Elderflower vodka
A 38% flavored vodka that tastes of elderflower: honeyed, floral and a little like pear, lifted with lemon zest and only lightly sweetened. Dried flowers make it any time of year; in June you can use fresh blossoms instead. The flowers steep for just two or three days, so it is ready in about ten. Treat the amounts as a starting point and tune them by taste.
- Vodka in
- 2 L
- Vodka out
- about 2 L
- Strength
- roughly 38% ABV
- Start to bottle
- about 10 days
Shopping list
Amounts scale with the batch size above. The method text uses the 2 L amounts.
Botanicals to order online
| Got it | Botanical | Per batch | Product |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elderflowers, driedSambucus nigra | 25 g | Elanen Naturals organic dried elderflowers, whole, 4 oz amazon.com/dp/B0BGMNRGZC |
Grocery store
Liquor store
Equipment
Know your botanicals
Elderflowers, dried Sambucus nigra
Polish: kwiat bzu czarnego · 25 g
In the bag: whole dried flower clusters, creamy yellow, with a honeyed, muscat-like smell
Brings: the whole character of the drink, floral, honeyed and a little like pear
Check: Sambucus nigra flowers, whole rather than powdered; pick out any bits of stem
Method
Elderflower gives up its perfume fast and then starts turning grassy and bitter, so the whole steep takes only two or three days. After that it is strained, sweetened just enough to round it out, and left to settle for a week.
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Day 0
Start the flower jar
Put the elderflowers and the zest of 2 lemons, yellow skin only, in the jar and cover them with the vodka. Seal it, keep it out of the sun, and give it a gentle shake a couple of times a day. In June, use 20 fresh flower heads instead, snipped off their green stems.
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Day 1
Taste early
Taste after 24 hours. The floral, honeyed note should already be clear. From here, taste twice a day, because it turns grassy quickly.
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Days 2–3
Strain and press
As soon as the flavor is full but before any bitterness appears, pour it through a sieve, press the flowers in cheesecloth, since they soak up a lot, and filter it through coffee filters.
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Day 3
Make a light syrup
Warm the sugar and water just until the sugar dissolves, and let it cool completely.
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Day 3
Sweeten lightly
Add the syrup a little at a time. This is a flavored vodka rather than a liqueur, so stop when it tastes rounded rather than sweet.
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Then 1 week
Bottle and rest
Bottle it and let it rest for a week somewhere dark. The color settles to a pale gold. It keeps its perfume best within a year.
Keep it safe
- Use only the flowers. Elder stems, leaves and unripe berries contain compounds that can cause nausea, so snip fresh flowers off the green stems and pick stem bits out of dried ones.
- If you pick your own, be certain the plant is elder. Poison hemlock and water hemlock also have flat white flower clusters and are deadly. When in doubt, buy dried flowers.
- Pick away from roads and sprayed fields, and don't wash fresh flowers; shake off insects instead, because washing rinses away the pollen that carries the aroma.
Tuning the next batch
- Grassy or bitter: strain after 24 hours next time, and remove more stem.
- Too faint: use 35 g of flowers rather than steeping longer.
- Want a liqueur: double the syrup; it ends near 33% and properly sweet.
- Color turning brown: normal with elderflower. Storing it dark slows it down.
To serve
Serve it ice-cold and neat, or long with tonic, a slice of cucumber and a strip of lemon peel. It also makes a quick spritz with sparkling wine and soda water.
