Blackberry Liqueur & Blackberry Shrub
The hedgerows are starting to groan with blackberries. Here's our recipes for blackberry liqueur and blackberry shrub. Thank us later when you are sipping on super tasty Bramble Cocktails and Nottails - or handing your besties a beautiful gift of something you made yourself...
Blackberry Liqueur or Shrub
- Fill a large jar with blackberries, top up with gin or vodka - or for shrub apple cider or white wine vinegar. If you've filled a 1litre jar with blackberries you are going to need c 500ml gin/vodka/vinegar, 2L jar of blackberries = 1L liquid
- Add sugar
- We add 10% by weight of the amount of gin/ vodka/vinegar that goes in - most other recipes and drinks manufacturers add a lot more (up to 50%). This gives it a more syrupy mouthfeel, gives you a bigger yield and makes it sweeter. If you like it that way crack on and add more sugar but you can also add more sugar later on so we'd suggest you do that and wait to taste it at 10% first.
- You can do this roughly by eyeballing the amount of liquid that went in - 500ml = 50g, 1L = 100g. Or more precisely by putting the jar on electronic scales before you add the liquid, then adding the liquid to get a weight.
- Add any botanicals you fancy - bay leaves go well with blackberries - or keep it simple.
- Close lid and make sure it's sealed. Give it a shake. Put it somewhere out of the way and give it a shake every few days. Leave as long as you can bear it - at least two months - then open up and try it. If you are happy with the flavour strain the liquid off the fruit. Discard the fruit - some boozy fruit can be re-purposed but blackberries aren't one of them sadly. Add more sugar if you want to - it will dissolve pretty quickly if you give it a shake. Bottle and start enjoying some tasty cocktails.
- Katy Newton