Homemade lemon vodka is the easiest drink to make, an impeccable cocktail ingredient, and an affordable alternative to commercial citrons, which are obscenely expensive. In this material, you will learn about all the available methods for making lemon vodka tincture, several interesting flavor combinations, as well as simple and not so cocktails based on it. It will be lemon!
Unlike the Italian Limoncello liqueur, whose technology is reduced to the maximum concentration of lemon flavor, homemade lemon vodkas are based on a delicate balance of fresh citrus fruity character. It is this balance, which is famous for the notorious vodka Absolut Citron with a predominant aroma of lemon (although it clearly shows lime, and orange, and even somewhere grapefruit), played a fundamental role in the creation of Cosmopolitan.
But just look at this monstrous citron price tag! It hasn’t moved much in relation to lesser-known analogues such as Smirnoff Citrus, Stolichnaya Citron, Laplandia Lemon Shot, Skyy Citrus and Gray Goose Le Citron. At the same time, most manufacturers boast of the naturalness of their product. But what could be more natural than a home-made drink made with your own hands, which will include only vodka and lemons?
In addition, such a tincture will be the easiest way to ennoble a not very successful treasury or moonshine. But it’s really difficult to cook a delicious dish without tasty products!
Recipe for tincture of lemons on vodka
A universal recipe for lemon vodka with variations in flavors and cooking technologies.
Prepare 20 minutes
Cooking 3 days
Total 3 days 20 minutes
Portions 1 л
Ingredients
Lemon vodka classic:
- 1-3 pcs. fragrant lemons
- 1 л quality vodka
Flavorings (optional, optional):
- ½ big cucumber
- 3-4 sprigs of mint
- 2-3 medium stem lemongrass
- 3 cm fresh ginger root
- 1-4 sprigs of thyme, basil or rosemary
- 3-5 h. l. powdered sugar, vanilla sugar or honey
Instructions
Scald lemons with boiling water and rub with a hard towel to remove wax and other preservatives.
With a vegetable knife or with a fine grater, remove the zest from the prepared lemons, trying not to grab the white subskin, the albedo, which gives bitterness.
Place the zest in a jar of a suitable volume, add flavorings if desired and pour vodka over. Close the jar tightly and leave it in a dark, cool place for at least 3-4 days, but it makes no sense to insist more than 2 weeks. Periodically, the contents of the jar can be mixed by shaking.
After 3 days (or earlier, if expressive flavors are used), start tasting the drink and when the taste saturation seems optimal, strain the infusion through a fine sieve and pour into clean bottles.
Store lemon vodka in a hermetically sealed container in a dark, cool place. Use within 1 year!
Field notes
Preparation of flavorings. Wash the cucumber and cut into rings, preliminarily “revive” the mint by patting between the palms, peel the lemongrass stalks from the outer hard leaves and dried tips, and then cut into pieces 2-3 cm long. Peel the ginger root and cut into small strips. Rinse greens under running water and let dry.
Be careful when combining the ingredients so as not to lose the refreshing essence of the lemon. In addition to the sweetener, which softens the drink and enhances the tastes, for the first experiments it is better to limit yourself to only one additive. A combination of cucumber and mint gives a good balance – this vodka does not need any addition at all and savors well on ice.
Alternative ways to make lemon vodkas:
Lemon hangman. Pour 1-2 liters of vodka into a three-liter jar, over which, using a needle and thread or gauze, hang 1-2 lemons. It is important that the lemons do not touch the alcohol. Close the jar tightly and leave in a dark, cool place for 3-4 days. We do not recommend longer – it can be bitter. After the allotted time, remove the lemon, and pour the fragrant tincture into clean bottles.
Vodka made in this way will be slightly different from traditional zest infusion, as the alcohol vapor will only extract certain chemical compounds (certain terpenes, tricarboxylic acids, essential oils, etc.) that are responsible for the taste.
