brand, but as a lifestyle — and this page is where that lifestyle lives: the dinners, the shoots, the city we call home, and the people who pour us into their own kitchens and dining rooms.

What follows is a tour through the moments that have shaped us so far, plus a deeper look at what “infused vodka” really means, how to think about pairing it, and how to bring the same spirit into your own home bar.

Key Takeaways

• Infuse Spirits is a Santa Monica–based, small-batch producer of all-natural, gluten-free infused vodkas.
• We treat vodka as a culinary ingredient, not just a base spirit — which is why it pairs so naturally with cuisines from around the world.
• Our Infuse Society Dinner Party series is a one-night-only private dinner and drinks pairing with a handpicked guest list.
• The story of a brand is told through the people it collaborates with — chefs, filmmakers, hosts, and accounts who make it their own.
• Santa Monica isn’t just where we’re based; it’s a creative and culinary ecosystem that shapes how we think about flavor.
• Everything we do — from video shoots to dinner parties — is in service of one idea: infusion is a craft, and it belongs in your hands too.

Introduction: A Brand Built Like a Lifestyle

Every spirits brand has an origin story. Ours starts with a simple conviction: that vodka doesn’t have to be neutral, and that infusion is a craft worth taking seriously.

Infuse Spirits is a Santa Monica–based premium small-batch spirits company specializing in all-natural, gluten-free infused vodkas. That sentence carries more weight than it might first appear.

“Small batch” means we think in terms of real ingredients and real attention rather than volume. “All-natural” means the flavor in the bottle comes from what we put into it — fruit, spice, botanical, herb — not from a lab. “Gluten-free” means the base spirit is distilled in a way that keeps it accessible to drinkers who need or prefer to avoid gluten.

But the part of that sentence our team cares about most is the last one: those of us who work here do not see Infuse as just a brand, but as a lifestyle. That’s not marketing language for us. It’s a description of how we actually operate — hosting dinners, filming stories, obsessing over pairings, and treating a bottle of infused vodka as the beginning of a conversation rather than the end of one.

What “Infused Vodka” Actually Means

Before we get into the events and the city, it’s worth pausing on the category itself, because “flavored vodka” and “infused vodka” are not the same thing — and the difference matters to anyone who cares about what’s in their glass.

• Flavored vodka is typically made by adding flavoring agents — often natural or artificial extracts, essences, or syrups — to a neutral spirit. The result can be consistent and shelf-stable, but the flavor is added rather than steeped.
• Infused vodka is made by steeping real ingredients in the spirit so that their oils, sugars, and aromatics transfer into the liquid over time. Think of it like tea: the character comes from what you put in and how long you let it sit.

That steeping process is why infused vodka behaves differently in a cocktail. It carries texture and aroma, not just a top note. A citrus infusion brings both zest bitterness and bright oil; a pepper infusion brings heat that builds rather than hits; a vanilla or spice infusion brings warmth that rounds out a drink instead of flattening it.

It’s also why infused vodka is so forgiving as a culinary ingredient. Because the flavor is built from real ingredients, it tends to sit comfortably alongside food — which brings us to the thing we love most about it.

The Thai Experience: Pairing Vodka with Cuisine

One of our favorite things about Infuse Vodka is how versatile it is. It can easily be paired with cuisines of all different ethnical backgrounds, and we love seeing how accounts incorporate it into theirs.

The Thai Experience, from April 2016, was a perfect example of that idea in action. As luck would have it, our Marketing Director, Andrea, and the team found themselves building a night around Thai food — a cuisine defined by the tension between sweet, sour, salty, spicy, and bitter.

Thai cooking doesn’t shy away from big, layered flavors, and neither does an infused vodka. That’s the whole point of the pairing: when both the food and the drink are built from real, distinct ingredients, they can meet each other instead of competing.

If you want to recreate that spirit at home, the principle is simple:

• Match intensity with intensity. A bold, spicy dish wants a vodka infusion with enough character to stand beside it — citrus, ginger, chili, or botanical.
• Use contrast deliberately. A rich, coconut-heavy curry can be cut beautifully by something bright and clean.
• Think about aroma first. Much of what we call “taste” is smell. An infusion that opens with a fragrant nose primes the palate before the first bite.
• Serve it cold and simple. With food this flavorful, you rarely need a complicated cocktail. Chilled, neat, or over a single large cube is often enough.

The broader lesson from that dinner is one we keep coming back to: infused vodka isn’t a niche spirit for one kind of night. It’s a passport. It moves between cuisines because it’s built from ingredients that already belong to those cuisines.

Infuse the Night: The Infuse Society Dinner Party

In February 2016, we kicked off our very first Infuse Society Dinner Party — a chic social gathering built around a one-night-only private dinner and drinks pairing, with an exclusive handpicked guest list.

The format matters. This wasn’t a tasting, and it wasn’t a party in the usual sense. It was a seated dinner where every course was designed alongside a pour, and where the guest list was curated rather than opened to the public. That combination — intimacy plus intention — is what makes a dinner feel like an event rather than a meal.

The Executive Chef of Del Frisco’s Grille Irvine, Sarah Danie, was part of that first evening, and the collaboration captured exactly what we look for in a partner: someone who treats flavor as a craft and is willing to build a menu around a spirit rather than the other way around.

For anyone thinking about hosting their own version at home, the Infuse Society model translates surprisingly well:

• Pick one spirit and build the night around it. A single infused vodka, explored across several courses, teaches your guests more than a bar full of options.
• Curate the guest list. Six to ten people who genuinely enjoy food and drink will produce a better evening than twenty who don’t.
• Pair each course deliberately. You don’t need a different bottle per course — you need a reason for each pour.
• Keep the room calm. Low light, real glassware, and a pace that lets people talk. The drinks are the thread, not the spectacle.

