Dragon fruit liqueur
A light 21% fruit liqueur. Dragon fruit tastes gentle, somewhere between kiwi and pear, so this version uses red-fleshed pitaya for its vivid magenta color and fresh flavor, with lime for lift. The passion fruit is an optional addition for a more exotic aroma. Treat the amounts as a starting point and tune them by taste.
- Vodka in
- 2 L
- Liqueur out
- about 3.6 L
- Strength
- roughly 21–23% ABV
- Start to bottle
- about 9 days
Shopping list
Amounts scale with the batch size above. The method text uses the 2 L amounts.
Grocery store
Liquor store
Equipment
The ingredients
Method
Most of the fruit steeps in vodka for about a week to pull out its color. The rest is juiced fresh on blend day, which brings back the bright, fresh taste that long steeping loses. Keep everything out of the light, because the magenta color fades in the sun.
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Day 0
Start the dragon fruit jar
Peel 1 kg of the dragon fruit and cut it into 2 cm cubes. Cover it with 1.5 L of the vodka in the big jar, seal it, keep it somewhere dark, and swirl it gently every day or two. Keep the remaining 500 g of fruit in the refrigerator, or the freezer if blend day is more than three days off.
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Day 0
Start the lime jar
Zest 2 limes into the other 500 ml of vodka, green skin only. If you're using passion fruit, scoop in the pulp and seeds of all three. Seal it and keep it dark, shaking once a day.
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Day 3
Strain the lime jar
Strain it through a coffee filter and keep it sealed. Lime zest turns bitter if it steeps much longer than three days.
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Days 5–7
Strain the dragon fruit and let it settle
Pour the extract through a sieve, then press the fruit gently in cheesecloth. Chill the extract for 2 days so the pulp settles, then pour the clear magenta liquid off the sediment and filter it through coffee filters.
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Blend day
Make the syrup and fresh juice
Warm the sugar and water just until the sugar dissolves, and let it cool completely. Pulse the remaining 500 g of dragon fruit in the blender only briefly, so the seeds stay whole, then strain the juice through cheesecloth. You should get about 350 ml.
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Blend day
Blend to taste
Combine the dragon fruit extract with the fresh juice and half the syrup. Add the lime extract and the rest of the syrup a little at a time, then the juice of 2 limes, tasting as you go. Filter it once more through coffee filters.
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Then 1 week
Bottle and rest
Bottle it and let it rest for a week somewhere cool and dark. Drink it within three to four months, while the color is at its brightest.
Keep it safe
- Red dragon fruit can turn urine or stool pink or red for a day or so. It's harmless, but it can be alarming if you don't expect it.
- Use firm, unbruised fruit and cut away any brown or mushy parts.
- Red pitaya juice stains wood, stone and clothing. Work on a board you don't mind coloring, and wear an apron.
Tuning the next batch
- Tastes faint: add the passion fruit, or replace some of the syrup water with more fresh dragon fruit juice.
- Color fading: store it colder and darker. A little more lime juice also helps the color hold.
- Too sweet: add the syrup more slowly; this style should be sweet but fresh.
- Too cloudy: chill it longer before pouring off, or filter through two coffee filters.
To serve
Serve it well chilled or over ice. For a long drink, top 50 ml with 100 ml of tonic or lemonade and add a lime wheel and a few cubes of dragon fruit.
