Melon tinctures on moonshine, vodka or alcohol – 5 recipes

Beginning of autumn. The air is filled with the omnipresent spirit of melons sold at every corner by guests from the sunny republics. I don’t know about anyone else, but since childhood, September has been associated with this smell for me. Why not try to catch the aroma of the romantic season, concentrate it and put it in a bottle – so to speak, on a rainy February day? How to do it? Yes, just prepare a melon tincture!

Melon is a wonderful fruit used in many homemade alcohol recipes. It shows itself well in the preparation of wine and moonshine, but it harmonizes best with strong alcohol. We already have an article about melon liqueurs – rich and aromatic. Today we will talk about less sweet, but more refined drinks – melon tinctures on moonshine, alcohol, vodka, dark rum. In all recipes, the taste and smell of melon is set off by other ingredients: spices and spices, citrus fruits, coconut sugar, even mint and ginger – for the most sophisticated gourmets. In general, about everything in order.

A simple tincture of vodka from melon with mint

A fairly light and unobtrusive drink, with a bright melon aroma and an unexpected, but pleasant, “cooling” aftertaste. It’s easy to make, it doesn’t take long, the ingredients are available. If desired, mint can be replaced with fresh tarragon or thyme.

Technology:

Preparing a drink is as easy as shelling pears – we cut the melon pulp without a core and peel (or make balls with a special spoon for ice cream, then the tincture will also be beautiful!), put it in a jar, not really tamping, add mint leaves and pour vodka to the eyeballs. The term of infusion is only 4 days in the refrigerator. After that, drain the liquid, filter and sweeten to taste – sugary melon tincture should not be, 1-2 tablespoons of sugar is enough. Before use, it is advisable to keep in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks, if necessary – re-filter. Ready!

Vodka on melon with cardamom

Cardamom generally goes well with alcohol, especially sweet, but you need to be careful with it – put exactly as much as you need according to the recipe. Melon-cardamom tincture comes out spicy, not very strong, with an interesting aftertaste. The spices in this recipe do not interrupt the delicate flavor of the melon, but emphasize and set it off. If desired, you can add other favorite spices – just a little bit.

How to do it:

The drink is prepared in two stages – first the tincture, then the syrup on alcoholized fruits. We cut the melon into cubes, as in the previous recipe, and pour it with alcohol. We insist 2 weeks in a dark place, shaking occasionally. After that, we drain the infusion, add spices to it and send it back to the pantry for another 3-4 days. We cover the rest of the melon with sugar and rearrange it in a warm sunny place until all the sugar has dissolved – this usually happens after a couple of days. Sugar will draw out the remains of alcohol, aroma and taste from the pulp.

RuNet is full of information that melon and alcohol are incompatible – they say, the fruit contains some mysterious essential oils that become poisonous when in contact with strong alcohol. I have not found any substantiated evidence for this. The authors of the respected resource “Hangover.RF” consider this opinion a myth. And I agree with them – because more than once I produced and consumed vodka and moonshine infused with melon. And nothing – alive and even quite well-fed.

We filter the resulting tincture through cheesecloth and sweeten it with syrup to taste. You don’t need to pour all the syrup at once, otherwise the drink will turn out cloying. Leftovers, if anything, are useful, for example, for baking or homemade cocktails. When the sweetness suits you, we rearrange the jar of tincture in a cool place for another week. After that, carefully filter and bottle. You can drink right away, but it’s better to keep the drink for at least a month – during this time, the aromas of melon and spices will “get along” and round out, the characteristic taste of sugar will disappear, and the taste will become more whole and refined.

Melon tincture on moonshine with ginger

An unexpected combination of sweet and spicy – exotic and original! By the same principle, for example, watermelon tincture with jalapeno is made – a wonderful thing! As an alcohol base, it is better to choose grain moonshine with a strength of 50-60%, but diluted alcohol can also be used. At the exit, we should get a spicy-spicy “male” drink – just right for a flask!

Technology:

Cooking is easy! We clean and cut the melon in the same way as in previous recipes, add ginger and a little – no more than a teaspoon – sugar, pour everything with moonshine and insist in a dark place for a week. After that, we filter. It is advisable to clean the liquid as thoroughly as possible in order to get rid of all the ginger residues, otherwise, over time, the drink will become overly spicy – you can use cotton wool or a coffee filter for this. If the tincture turned out to be too strong for your taste, you should dilute it with clean, unboiled water. You can sweeten a little more if you like. Before tasting, it is better to keep the drink in a cool place for a couple of weeks.

Sweet tincture of melon on alcohol with rum

An interesting recipe for a sweet aromatic tincture, similar in characteristics to liquor. For preparation, you need pure 96% alcohol and rich dark rum.

How to cook:

1. We clean the melon, cut the pulp into cubes. Boil half a liter of water, dissolve sugar in it, add lemon juice, cinnamon and melon pieces. Bring to a boil, turn off the heat and cover with a lid. Let the liquid cool and infuse for 10-12 hours.
2. Now the infusion must be drained through several layers of gauze. Melon can not be thrown away, but used for baking. We mix the broth with alcohol and rum, tightly close the lid and send it to a dark place for infusion.
3. Within a couple of weeks, a thick precipitate forms in the tincture. The author recommends not filtering the drink, as this will lose its aroma. It is better to simply decant the liquid – pour it into another container using a straw, leaving the sediment at the bottom.

Before use, homemade melon tincture should be kept in a cool place for at least 3 months.

Tincture on melon peels

Have you eaten the delicious sweet pulp of a melon, but is it a pity to throw away the peels? Well, this recipe is for you!

From personal experience, I will say that the tincture of fresh melon peels is not good. To prepare a delicious drink, the peels must, firstly, be freed from the hard outer peel, and secondly, dried in a vegetable dryer or in an ajar oven (at a temperature of 50-60⁰ for at least 2 hours, then additionally dry for a day in the sun) . According to the same recipe, you can prepare a tincture on a purchased dried melon – such a drink turns out to be even more aromatic than on fresh pulp.

The recipe for this melon tincture on moonshine is simple to disgrace – 100 grams of dried melon peels per liter of alcohol 40%, sugar to taste. The infusion period is 2-3 weeks, then filtration and rest. The drink can be diversified by adding any additives from past recipes – spices, mint, citrus fruits. Vanilla pods fit very well with it – a piece of 1-2 cm for such a volume will be quite enough. In general, room for imagination – more than enough!