'Wild' Strawberries Schnapps in the Making

We have a lot of 'wild' strawberries in the garden, using them as ground cover in some of the perennial beds, and the main rose bed, and the small sweet berries are ready NOW - so I wanted to repeat the success with my first strawberry schnapps form 2014/2015.

I started picking berries yesterday, but I was interrupted by rain (a very rare occurrence this summer), so I picked a bit more today.

The vodka has already taken a lot of colour from the berries, and I expect the sweetness to bleed out into the liquor, too!

Lemon-Elderflower Aquavit

I seem to have completely forgotten that I had put the excess lemon slices from the elderflower juice mash in jars with vodka.

I sort of expected the stuff to turn rather bitter/sour, and to have to sweeten it, but it has turned out to be one of the best schnappses I have made, yet.

It is not going to be the last time I use this 'recipe', that's for sure!

Got Myself a Nice Sideboard

Today, we went to the permanent flea market in Kirkeby, and I found this sideboard, perfect for the purpose I needed it for.

For a long time, I have been wanting a place in the basement to put my schnapps away, and as it should be kept in the dark both while extracting and maturing, it needed to be something with doors.

I got the thing for DKK 250,- (about £30), and I am very happy with it!

As seen below, I only use two of the three sections - the last one is now used for storing homemade marmelades/jams and pickles like pickled beets, cornichons, and pickled gherkins-

This has freed up a lot of shelf space in the bar cabinet, the kitchen, and the basement, and I think my wife is rather chuffed by the arrangement, too!

Add to that, that I now have a much better overview over my WIP schnapps, as well as the bottles with the finished product, and this is an all over win-win!

Strawberry Liqueur

The title says it all.

I had a jar with strawberries in vodka sitting in the cabinet since late summer, and I deemed it ripe for filtering and sweetening today.

It is good, though not exquisite - I think that if the berries had been sweeter, the overall result would have been better.

I shall put the bottle in the cabinet for a while to let the liqueur mature a bit.

Mint and Licorice/Anise Aquavit/Schnapps

I am composing a 'bitter' aquavit using mint and licorice root/anise.

The golden liquid to the right is a sample of the mint extract (which tastes fantastic in itself).

Below is the licorice/anise extract filtering (and it tastes even better in itself than the mint).

I am going to mix some of the licorice/anise into the mint, and then maybe add some brown sugar, if the sweetness of the licorice/anise is not enough.

I expect to have a finished product worthy for a king's breakfast table!

I have another large jar of mint extracting in the basement, which is going to become a mint sweet liqueur. More about that on a later occation!