The dinner party is also where the “lifestyle” idea becomes literal. A bottle of infused vodka on a back bar is inventory. The same bottle on a dinner table, poured for people you’ve chosen, is hospitality.

Video Shoot: How You Tell Your Story

In November 2015, Riki Rabold wrote about something that doesn’t get enough attention in the spirits world: finding the right video team.

The point Riki made is worth repeating, because it’s true of every creative partnership a brand enters into. Finding the perfect video team is not something to be overlooked. It is hard to come by people you can work and collaborate well with. How you tell your story is what makes a brand, like us, who we are and how we are received. For us, that means the perfect cameraman — someone who understands not just how to light a bottle, but what the bottle is for.

There’s a practical lesson in that for anyone building something, whether it’s a spirits brand, a home bar, or a supper club:

• Collaboration beats transaction. The best creative work comes from people who are invested in the outcome, not just the invoice.
• Story is strategy. How you present what you make shapes how people receive it — and, over time, what they expect from you.
• Craft shows on camera. Real ingredients, real pours, and real people are more compelling than polish for its own sake.

That shoot wasn’t just content. It was a rehearsal for how we’d talk about ourselves for years afterward.

Once You Go Cali: Why Santa Monica

If you are like us, you have lived coast-to-coast, north-to-south, side-to-side, and everywhere in between. So why have we landed here, in Santa Monica?

There are arguments to be made for anywhere, but to us, we see an oasis here, in this state of nearly 40 million people. California is, in a sense, a country inside a country — an enormous, diverse, endlessly productive place with its own agriculture, its own food culture, and its own relationship to experimentation.

For a small-batch spirits company, that matters in concrete ways:

• Ingredient access. A state with this much agricultural range makes it easier to source real fruit, citrus, and botanicals rather than relying on distant supply chains.
• A food culture that takes flavor seriously. Santa Monica sits inside one of the most curious dining scenes in the country, which means there’s an audience that actually wants to talk about what’s in the glass.
• Creative density. Filmmakers, chefs, designers, and hospitality people all live and work in the same few square miles. Collaboration is a short drive away.
• A lifestyle that matches the product. Coastal, social, outdoors-oriented, and relaxed about entertaining. Infused vodka fits that rhythm naturally.

“Once you go Cali, you don’t go back” is a joke, but it’s also a thesis. Place shapes product. Where you make something influences what you make.

Bringing the Infuse Lifestyle Home

The thread running through all of these posts — the Thai dinner, the Infuse Society evening, the video shoot, the move to Santa Monica — is that infusion is participatory. It’s not a finished product you consume passively. It’s a craft you can pick up.

If you’re cocktail-curious, here’s how to start:

• Begin with one ingredient. Pick a single flavor you love — citrus zest, fresh ginger, vanilla bean, chili, berries, herbs — and infuse a small batch of vodka with it.
• Taste as you go. Infusion is a curve, not a switch. Check it daily; pull it when the flavor is where you want it.
• Strain and store properly. Fine-strain out the solids, keep the finished infusion cold and dark, and label it with the date.
• Use it simply first. Try it chilled, over ice, or with one mixer before you build a complex cocktail. Learn what the infusion tastes like on its own.
• Then cook with it. Infused vodka belongs in marinades, pan sauces, and desserts as much as it belongs in a glass.

That’s the whole idea behind treating Infuse as a lifestyle rather than a brand. The bottle is a starting point. What you do with it — who you pour it for, what you pair it with, what you make next — is the actual story.

Frequently Asked Questions

What makes Infuse Vodka different from other flavored vodkas?

Infuse Spirits is a Santa Monica–based premium small-batch spirits company specializing in all-natural, gluten-free infused vodkas. Rather than relying on added flavoring agents, our approach is built around real ingredients and small-batch production. The result is a spirit designed to work as a culinary ingredient as much as a cocktail base.

Is infused vodka gluten-free?

Our infused vodkas are gluten-free, which is one of the things we’re most deliberate about as a company. If you have specific dietary needs or sensitivities, always check the label and any current product information before you buy, since formulations and certifications can vary by expression.

What is the Infuse Society Dinner Party?

The Infuse Society Dinner Party is a chic social gathering built around a one-night-only private dinner and drinks pairing, with an exclusive handpicked guest list. We kicked off the very first one in February 2016, with the Executive Chef of Del Frisco’s Grille Irvine, Sarah Danie, involved in that inaugural evening. It’s our way of showing what an infused vodka can do across a full menu.

Can I pair infused vodka with non-Western cuisines?

Absolutely — that’s one of our favorite things about it. Infuse Vodka is versatile enough to pair with cuisines of all different ethnical backgrounds, and we love seeing how accounts incorporate it into theirs. The Thai Experience in April 2016 was one example, but the same logic applies to Indian, Mexican, Japanese, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean cooking.

Where is Infuse Spirits based, and why?

We’re based in Santa Monica, California. We’ve lived coast-to-coast and everywhere in between, but we see an oasis here in this state of nearly 40 million people — a place with extraordinary agricultural range, a serious food culture, and a dense creative community. For a small-batch spirits company, that combination is hard to beat.

How do I start infusing vodka at home?

Start with a single ingredient you genuinely love, add it to a clean jar of vodka, and taste daily until the flavor lands where you want it. Strain out the solids, store the finished infusion cold and dark, and label it with the date. Use it simply at first — chilled or with one mixer — so you learn what your infusion actually tastes like before you build around it.