Spiced Blueberry Liqueur

There is a lot of fuss around blueberries being a superfood. All I know is they make a great liqueur and you don’t necessarily have to wait till the summer months to pick your own blueberries.

Even in these dark and cold months it’s possible to be making fruit liqueurs to warm up a winters evening. A lot of fruit will be available in the freezer section of your local supermarket and the great thing about this fruit is that it’s usually a lot riper and has a higher sugar content than fresh fruit because it’s been harvested later. This plus the freezing process which helps to break down the fruit internally means a delicious drink is only a matter of time, all the work has been done for you already. You can of course use fresh blueberries but I would suggest to freeze these first so the flavours can leak out easier when they are steeped.

Spices and Blueberries

For my recipe I have decided to spice the liqueur to give it a bit more depth and to make it a little more warming. I have chosen to add just a couple of cloves which is quite traditional and will compliment the blueberries nicely. These cloves can of course be exchanged for whatever you fancy, maybe cinnamon or ginger or even the zest of a lemon. Whatever you use though don’t add too much. It’s very easy to overpower a liqueur with spices so err on the side of caution.

Spiced Blueberry Liqueur Recipe

Ingredients

350 grams of Blueberries Frozen
2 Cloves
350ml of Vodka – 80 proof (40% ABV)
200g White Sugar
350ml Water

• Start by thawing the blueberries. Once thawed fully you’ll find even at this point the juices will be freeing themselves. Crush with the back of a spoon or fork and place into a clean and sanitised jar making sure you get as much as the juice as possible. I sanitised my jar by boiling it in some water for just a few minutes, be careful not to shock the glass and risk breaking it.

• Pour over the 350ml of vodka and give everything a quick swirl to loosen it all up.

• Drop in the cloves and seal the jar up, store in a dark place like a cupboard.
• Give the jar a swirl around 2 or three times a week as the blueberries may settle and clump together.

• After 2 weeks or longer we are ready to separate out the solids and add the sugar syrup. Begin by boiling up the sugar and 350ml of water in a pan for several minutes ensuring it’s all dissolved, allow this syrup to cool. Whilst this is cooling get yourself another clean jar and use a fine strainer or sieve and filter out the blueberries from the liqueur into the new jar. Once completely cooled add in the sugar syrup. Leave this for a further week.
• After this week is up, use a finer filter like a coffee filter paper or paper towel and strain the liqueur into a clean, sanitised bottle. Seal and the spiced blueberry liqueur is ready. Some suggest to leave it to mature but that’s not so easy.