Spotykach is a beautiful name for currant liqueur. My grandmother said that the name of the drink was due to its “insidious” properties – it is drunk well, which is why it is easy to overdo it with it.
And in the end, you will go home from the guests, stumbling at every step. Well, I inherited this recipe from her.
Such a message came to me from my subscriber Anastasia V. I love such recipes “with history”, so I want to share it with you. Happy reading!
Why did I decide to make my own alcohol?
Personally, I decided to cook spotykach only because of the beautiful name. Currant, the main ingredient, does not appear at my house so often to use it for liqueurs.
Sometimes the mother-in-law brings from the dacha or girlfriends share. But once everyone brought this berry to me at once, and then I wanted to experiment and did not regret it.
The advantage of spotykach is that it cooks very quickly. In just a day, you can prepare a rather aromatic drink, which, after cooling, will be ready to drink. So, if you want to impress your friends with homemade alcohol urgently, Spotykach is the perfect option.
Attention! Personally, I still prefer to let the liqueur brew for at least a couple of days. Over time, it becomes more uniform and softer.
Ingredients
There are few ingredients, but the original recipe, which I took as a basis, had a lot of currants. Therefore, instead of reducing the total number of ingredients, I experimented with the number of berries.
So I can recommend this option, it is not inferior in taste to my grandmother’s, and less currants are required:
- Xnum l vodka;
- 0,5 kg of blackcurrant;
- 0,5 kg of sugar;
- 2 a glass of water.
I froze the berries first. When they thaw, the juice stands out much better. But you can also use freshly harvested currants. So, the choice is yours. The main thing is that the berries are without signs of rot.
Attention! Spotykach can be prepared from any berries or fruits. In fact, it combines all fruit and berry liqueurs. But the classic is the currant version.
Process
Syrup is prepared separately for spotykach, and then mixed with vodka. Another advantage of the drink is that it does not need to be filtered. That is, the preparation of tincture does not take much time.
To prepare the syrup, you need to make a puree from the berries.
The currant must be thoroughly crushed so that not a single whole berry remains. From this mixture, then you will need to squeeze the juice.
From juice, water and sugar you need to boil the syrup. This must be done on low heat. If the foam will form very intensively, it must be removed. But I often ignored this rule, nothing has changed. The syrup is cooked until the sugar is completely dissolved and the liquid boils.
Reference! It is not necessary to wait until the syrup becomes very thick.
Vodka is poured into the finished syrup, brought to a boil over low heat again and immediately removed from the stove. Then you just need to cool the mixture and bottle it.
What should happen
I bottled still warm alcohol, so usually part of the berry skins in the form of a “cork” blocks the neck. But the filling itself is not so thick.
The color is deep burgundy, almost black. Even if you use a little less berries than indicated in the ingredients, you will still get a very dark drink.
But in glasses, the drink looks completely different – a noble shade of red appears. And already the number of berries used significantly affects how the drink will look in piles. The more of them, the more intense the color. But it doesn’t affect the taste.
Excessive alcohol consumption is harmful to your health. Take care of yourself!
Who else was cooking spotykach here? Maybe you have some advice? For example, I sometimes add ground cinnamon or star anise to the syrup for smell. And you?