Tincture, liqueur and barberry liquor at home

The best lollipops are barberries. Real pilaf cannot be cooked without dried barberry. This is where most people’s knowledge of the strange sour berry ends. Meanwhile, very tasty and partly healthy drinks are prepared from barberry: tinctures, liqueurs and liqueurs. Let’s cook something…

Really, what do you know about barberry? A strange bush grows for itself in the backyards, spiked, not very friendly. Berries, however, are tasty, sour. Most of these bushes are bypassed. Well, except for the birds, of course. So, the next time you notice such a bush in mid-November, after the first frost, do not pass by!

Few people know, but barberry is a very useful shrub. All its components, including bright red berries, contain a lot of useful substances that contribute to the overall strengthening of the body and the removal of toxins, toxins and salts of heavy metals. Decoctions from barberry leaves have long been used as an anti-inflammatory, astringent, diuretic and antimicrobial agent. Berries harmlessly improve appetite, so anorexics are recommended to eat them.

In all parts of the barberry there is berberine, an alkaloid that settled in pharmacies in the form of bisulfite. It has a lot of useful pharmacological properties: it lowers blood pressure, slows down cardiac activity, enhances the separation of bile. It was previously used as a treatment for malaria and leishmaniasis. Now it is prescribed for chronic hepatitis, cholecystitis, cholelithiasis, etc.

Often the cure for poison differs only in dose. It is highly undesirable to use berberine and products containing it in large quantities and for a long time. And in general, it is better to consult a doctor about this. Fortunately, berberine is very poorly soluble in alcohol, so drinks with barberry can be safely drunk, but in reasonable quantities, of course.

Drinking alcoholic drinks from barberry berries are extremely rare. It’s just that few people know how to cook something worthwhile from this little fragrant and very sour berry. The main thing here is to approach the process correctly and with creativity. Properly prepare the berries, take them not two tablespoons, as in most recipes in Runet, but at least half a kilo, and, of course, be patient. Berries must be harvested after the first frost. If this is not possible, then the berries should be placed in the freezer for a couple of days – a strong cold removes bitterness.

Berries, by the way, need juicy, not fleshy, so not every type of shrub suits us. Just insisting barberry on vodka will not work – no smell, no decent taste. Be sure to need a fragrant filler, for example, vanilla or other spices, as well as the desired sweetener. As a sweetener (because the berry is very sour), nothing better than linden honey has yet been invented. So stock up on barberry, vodka-alcohol-moonshine, linden honey, vanilla and serious patience. With us, as always, recipes …

Vodka on barberry – tincture with honey

If the barberry was going before frost, keep it in the freezer for a couple of days. Then sort and rinse well, place in a two-liter jar. Add the rest of the ingredients and insist in a dark, cool place for 2 months. After maceration, drain the infusion, and pour 100 g of sugar into the berries. Wait 3-5 days and drain the resulting syrup. Combine infusion and syrup, filter through cotton wool or coffee filters. Pour the tincture into bottles and send for aging for a minimum of 4-6 months. It is not necessary to make syrup – then you get a more “rough” male drink.

Barberry tincture with rum

Sort the frozen barberry and rinse well. Transfer the berries to a two-liter jar, add the zest of half a lemon, a piece of cinnamon stick to them, pour everything with vodka and rum. We tightly close the jar and leave to infuse in a dark, cool place for 2-3 weeks. Then the infusion should be drained through several layers of gauze, and the berries should be squeezed well. Heat water in a small saucepan and dissolve sugar in it. Cool the resulting syrup and add to the infusion. The resulting drink is filtered through cotton wool or coffee filters, and then bottled. Keep the tincture for at least 4 months.

Barberry liqueur with ginger

Sort the frozen barberry and rinse well. Transfer the berries to a two-liter jar, add 1 vanilla pod (about 8 g of vanilla sugar), a piece of dried ginger root to taste. Pour everything with alcohol or moonshine with a strength of 50%, add sugar and insist in a dark, cool place for 4 weeks. Shake the jar periodically. Strain the infusion through a sieve, the berries can be slightly squeezed. Filter the drink through cotton wool or coffee filters, pour into bottles. Keep for a month and serve. Drink liquor exclusively for medicinal purposes, no more than 20 ml at a time. This drink is not for copious libations!

Drinking barberry liqueur

Sort the frozen barberry, rinse well and dry. After the freezer, let the berries thaw, then spread them on a baking sheet covered with parchment for baking, and send for 1 hour in the oven at a temperature of 70^оC. Warmed fruits open better in the drink and become sweeter. Next, the berries should be transferred to a jar with a tight-fitting lid and lightly crushed with a wooden spoon. Add honey, vanilla pod (8 g vanilla sugar) to them and pour everything with alcohol. Insist on a sunny windowsill for 4 weeks, shake the jar every 2-3 days.

A month later, the resulting alcohol infusion should be drained through a sieve or a dense cloth, and the berries should be poured with vodka, after adding sugar there. This time you need to insist on a sunny windowsill for 8-10 weeks. Drain the resulting vodka infusion, mix it with alcohol tincture, filter and bottle. It is necessary to withstand the finished liquor in a dark, cool place for at least 3-4 months, preferably six months. You can taste earlier, but the result of an unaged drink can be very disappointing.