Pouring and liqueur from viburnum with and without vodka

Pourings from viburnum are more drinkable and pleasant in taste compared to tinctures on a super-healthy berry. Moreover, some of them taste and do not much resemble the “pharmacy” viburnum. In general, tasty, beautiful and healthy.

If viburnum is dominant in tinctures, then in liqueurs and liqueurs, the berry is set off by other ingredients – spices, lemon zest, and so on. Fragrant additives are necessary, since the berry itself in sweet tinctures has a weak aroma. The recipes that you will find in this article are designed not only to ennoble the smell of the drink, but also to emphasize the best that is in the taste of viburnum, as well as to cut off the obvious pharmacy notes.

In the last article, where viburnum recipes for alcohol and moonshine were collected, the main medicinal properties of viburnum were described. Those recipes can also be adapted to liqueurs by adding enough sugar syrup or honey to them. In the recipes below, everything that burns or tends to burn can be used as an alcohol base: diluted alcohol and double moonshine, cognac, vodka, as well as noble drinks with a more or less neutral taste. For the rest, rely on your intuition and your preferences.

Pouring viburnum on vodka classic

The recipe for a classic viburnum liqueur has already been published. By chance, or maybe not, he got into viburnum tinctures on vodka. There everything is extremely simple and clear. But there is a much more interesting recipe, with lemon zest. Kalina goes very well with citrus fruits.

• 200 ml of viburnum juice (about 400 g of berries)
• Zest of 1/3 lemon
• 150 sugar (honey)
• 100 ml of water
• 500 ml of vodka

Separate the viburnum from the ridges, remove the spoiled berries. Rinse and dry on a towel. Grind with a sieve to get about 200 ml of thick juice. Cut the zest from 1/3 lemon. It is very important not to touch the white skin, which is bitter and transfers this bitterness to drinks. Kalina is also bitter, but after freezing, this bitterness either goes away or becomes insignificant.

So that the viburnum does not taste bitter, it must be collected after the first frost, but it is better to keep the berries in the freezer for a couple of weeks.

All ingredients, including syrup, boiled from 150 g of sugar and 100 ml of water, put in a liter jar and put in a dark, cool place for 2 weeks. The filling must be stirred every day. When the drink is infused, it must be filtered through cheesecloth or a sieve. If desired, you can filter through a cotton filter, but this is a chore. You can drink viburnum liqueur immediately, or you can wait a couple of weeks until it clears itself, but she does this very, very reluctantly.

The taste of the liqueur is rich and fresh, it smells of forest and lemons. Instead of vodka, you can use high-quality double-distilled moonshine or alcohol, which must first be diluted to 40-50%. The product is 100% natural, so it may delaminate after some time. It is desirable to use the liquor for the season, but it seems to me that such a problem should not arise. To reduce the risk of separation, a little glycerin can be added to the drink.

Pouring from viburnum without vodka

Often they are looking for just such a liqueur, which in this case is strange, because everyone knows what this berry can taste and smell like. I admit honestly, I didn’t cook and I’m unlikely to risk it, but I’ll post the recipe to calm my soul. In fact, we are preparing liqueur wine. Use the recipe at your own risk.

• 7 kg viburnum berries
• 2,5 kg of sugar

Separate the berries from the ridges and rinse (after frost they still do not have yeast). Pour viburnum into a fermentation container of the required volume and add sugar. Mix. Tie the neck of the fermentation tank with gauze in 1-2 layers and let the berries ferment. Usually it takes 3-5 days. If there is no sign of fermentation after 3 days, then add some kind of sourdough or wine yeast (not baker’s). After the berry has fermented, install a water seal on the container and let the liquor ferment for 15 to 20 days. Then strain, pour into bottles and stand a little. To understand the recipe, read this article, where the principle of fermentation is well described, albeit using grapes as an example.

Pouring “Kalina red” on spices

• 1,5 kg of red viburnum berries
• 500 g sugar or more to taste
• 2-3 star anise
• 3-5 pink peppercorns
• vodka as needed

Berries need to be separated from the ridges and sorted out. Pour into a jar and sugar there, let the sugar dissolve, and give the viburnum juice. You can wait 2-3 days until the berry ferments a little. Drain the resulting juice and add vodka in the same amount as the juice (it will be within 1 liter of syrup and 1 liter of vodka). Now you need to add spices and tightly cork the liquor, and then insist in a dark, cool place for 1,5-2 months. Periodically, the drink must be stirred. Strain, bottle and enjoy an unusually tasty drink.

Berries, by the way, which remained after draining the syrup, can also be poured with vodka, so that it completely covers the viburnum. It is enough to insist the “secondary” liquor for 2-4 weeks and drain – you get a drink no worse than the first one. Unlike the previous two liqueurs, this one brightens up beautifully on its own.

Author’s viburnum liqueur “Kalinka-malinka”

You will definitely not find a recipe for such a liqueur on the Web. Consider it a flight of fancy of the editor-in-chief, that is, me. Nothing fancy, but it should be delicious.

• 500 ml vodka (half with raspberry)
• 150 ml of sugar syrup
• 150 ml lemon juice
• 350 g viburnum

Sort viburnum, wash and dry. Pour into a liter jar, mash with a pestle and add vodka. Infuse for a week in a dark, cool place, and then strain through a fine sieve. Add lemon juice and simple sugar syrup to the infusion. Infuse for 2 weeks, strain again through a sieve and drive through a cotton filter. Pour into bottles. Drink chilled. For the best effect, in particular the aroma, I recommend replacing half of the vodka with raspberry vodka – such goodness is on sale. Raspberry vodka can be successfully replaced with raspberry tincture.

Here is such a viburnum. In fact, to be honest, all drinks from viburnum, whether it be tinctures, liqueurs or liqueurs, are not for everybody. The berry itself is delicious if it is harvested after the first frost or simply frozen. But the smell in the drinks is faded or it really smells like a pharmacy (the exception is the Red Kalina liqueur, in the taste and aroma of which one can hardly recognize a berry). However, the addition of spices and zest significantly improves the situation, and among similar digestive aperitifs, viburnum liqueur or viburnum liqueur is far from the last place. And in terms of useful properties, they will give everyone a head start.

Personally, I prefer to add viburnum to tea …