Sea buckthorn tinctures on vodka, alcohol, cognac at home

There is such a phrase: “Whoever says that gold does not grow on trees has never seen sea buckthorn in autumn.” Indeed, this small bright yellow berry, which is completely strewn with thin prickly twigs, in the midst of a riot of autumn colors looks simply bewitching, like a scattering of precious metal. But we will not admire sea buckthorn – we will admire the tinctures that we will prepare from it.

Tomorrow is autumn. The cellars and pantries of lovers of home-made alcohol are already full of wines, tinctures, liquors from raspberries, cherries, currants, in the corner the plum brandy is quietly gurgling, the apricot is settling, the cider is being prepared … But it’s not the time to relax yet! After all, very soon the time will come for the best (in my humble opinion) berries for tinctures – autumn! We will not let an excellent free product crumble – we will prepare an ingenious ryabinovka, as well as blackthorn, viburnum, wild cherry and, without fail, sea buckthorn tincture on vodka, at home it turns out, sometimes, simply delicious!

Homemade alcohol tinctures from sea buckthorn – collection and preparation of raw materials

Those who have tried to pick sea buckthorn by hand, by berry, know how dreary it is. Branches prick mercilessly, oily, coloring juice flows down our hands, as a result, in an hour we get a miserable jar of crushed berries and completely spoiled mood. Fortunately, people have already invented some easier ways to collect sea buckthorn. For this you can:

1. Cut off whole branches covered with berries (in moderation, this is even good for the tree), and only then at home, in a relaxed atmosphere, cut the fruits with nail clippers or small garden scissors.
2. Remove the sea buckthorn together with the leaves, holding the branch in your fist and making a strong movement along the branch, in the direction of growth of the thorns, and then sort the berries manually. This method is best suited for those sea buckthorn vodka recipes in which the berry is crushed before cooking.
3. Collect frozen sea buckthorn. To collect, we need a thick stick wrapped in a rag at the end. We just take this stick and not strongly, but methodically hit the branches – the berries will crumble on a pre-layed cloth or oilcloth. I must say that frozen fruits are even better suited for tinctures, as they soften slightly and subsequently release juice more readily. If the sea buckthorn is already ripe, but there is still no frost, you can cut the branches according to the first method and put them in the freezer overnight.

It should be borne in mind that sea buckthorn contains a lot of oils – they are both in the bone and in the pulp of the berry. Therefore, sea buckthorn tinctures are almost never transparent. However, this problem can also be solved in different ways – using a second drain of the tincture, filtering the drink more thoroughly than usual, decanting, throwing out unnecessary fractions, or collecting oil from the surface with a syringe.

In tinctures, sea buckthorn goes well with honey, cloves, vanilla, cinnamon, pepper and other autumn berries: mountain ash, wild rose, hawthorn, and so on. Here is an excellent recipe for sea buckthorn-viburnum tincture with spices from Signor Gudimov. In any recipe from today’s article, you can always add those ingredients that you see fit.

The easiest recipe – sea buckthorn vodka

The simplest tincture recipe, which uses only vodka, sea buckthorn berries and sugar. If desired, you can add your favorite spices, and replace the sugar with light flower honey.

Preparing a drink is easy, but long. We take sea buckthorn berries and place them in a suitable jar so that they fill the volume by 2/3. Fill the container to the top with vodka and set aside in a warm, dark place for 2-3 months. At the end of this period, we drain the infusion, squeeze the berries – lightly, otherwise the drink will be very difficult to filter. We put the tincture for a couple of days in the refrigerator – during this time the fatty fraction should emerge. We collect it from the surface with a syringe or a spoon – this is a healing sea buckthorn oil that can be used for medicinal purposes. If necessary, repeat the procedure.

