Tarragon tincture on vodka, alcohol, moonshine and rum – 5 recipes for every taste

Emerald green, cooling, herbal, fragrant, so tasty that you can go crazy! No, it’s not absinthe. This is the Tarragon drink, beloved by many “made in the USSR”, prepared on the basis of the grass of the same name. And what will happen if this same tarragon (aka tarragon) insist on alcohol? The editors of “Rum” asked this question – and now, catch the original recipes!

Tarragon is a herb with an amazing, absolutely original taste and aroma, easily recognizable among dozens of other components. In fact, tarragon is quite often used to make homemade alcohol. Yerofeichi and herbal tinctures, homemade vermouths, liqueurs, including berry liqueurs, are made with it, it is included in the well-known version of the Chartreuse replica and hundreds of other recipes. Therefore, it is not surprising that there are alcoholic drinks where tarragon sets the tone, and the rest of the ingredients only set it off. Today we will look at several recipes for tarragon tinctures on moonshine, vodka, alcohol, light rum, with spices, citrus fruits and other additives, as well as an interesting distilled tarragon liquor.

A simple recipe for tarragon tincture on moonshine or vodka with lime

The drink resembles the Soviet Tarragon lemonade, only in a high-grade version. In principle, limes can be replaced with lemons. The “chip” of the tincture is a beautiful emerald color. You can achieve it only if you use fresh leaves.

Preparing this whole thing is quite simple. Wash and dry the tarragon. Cut the zest from one lime – thinly, only the green part of the skin! Squeeze juice from both fruits. Pour everything into a jar, pour alcohol. Insist in a dark warm place for 3-5 days. After that, filter through gauze and a cotton filter. Sweeten to taste, mix well, dilute with water if necessary. Stand 2-3 days before use.

When stored for a long time, alcohol tinctures on tarragon lose their color, turn yellow, and sometimes they also change their taste characteristics, acquiring herbal notes of “hay”. Therefore, it is not recommended to withstand them – drink immediately, in large portions, with great pleasure!

This recipe in practice from our friends from Dobrovar:

Tarragon tincture on alcohol with ginger and honey

Pleasant, slightly spicy, slightly sweetened drink – and cold, and slightly burns at the same time. Such an interesting fusion, original, but very tasty!

Finely chop the ginger, throw it into a jar along with tarragon – right in a whole bunch. Add honey, pour everything with alcohol. The drink is infused in a dark place for 2 weeks, after which it is filtered. If the tincture is too strong, add some water to it. If necessary, you can additionally sweeten, but the drink should not be cloying. If water and honey were added, then the “tarhunovka” with ginger will need to rest in a cool place for another couple of weeks.

If your goal is to get exactly a green, emerald tincture, like that very drink from childhood, then one herb can not be enough. I’ll have to experiment with food coloring. A high-quality pigment will not spoil the drink, will not change the taste and aroma – I have repeatedly convinced myself of this. Even the real, most Soviet drink “Tarhun” was tinted according to GOST – in fact, it is yellow, like lemonade.

This recipe in action (the result is so-so, but there is something to work with):

Tarragon with grapefruit on rum

American recipe worthy of attention. As an alcoholic base, light, as soft as possible rum a la Bacardi is used here. In the absence of rum, you can make the same tarragon tincture with vodka, alcohol or neutral, well-purified moonshine.

Preparing the tincture is also easy. Grapefruit cut into thin slices, put in a jar and pour alcohol. Let stand 4 days in a dark place. After that, add washed and dried tarragon to the same jar – right with a whole branch. We shade it inside so that no parts of the plant remain on the surface. We leave for one more, maximum two days. We focus on the smell, periodically opening the container. As soon as the aroma has become bright enough, drain the liquid. Filter the tincture, sweeten slightly if necessary. You can drink after 3-4 days. This drink will keep in the refrigerator for up to 6 months.

Dried tarragon tincture with spices

This is already a classic bitters, a stronger, “masculine” drink, which is not sweetened at all or almost, but is drunk in whole stacks, as an aperitif for a hearty snack. For example, chakapuli, a traditional Georgian dish of lamb / veal stewed in onions and fresh tarragon with herbs, is perfect for such a drink. Very tasty! By the way, the classic kharcho will also be a wonderful accompaniment. The ideal basis for tarragon tincture according to this recipe will be grain moonshine.

According to the same recipe, you can make a tincture of tarragon seeds – just take them a little less, 3-4 grams. You can also add other spices and herbs – cardamom, nutmeg, ginger, mint, lemon balm, anise, fennel, galangal – just a little bit. Put all the ingredients in a suitable container, pour moonshine, put in a dark, warm place. Infusion lasts 10-14 days. After that, the infusion must be filtered through cotton wool and try. If the taste is too harsh – add a little sugar – just to soften, the drink should not be sweet!

Aromatic tarragon vodka – recipe with distillation

The hardest recipe so far. The drink is made in two stages – first it is infused with tarragon, and then it is distilled to obtain aromatic alcohol and diluted to an alcohol strength. In this way, at home, we will get flavored vodka with a mild aroma and taste of tarragon. For example, absinthe is made according to the same principle (by the way, tarragon, it is also “tarragon wormwood” is often used for its preparation). The method is good because it allows you to preserve the aroma and taste of fresh tarragon for a long time – during storage, unlike ordinary tinctures, it does not evaporate and does not become “herbaceous”.

In the same way, you can make a tarragon and mint tincture (just in a 50/50 ratio) – we get something similar to menthol liqueur, but with interesting additional flavors. Despite the intimidating technology, making a drink is quite simple. The grass is poured with alcohol, infused for 3-4 days. After that, the infusion must be diluted to 20-25% and overtaken on a conventional apparatus, without dry steamers and everything else. Heads and tails should be cut off by smell – the “body” should have a pleasant aroma of tarragon, without hints of hay and a sharp unpleasant odor.

After distillation, aromatic alcohol is diluted to 45-48 degrees – like homemade gin, due to the abundance of essential oils, it can become cloudy and start to opalescent. Such a “distilled” infusion of moonshine on tarragon is drunk either in its pure form, or it is well sweetened and used as a liquor. Additionally, the drink can be tinted with the same food coloring or young currant leaves.