How to make homemade sea buckthorn liqueur – 4 recipes

There is a saying: “sea buckthorn will take away any famously.” Say, this berry has more than enough healing properties. This also fully applies to sea buckthorn liqueur – it retains enough active substances to treat and prevent a host of diseases – from banal colds to anemia, stomach cramps, gout and rheumatism. Perhaps only this drink does not help with alcoholism – it is painfully delicious!

We already have an article about sea buckthorn tinctures – take a look, there are interesting recipes. But still, this berry – oily, rich, self-sufficient – is better suited for making liqueurs. Sea buckthorn liqueur almost does not need additional ingredients, expensive elite alcohol, making such a drink at home is no more difficult than tincture or liquor, and the result is guaranteed to be tasty, beautiful and fragrant. Today we will consider several options for such liqueurs, and at the same time we will find out the recipe for sea buckthorn oil – a by-product, but extremely useful product!

Homemade sea buckthorn liqueur on alcohol

Everything is quite simple – you only need sea buckthorn berries (either collected after the first frost, or, a little worse, freshly frozen). Sugar can be replaced with honey, and any – the aroma of sea buckthorn is bright enough that even buckwheat honey does not interrupt it.

How to cook:

The drink is prepared in two stages. First, we sort, wash and dry the berries, put them in a jar and fill them with alcohol to the top – so that there is almost no free space left in the container. We rearrange the jar in a dark warm place for 1.5-2 months, periodically shake the contents. After the set time, we filter the tincture, pour it into another vessel and put it in the refrigerator, and pour the alcoholized berries with sugar or pour honey. Now it is better to move the jar to the sun to improve maceration. Will be ready in 3-4 days.

During settling in alcohol infusion, an oil layer should form on top. If you collect it, for example, with a syringe, you will get valuable sea buckthorn oil, so to speak Extra Virgin. We will talk about it in more detail at the end of the article. The oil can be left in the drink – but then, before each use, the liquor will have to be shaken, like juice with pulp.

The last step is mixing the infusion with the syrup. My advice is to do it gradually, add half of the syrup first, then gradually introduce the rest and try. When there is enough sweetness, the liquor must be filtered again, if necessary, diluted with clean water, corked and moved to a cool place. It will be ready in 2-3 months, and it is recommended to drink this drink for a maximum of a year, otherwise it will lose its taste and medicinal properties. In general, you have to push yourself.

A simple recipe for sea buckthorn vodka liqueur

Simple, fast and stress-free. The amount of sugar can be reduced, and if necessary, sweeten the liqueur before bottling.

Additionally, you can add half an anise star, a couple of cloves, a pinch of nutmeg to the drink.

Preparation:

Sort the berries, wash, dry. Pour into a jar in layers, mixed with sugar. Pour vodka to the top, insist in a dark, warm place for about 2 months. Next, the tincture must be carefully filtered (you can first collect the oil, as in the previous recipe) – through several layers of gauze, then through a cotton wool or paper filter. If not sweet – add sugar or honey, if strong – dilute a little with water. We rearrange the liqueur in a cool place for another two months. After that, we filter again and use it with pleasure!

Sea buckthorn and quince liqueur

A slightly more complex recipe, which uses heat treatment of raw materials – we will slightly boil the fruits in sugar syrup, which will destroy pectins, soften sea buckthorn and quince, and therefore improve and speed up maceration.

Quince goes well with sea buckthorn and generally shows itself well in the preparation of any alcohol. We have a separate article about odorous quince tinctures.

How to do it:

Peel and cut the quince into pieces, sort out the sea buckthorn, wash and dry everything. Boil water in a saucepan, dissolve sugar in it. Cook, stirring, until foam stops forming. Add fruit, boil again and keep everything on low heat for 10-15 minutes. Cool under the lid, pour into a suitable jar, add alcohol and move to a dark warm place.

Thanks to the preliminary heat treatment, such sea buckthorn liqueur does not need to be infused for as long as the previous ones – ten days will be enough. But filtering it will be a little more difficult – it is better to stock up on more gauze. The purified drink should be tasted, diluted with clean water and / or sweetened if necessary. We recommend aging in a cool place for at least two months before tasting.

Pouring of sea buckthorn juice

An interesting recipe that will allow us to additionally produce more sea buckthorn oil. For pouring, only juice is needed, and we will use the squeezes in the future.

Preparation:

The easiest recipe for today, the most difficult thing here is to get the juice. A juicer, a meat grinder or a blender + cheesecloth will help us with this, in general – any improvised way. Please note that sea buckthorn is a rather dry berry; in order to extract 1.5 liters of juice, you will need at least 3 kg of berries. After the juice is squeezed out, put it in the refrigerator for two days. We remove the oil formed on top and proceed to the next step.

Now everything is elementary – mix juice, sugar and vodka until mutually dissolved, pour into a jar and rearrange in a dark warm place. We insist from 10 days, after that – carefully filter and bottle. Then everything is as usual – an exposure of two months and a long-awaited tasting!

What to do with sea buckthorn oil and how to get it?

Sea buckthorn oil contains vitamins A, P, C, E, flavonoids that slow down cell oxidation and neutralize free radicals, tocopherols, sterols, phospholipids, omega-9 monounsaturated fatty acids, including the most useful oleic and linoleic. In short, a complete bouquet!

Sea buckthorn oil is an amazingly useful thing! It, for example, stimulates recovery processes in liver proteins after alcohol intoxication. Obvious profit: in the evening I drank some liqueurs, in the morning I polished it with oil from the same sea buckthorn and again on a horse!

Sea buckthorn oil can be obtained in three ways:

• Collect with a syringe or by decanting from the surface of the juice – even freshly squeezed, even already alcoholized, anyway, alcohol does not dissolve in fats. This is the purest product, much better than pharmacy counterparts, which are diluted with extraneous fats for nothing. It is recommended to apply inside.
• Take the cake obtained during the extraction of juice, dry it in the sun, and then dry it completely over low heat in an ajar oven. When the color of the cake turns dark brown, grind it in a coffee grinder and pour any refined oil in a ratio of 1:3 by volume. Close tightly and leave in a dark place for 2-3 weeks, shake daily. After that – strain. Apply externally.
• Again, take the cake, heat it in a saucepan in a water bath and pour refined oil heated to 40-50⁰ so that its level is 1 cm higher than the level of the cake. Pour into a jar, close tightly, rearrange in a dark place. The maceration period is 7-10 days, after which the oil is filtered and applied externally.

The oil has a pronounced anti-inflammatory and antibacterial effect, it is involved in the regulation of lipid metabolism (what is needed with an excess of fatty foods), counteracts atherosclerosis. They treat wounds, burns, bedsores and skin diseases, inflammation of the teeth and gums, sinusitis and tonsillitis, even stomach and intestinal ulcers! When making sea buckthorn liqueur at home, it makes sense to get confused and also cook some oil. Only it should be stored for no more than six months – then the healing properties gradually fade away.