The remaining tincture is carefully filtered through cotton wool or cosmetic swabs – in order to achieve transparency, filtration can be repeated twice, or even three times. We dilute with water to the strength that you want to get – now the tincture is about 30 degrees. Add sugar or honey to taste and let it rest in a cool place for at least a month. If the drink becomes cloudy during this time, it must be filtered again.

Sea buckthorn tincture on alcohol with fermentation of berries

This recipe uses the classic method of making liqueurs – first, sea buckthorn is fermented, as a result of which it releases juice better, and the drink becomes softer, close to wine in taste.

This drink is not as easy to prepare as the previous one, but there is nothing super complicated in the recipe.

1. Sea buckthorn is covered with sugar and thoroughly crushed with a wooden spoon or mashed potatoes.
2. We shift the sea buckthorn gruel into a container with a wide neck that is suitable in volume, cover with gauze and send it to a warm place so that the berry ferments.
3. The mass should wander for 3-4, after which we need to fill the jar to the top with alcohol. The drink is infused for at least a month, in a warm, dark place.
4. Now the infusion must be carefully drained and filtered several times in any convenient way. Dilute with water to an acceptable strength, add sugar if necessary, pour into a suitable container and let stand for another week or two.
5. Now we have 2 options. It is best to simply bottle the drink so that a little oil gets into each, and just shake the tincture before tasting. So it turns out tastier, but not very beautiful. If aesthetics is more important for you, you need to remove the fatty fraction from the tincture as in the previous recipe.

Homemade sea buckthorn tinctures should not be stored for a long time – after a year their taste is greatly simplified, becomes flat and inexpressive, and their medicinal properties also disappear. But you should not overly lean on such a drink: one or two glasses at dinner every day – just what the doctor ordered! 

Sea buckthorn tincture with walnut membranes

A proven recipe, tested by the entire editorial staff of the Rum Diary and recognized as more than suitable! The drink turns out amazing, with a subtle taste of sea buckthorn, it is somewhat similar to cognac, has a beautiful color and is drunk very easily. For cooking, we only need the second drain of the tincture, as well as an additional ingredient – walnut membranes (we have a separate article about them).

The drink is prepared in several stages:

1. We take the membranes of the nut, put it in a liter jar and fill it with sorting or moonshine to the top, leave it for a week in a dark, warm place.
2. At the same time, we put sea buckthorn in another jar, also fill it with alcohol and put it next to the first container.
3. After a week, we drain the sea buckthorn infusion – it can, for example, be used for medicinal purposes or brought to mind in the way described in the first recipe.
4. We filter the alcohol, which was infused on the partitions, and fill it with berries. Again we set aside in a dark place – this time for 2-3 weeks.
5. After the end of this period, drain the infusion, filter it in any convenient way, sweeten to taste. Before tasting, the tincture will need to rest for a few more days.

A drink prepared in this way will not contain a lot of sea buckthorn oil, it will be beautiful and transparent. In taste, it is somewhat reminiscent of viburnum on cognac, the medicinal aftertaste that sometimes appears in sea buckthorn tinctures is not felt.

Cream liqueur with sea buckthorn on brandy

There is also such a recipe – it was found on one of the Polish forums of moonshiners. A drink is made on cognac or brandy, the composition includes cream and condensed milk, which adsorb sea buckthorn oil. The preparation method is generally similar to, for example, cream Limoncello.

This original liqueur is not at all difficult to prepare, the main problem is to squeeze out sea buckthorn juice. This can be done with a juicer or by grinding the berry with a blender, and then squeezing the cake through cheesecloth. Add all the other ingredients to the juice, mix with a mixer. The liquor is infused in a cool place for at least a week, it can be stored for 2-3 months in the refrigerator. They say that the taste of the drink is very unexpected, but balanced, it is especially liked by the fair sex, which, in general, is not surprising.

So we learned how to cook sea buckthorn tincture with vodka, alcohol, moonshine or cognac at home in four different ways. All of them are relatively simple, as affordable as possible, and as a result they give a tasty, fragrant, and even useful result!