I now realize I may have to take back all my negative comments about vodka.

I have never liked the tasteless, colorless alcohol, and ever since I snuck it into my orange juice at an early age to copy my grandma’s favorite drink and then promptly threw it up, I have bad taste-memories that generally keep me away from the sickly sweet girly vodka cocktails so popular with fans of a certain over-hyped summer movie.

But, sipping an herbal white sangria concoction at Westend Bistro Friday night and finding a crazy herb called lovage at the Silver Spring FRESHFARM Market on Saturday morning inspired me to try my own infusion.

Lovage (the herb, not the band and not the character from Superbad) looks kinda like thin celery with bigger leaves, but it has a peppery bite that’s hard to characterize. It tastes almost like a celery leaf at first, then almost catapults you to fennel, but more black peppery. It’s an ancient folk medicine in Europe and apparently tastes similar to the Swiss Maggi seasoning sauce, although I can’t claim to have tried that.

A little bit goes a long way, said the helpful woman at the Evensong Farms booth who introduced me to lovage. She suggested using the hollow stems as a straw for an unusual Bloody Mary, but since I had the sangria infusion still on my mind, I thought about trying my own lovage infusion.

I stuck a stalk, leaves and all, in a Mason jar with an entire bottle of Kettle One, which I keep in the freezer for company (nope, not from the farmer’s market), and set it aside on the counter. I had planned to leave the infusion overnight and taste it the next day, to see how far it progressed, but within a couple of hours, I was curious. It was quite strong. I was afraid if I left the lovage alone in there, I would actually be making cough syrup.

Then I remembered I had a cucumber in the fridge, so I sliced up about a third of it thinly and stuck it in the jar, hoping to temper the pepper but not flatten out the flavor completely. I crossed my fingers and went to bed.

The next afternoon, I took the lovage and cucumbers out of the jar, and the vodka had turned a pale shade of Army green. I chilled it and took it to my sister’s party for a taste test.

My sister, who once was the pickiest eater around but will now try anything, was skeptical, looking at my very homemade green liquor jar with the plastic cap, but she made us a couple of vodka tonics that were perfectly refreshing on a hot summer’s day. Spa cucumber water meets fizz meets pepper-green farm flavor and the kind of alcohol kick sure to brighten up any family gathering. Try it!

Now, what do I do with the rest of this lovage? Soups?  Salads? Buy more vodka?