I am a bit of a compulsive Liqueur maker, as most I my friends will agree.
I go by the feeling that if it tastes good raw it will be even better drowned in alcohol.
This unfortunately is not quite true.
I have had successes in the past with Sloe Gin particularly (and not necessarily made from Gin)- but of late I have noticed that there are a lot of bottles sitting on the top of my Jam shelves which no-one is drinking.
Time for a liqueur cull obviously.
Yesterday afternoon Sile and I went thyrough the- not altogether unpleasant- experience of tasting all my patent concoctions and deciding on their fate. All the survivors were refiltered and rebottled.
There were some jettisons- yes down the sink discards. The Elderflower distillation was chucked,it was sharp and scented with cat pee, the white peach liqueur had lost any trace of flavour and just tasted of sharp alcohol- down the drain it went.
Then there was the Vin d’Orange and also the Seville Orange Liqueur, the first a little bland and sweet, the second sharp and marmaladey. We poured the whole lot into a basin,mixed both together sweetened it a little and Voila ; a totally acceptable Vin d’Orange, even if a little higher in alcohol than it should be. The Blackberry and the Raspberry were both quite OK, they had improved and mellowed a little in the bottle. Some of the wilder experiments were also quite drinkable, the Peach and Cinnamon was nicely spicey, the Apricot and Bitter Almond had a terrific colour and a good almond bite, even the rather wierd Earl Grey and Lemon Gin had held together well. The undoubted Piece de Resistance however was my latest distillation. Le Vin de Noix. That is delicious and has slipped down many’s the throat easily. I think we have found our House Liqueur here and so I have popped on another five litres to macerate today.