Plum liqueur on vodka, cognac, gin and rum

The best liqueurs are made from late plums, ripe and fragrant. The drink turns out to be very spicy and fragrant, goes well with coffee and various desserts, ice cream. For your liquor, you can use any cultivars, such as Hungarian, Renklod, or Mirabelle.

Plum is best revealed in elite alcohol, in particular gin and rum, but the first recipe, of course, will be on vodka. Vodka, by the way, can be safely replaced with good double-distilled moonshine, for example, sugar, or alcohol diluted to 40-50%. For the sake of exoticism, I added a recipe for a very specific plum liquor made from green Japanese ume plum, which is traditionally made on shochu. He is the last one. Have fun!

Plum liqueur spiced on vodka

Rinse the plums well, dry, and then remove the stalks and seeds. Pour them into a liter jar and add all the ingredients, pour vodka. Make sure that the vodka covers the plums completely, and if this is not the case, add the required amount. Plums can be left with a stone – then the fruits need to be pierced in several places with a needle to the very core. The stone will give a richer almond flavor. Plum on vodka should be insisted for 3 months, shaken periodically so that the sugar dissolves completely. Then the liquor must be filtered, filtered, for example, through cotton wool, bottled and allowed to stand for at least 2 days before tasting.

Also, plum liqueur on vodka can be prepared using a different technology. Pour plums and spices with vodka, do not add sugar. Withstand the infusion for 10 days, then add 180-200 ml of sugar syrup to it, which must be boiled from 1 part of sugar and 1 part of water. Keep the drink with syrup for another month, then strain and bottle. Instead of plums, you can use half of their volume of prunes, but it is better to make a tincture from it (recipe here). And plums, only without a stone, you can pre-fill with sugar and let it dissolve for two days, and only then add spices and vodka.

Fermented Plum Brandy (Tuică De Prune)

Such liqueurs are very common in Hungary and are easy to make at home: fruit is fermented with sugar for 2 weeks, and then cognac is added. Reminds the technology of making liqueurs and we have already prepared plum ones.

Combine roughly chopped plums and sugar in a jar of suitable size. Use a wooden spoon to crush them well and mix with sugar. Place a bag filled with water (about 0,5 l) on top so that the pulp of the plum is immersed in the forming liquid from the juice and dissolved sugar. Cover the jar with gauze and leave at room temperature in a dark place for 2 weeks. Plums can be stirred from time to time. When the plum ferments well, strain the resulting liquid into a measuring cup, pour the same amount of cognac from the bottle and pour plum syrup back in (you can just take as much cognac as you need if you subtract the resulting amount of syrup from 750 ml). Liquor can be filtered again, filtered and bottled. Keep at least 1 month.

Plum Berry Gin Liquor (Hedgerow Gin)

An old English recipe. A hedgerow is a hedge along a road or around a site in England that is often planted with berry bushes and fruit trees. Hence the name of the liquor. You can use any berries that you currently have available and you can collect near your site (well, or in the market). This recipe uses a mix of red and yellow raspberries, blackberries, and a dash of rose hips for spice. If the berries you choose are not too sweet, use more sugar. Instead of a plum, you can take a turn, it will be more in line with the concept of the drink, but with gin, of course, it is better to cook a real sloe gin.

Place all the ingredients in a jar of suitable volume and pour gin, close the jar tightly and leave in a dark, cool place for 1 year. For a long time? Try after 3 months, and if the taste of the drink starts to please you, then feel free to proceed to the next step. In the first couple of weeks, it is advisable to turn the jar over, setting the sugar in motion so that it dissolves. When you decide that the liquor is ready, drain it through a sieve, filter it, pour it into a clean bottle and let it rest for a couple of weeks. The drink is ready! Leftover fruit can be used for baking, topping ice cream, or simply eaten.

Plum liqueur on rum

• 900 g ripe red or blue plums
• 500 g sugar
• 750 ml light rum

Wash the plums and remove the pit, lightly mash. Place them in a jar with an airtight lid, add sugar and rum. You need to insist 3-4 months. For the first month, the tincture must be shaken vigorously so that the sugar dissolves completely. Then the liquor needs to be filtered and filtered, let it brew for a couple of weeks before tasting. The remaining plum fruits, alcoholized with rum, can be used to make delicious desserts or simply added to ice cream.

Plum liqueur on vodka with cognac

Wash and dry plums. Break them in half and get the bones, the pulp can be chopped a little. Transfer the pulp to a jar and add sugar to it, mix well. Add vodka, cognac and mix vigorously again so that the sugar is partially dissolved. Close the jar tightly and leave it to infuse for 2 months in a dark, cool place, periodically shaking the contents until the sugar is completely dissolved. Then strain the liquor through several layers of gauze, and squeeze the plums well. You can drink immediately, but it is better to wait a month or two.

Japanese plum liqueur Umeshu (梅酒)

For exotics. Umeshu is a Japanese plum liqueur made from ume plums, shochu and sugar. The key ingredient here is ume plums, which are actually apricots. The drink needs green fruits, so it is prepared in early summer (you can find it in Asian markets). The appearance of the drink is due to the fact that ume ripen poorly and usually crumble green during heavy rains, and the Japanese do not like waste. In its pure form, it is impossible to eat them and even unhealthy, but alcohol infused with green fruits acquires a truly amazing taste.

Shochu (rice distillate) is used as an alcohol base, but it can be safely replaced with vodka (or 50/50). Another exotic in this well, very exotic recipe is the so-called “rock sugar”. These are large sugar crystals that appear on their own after a week of exposure to Rock Candy syrup, sometimes sold separately. I think it can be replaced with regular sugar.

Rinse the plums, remove the remains of the stalks with a toothpick, and then begin to form a “layer cake”: a layer of plums, a layer of sugar, a layer of plums, etc. By the way, it is better to sterilize the jar if you use shochu – it is not as strong as vodka, about 25%. Pour in the alcohol base, close the jar tightly and leave in a dark, cool place for 3 months, or longer. Before tasting, simply pour the liquor into a clean bottle and serve. Umeshu is well savored in its pure form as a digestif. The plums remaining after infusion are edible, but with a very specific taste, so it is better to cook some Japanese dish with them. Sometimes the Japanese add a few perilla leaves to their plum liqueur.

If you decide to drink plum liqueur in its pure form, then take the trouble to heat it to room temperature – in a very chilled form, all taste and aroma are lost. In later articles, I have shown how to make a plum brandy (the link was above the fermented brandy recipe), known as plum brandy, and a liqueur. You can also get acquainted with the recipes for the preparation of plum wines and slivovitz, moonshine from plum mash. By the way, plum liqueur should be stored no more than 1 year – it loses its taste, but this, I think, is not a problem …