Remember that I made the pumpkin spiced liquor? Well, after that recipe, Joost and I invented some new ones, simply by tossing coffee beans, spices, candy and all kinds of things into gin, and see what would come out of it. And now, in the light of celebrating our recent bond, we bravely volunteered and tasted a whole bunch of different recipes. Below the recipes and their results!
General directions for liquor making:
1) Put all the ingredients in a sterilized jar or bottle with a lid on it.
2) Store in a cool, dark place for 4 weeks (a week for the candy-versions) and shake the bottles every day.
3) Filter the liquor through a coffee filter and a funnel in a new sterilized bottle to store the liquor in.
4) Don't try this when you are underaged. And be carefull when experimenting with preservative foods like this.
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| the aftermath of keeping you informed on DIY liquor |
Recipe 1: Coffee Liquor (kahlua)
Ingredients:
- 300 ml Dutch Gin, 35%vol (or something similar, such as Vodka)
- 150 g brown sugar
- 50 g coffee beans
- a vanilla stick
Verdict:
We liked the taste! it is very like the coffee liquor you buy in a store, but then with a much stronger taste. Like you have given an Italian the job to make coffee-liquor. If you want to soften the taste you could try adding some coffeemilk. Or just dip a cookie in it :) Joost: "it kinda burns my nostrils, but in a good way" Marije: "This makes me both sleepy and very active at the same time, I haven't felt that since the vodka-redbulls in high school"
Recipe 2: Werther's unoriginal Liquor
Ingredients:
- 300 ml Dutch Gin, 35%vol (or something similar, such as Vodka)
- 150 g Werther's original candy.
Verdict:
The taste of this stuff is heavenly. It is going to make you cry and lay in a corner hugging the bottle. You'll never want to part from it any more. Unfortunately the drink itself doesn't look very heavenly. Werther's contain cream, which creates a creamy layer on top of your drink. While this is drinkable, it tastes a bit like butter. If you could separate the two layers, you'll end up with the sweetest and nicest liquor you've ever had.
Recipe 3: Minty eucalyptus liquor
Ingredients:
- 300 ml Dutch Gin, 35%vol (or something similar, such as Vodka)
- 150 g eucalyptus/menthol candy ( the clear ones you buy when you have a soar throat, like Ricola, or Anta Flu)
Verdict:
Marije: "well, that's the end of my cough". The drink is quite nice, but drinking a lot of it is like eating a bag full of throat-pastilles. But we see great cocktail-potential in this drink. Joost" this would taste great with a slice of lemon in it." Marije: "or a branch of fresh mint and some berries?" We'll safe this one for summer!
Recipe 4: Coffee/coconut liquor
Ingredients:
- 300 ml Dutch Gin, 35%vol (or something similar, such as Vodka)
- 150 g brown sugar
- 50 g coffee beans
- 30 g grated coconut
- a vanilla stick
Verdict:
Since the normal coffee liquor was a little strong for me, I liked this one better. The coconut makes it a litter softer, and a little less like you want to drink it at 11 o'clock in the morning. In a coffeemug behing your desk. No, this one is 5 o'clock proof!
Recipe 5: dropshots
Ingredients:
- 300 ml Dutch Gin, 35%vol (or something similar, such as Vodka)
- Hard liquorice candy (I have no idea if they sell this in outside the Netherlands, but you could try it with liquorice sticks as well!)
- a vanilla stick
Verdict:
Dropshots make me nostalgic. Dropshots were the kind of shots you got for free when one of your friends was dating the bartender. Dropshots make long nights and bad hangovers. At least, that was the case when I was a student, now none of my friends dates a bartender and I never drink dropshots. But now I tasted it again, I wasn't so sure. This recipe tastes quite a lot like the real deal, but I wondered: why would anyone want to drink liquid liquorice? It's weird. But maybe I am just out of drinking shape ;)
Recipe 6: lemon liquor
Ingredients:
- 300 ml Dutch Gin, 35%vol (or something similar, such as Vodka)
- 150 g lemon candy ( like Napoleon's)
Verdict:
Joost: "Hmm, nice!!" Marije: " Uhhh, this tastes exactly like the candy we used" All those candy-experiments that we tried turned out to work really well: candy is very good in tranferring its taste to liquor. And that is also the case with this recipe. It tastes just like Napoleon-sour balls. Little side note: it has the color of pee. Just in case you would like to scare your friends :)
Recipe 6: Amaretto chai
Ingredients:
- 300 ml ammaretto
- two spoons of Indian chai tea
Verdict:
It tastes like amaretto, but then better, spicier. Usually amaretto reminds me too much of deserts and momsy- birthday parties. But the twist of chai-tea makes it much more balanced.
The less successful recipes
marshmallow-liquor.
As you might have imaged, it became a mess. The marshmallows just became weird and puffy and floated around in the jar like some sort of dead animals. It wasn't nice, and I didn't dare to open the jar.
"hopjes" liquor
A 'hopje' is a Dutch sweet that tastes a bit like coffee and caramel. Unfortunately, it also contains a lot of fat. Which formed weird, floating islands in the liquor that looked a lot like mould, even after filtering it twice. The taste was really good though.
green tea liquor.
Ever tried tea where you left the tea-bad in much too long? Well, make that time 4 weeks and you might imagine how strong and bitter this liquor tasted. I might want to try it again by leaving the tea in a little shorter, because I still like the idea!
"pepper" liquor.
in one of our liquors, we tossed a fresh, red pepper. We thought it might result in a nice and spicy liquor. A bit like fireball-candy (we also added cinnamon and sugar) But it tasted really weird. Like someone had put tabasco in something that once was a quite nice drink. I still like the idea, but using fresh pepper is probably not the way to go. Maybe we try it with dried ones next time.
I am curious
A very late 'Congratulations' on your partnership! =)
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