To make it clearer, the tincture with orange prepared by me in this way (in general, you can hang any citrus fruits) looked more like Fanta. For expressive cocktails, that’s it. At the same time, the vodka itself becomes much softer, which suggests using diluted alcohol instead to soften it.
whole lemons. Lemons cut into rings or large slices, and then pour vodka. You can try after 24 hours and strain when the taste seems optimal. This method is good because in addition to the essential oils of the zest, all parts of the fruit are extracted, including sour juice and bitter albedo components. In fact, it achieves an impeccable taste balance of properly made lemonade. But we do not recommend storing such vodka for longer than months – the taste, due to the presence of sour juice in the drink, will degrade very quickly.
How to drink lemon vodka
Many people may like the drink in its pure form, with or without ice, but its main purpose is cocktails. The world of mixing citrus vodkas with other drinks is simply limitless. Start with simple tincture and tonic combinations (you can make your own), polish the perfect Cosmopolitan or even Bloody Mary, and then slowly move on to cocktails where lemon vodka pairs well with other homemade crafts. For example, with black pepper vodka in our Pepper Lemonade:
Cocktail “Pepper Lemonade” / Black Pepper Lemonade
- 30 ml black pepper vodka*
- 30 ml lemon vodka
- 60 ml simple syrup
- 30 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 120 ml of carbonated water
- lemon slice for garnish
In a highball filled with ice, add the black pepper vodka, lemon vodka, simple syrup, lemon juice and soda in sequence. Stir with a bar spoon and garnish with a lemon wedge.
* Black pepper vodka
We have already shared this recipe on our channel in Yandex.Zen. To perpetuate the recipe, we publish it here:
- 750 ml of high-quality vodka (you can have good moonshine)
- 50 g coarsely crushed black peppercorns in a mortar
How to cook:
Mix pepper and vodka in a jar of a suitable volume, close the jar tightly and mix the contents thoroughly by shaking. Leave the jar in a dark, cool place for 2-4 hours, until the vodka acquires a distinct taste and aroma of freshly ground black pepper (start tasting after 2 hours of maceration). Strain through a fine sieve, if desired, filter through a cotton or coffee filter and pour into a clean bottle. Store in a cool dark cabinet.
A little floral component of our tincture also does not hurt. Homemade calendula-based liquor will be just right.
Sunshine Cosmo Cocktail
- 60 ml Pure Gold liqueur
- 30 ml lemon vodka
- 45 ml of freshly squeezed orange juice
- orange peel twist
Shake liqueur, vodka and juice in a shaker with ice, wait 1 minute, shake again and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a twist of orange peel.
And a little more citrus and tropical fruits will brighten up the winter blues.
Cocktail “Insolent blonde” / Brassy Blond
- 60 ml lemon vodka
- 60 ml of pineapple juice
- 7,5 ml of Cointreau liqueur
Shake all ingredients in a shaker with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
The apogee of our lemon story will be a classic. The Lemon Drop cocktail was coined in the 1970s in San Francisco by Vietnamese veteran Norman Jay Hobday, who opened the Henry Africa bar in 1969. His establishment is often referred to as the country’s first “fern bar” – a slang term for upscale bars and taverns for single ladies, usually decorated with ferns or other vegetation, as well as decorated with fake Tiffany lamps.
The cocktail quickly gained popularity and dominated the menu of most tropical bars for more than two decades. It is sometimes erroneously called the Lemon Drop Martini, but the drink’s closest relative is not the Martini, but the New Orleans Crusta cocktail. They are united, first of all, by the obligatory sugar rim around the edge of the glass, the crust, which must be done a couple of minutes before mixing the perfect Lemon Drop.
Lemon Drop Cocktail / Lemon Drop
- 60 ml lemon vodka
- 15 ml liqueur «Triple Sec»
- 30 ml simple syrup
- 30 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
On the rim of a large cocktail glass or a coupe glass, make sugar crust. Shake all ingredients in a shaker with ice and strain into a prepared glass.
Good luck!