Contents
Herbal tinctures are perhaps the most common and favorite in my family. They are easy to cook, they do not require a lot of raw materials, but in the end they turn out to be very original and fragrant.
Herbal tincture for beginners
To prepare it, you need to stock up on cardamom, ground ginger, anise, angelica, cinnamon and cloves. Each ingredient is approximately 10-15 grams. Mix everything and pour 1 liter of vodka. We are waiting for about a week. Be sure to filter the finished product.
Advice! Herbs can be used fresh or dried. The main thing is that they should be fragrant. And do not be afraid to taste the resulting alcohol in the process, to stop at the most delicious option.
“Erofeich” and tincture on basil for real gourmets
But popular among experienced distillers are tinctures of vodka based on basil in the proportion of 6 leaves of the plant per 0,5 liters of vodka and a drink with a rich history “Erofeich”, in the preparation of which they use half a teaspoon of centaury, yarrow, peppermint and galangal root to a liter of vodka.
Fruit tinctures
Craftsmen use a variety of fruits: plums, pears, peaches, apricots, apples and others. You can choose several types at once, add sugar or refuse it and use honey.
Please note that the juicier the fruit goes into action, the lower the degree of the resulting tincture will be. And if you add a berry to them – raspberries, currants, cherries or strawberries, you will get a more saturated color of the final product, because it is the berries that contain more coloring substances.
Universal recipe
Ingredients must be ripe and clean. Don’t worry if they are a little wrinkled. Bones do not need to be removed. The recipe, as is usually the case with tinctures, is extremely simple. Pour 2/3 of fruit into a clean container, pour 1/3 of vodka.
Sugar is used on average at the rate of 200 grams per liter of tincture. You mix all the ingredients, put them in a dark, cool place, wait a few weeks, periodically shaking the contents to completely dissolve the sugar, and voila. The tincture is ready.
Gooseberry tincture
You can also easily prepare the famous northern grape tincture, for which you will need:
- 2,5 kg of gooseberries;
- 4 liters of vodka;
- 8 liters of boiled water;
- 800 grams of sugar.
Cognac tinctures
Turning mercury into gold and vodka into cognac is a separate art form. For example, I like “cognac” from vodka with oak bark and spices.
For this we take:
- 1 liter of vodka;
- 1 tablespoon of oak bark;
- 1/3 tablespoon honey, neutral in taste;
- 2 bud of carnation;
- 3 peppercorns;
- 1/3 tablespoon of dried St. John’s wort;
- 1/3 tablespoon marjoram;
- a tiny pinch of vanilla.
We boil the bark for 10 minutes, let it cool, add spices, herbs, honey to it and pour vodka. We insist and be sure to periodically shake until the honey is completely dissolved.
After a few weeks, we filter the drink, bottle it and return it to the cellar for 2-3 months.
Riga balsam
So, to prepare the Riga balsam you will need:
- Premium vodka – 1 bottle. We decided to take Beluga for 1510 rubles. I had to go to the city, where at the same time we bought the rest of the ingredients that are not possible to get in the forest.
- Ground ginger – 2,4 gr.
- Melissa – 2 gr.
- Gentian (root) – 4 gr.
- Valerian officinalis (root) – 2 gr.
- Calamus marsh (root) – 2 gr.
- Oak (bark) – 1,6 gr.
- Wormwood (leaves) – 3 gr.
- Dried garden mint – 2,5 gr.
- Peppercorns – 1,2 gr.
- Ginger (ground root) – 2,4 gr.
- Linden (inflorescences) – 1,6 gr.
- St. John’s wort – 1,5 gr.
- Arnica mountain (color) – 1,6 gr.
- Pomeranian (peel) – 1,2 gr. (can be replaced with kumquat or tangerine zest).
- Three-leaf watch – 1 gr.
- Nutmeg – 1 gr.
Note! Most of the herbs we collected in the forest, however, if the balm is prepared in the city, they can be purchased at a pharmacy or specialized stores. The total cost of Riga balsam prepared at home is about 5 thousand rubles.
Additional Ingredients
In addition, raspberry and blueberry tincture must be added to the balm. So we add here two more lists of ingredients.
For raspberry tincture:
- red raspberries – 450 gr.;
- vodka – 0,75 ml.
For blueberry:
- dried blueberries – 60 gr.;
- vodka – 240 ml.
In addition, you need dark caramel. For her you will need:
- 2 kg of sugar;
- 1 L of water;
- 16 gr. citric acid.
Additional ingredients were:
- Cognac – 400 ml. It must be of good quality. We took Ararat for 1300 rubles.
- Peruvian balsam oil – 1 gr.
The list, of course, impressed me, but Janis said that it must be strictly adhered to. I had to make a raid into the city for food and into the forest for herbs.
The cooking process
The cooking process itself, in my opinion, turned out to be less complicated than collecting the ingredients. In a glass jar, we filled the first 16 components with vodka and left the case to infuse for a month. Janis periodically stirred the liquid with a wooden spoon.
After 30 days, the future balm was filtered through gauze. While the balm was infused, we made berry tinctures.
Raspberry prepared like this:
- Berries and 450 ml of vodka were mixed in equal amounts in a glass container and left to infuse for 6 days, stirring the contents daily.
- Strained the tincture.
- Added 300 ml of less strong vodka (30%) and again set to infuse for 6 days. Then filtered again.
Blueberry is almost the same:
- Mixed 140 ml of vodka and 60 gr. berries, mixed and left to infuse for 10 days, stirring in the morning and evening.
- Filtered.
- Added 100 ml of slightly less strong vodka, and again left to infuse for 10 days, stirring at the same frequency.
Next came the turn of the caramel.
This was probably the simplest component for us. Water is mixed with sugar and brought to a boil, after which citric acid is added to it. Then the whole thing is cooked until it turns into a dark viscous mass. It took us an hour.
So, when all the components were ready, we just had to mix them together and leave to infuse again. True, this time, already for three months.
Important! When the balm is infused, it must be filtered again.