Mugwort tincture

I didn't measure! Shocked and surprised. Packed a healthy amount of dried mugwort into a mason jar and filled it 3-4" with vodka. It steeped for a very long time, possibly too long. After straining I had 3/4c of extract. Added 6 tablespoons of karo corn syrup for sweetness and body

Chai, ver 2

Followed the same recipe as earlier, but took away 1/2c of vodka and added 1/2c of irish cream. Skipped St Brendans, used Bailey's vanilla cinnamon.

Day 2, its much smoother than the original recipe, this one will be dangerous.

Cordial: Spruce/Vodka [In Progress]

I like pine. REALLY, really like pine. I decided I want to make an evergreen-flavored cordial. I'm reasonable, and I realize this may become nasty, so my backup plan is to mix it with a fruit-flavor (like orange). I'm winging this, and it's in progress, but currently I have:

1 750 ml bottle of Luksusowa potato vodka
3/4 oz. spruce essence, typically for making Christmas beers.

I have not sweetened it yet...

Edit 6/5/15: Sweetened it. I like it, but it has a definite... soap? taste. It reminds me of a specific product but I can't figure out which one. I like it, but Im thinking of adding some orange or other citrus to make it palatable to others.

Cordial: Chai

This is a scratch-made recipe, with kind assistance from Jael ben Ari. A friend made a chai cordial and I've been wanting to play with tea-based recipes, so I decided to give one a try too:

2 cups Tazo chai mix (black tea based)
2 cups vodka (I used Svedka since I have a demijohn of it at this point)
Simple syrup of 1 cup and 1 cup, just until clear.
1 cup Saint Brendan's Irish Cream (Thank you Jael!)

I initially mixed the Tazo and Vodka and sampled it. It was definitely too strong, so I started with the 1c/1c simple syrup. At that point I felt like it might mellow out and be ok, but it was still strong. After thinking about it for half an hour, I mentioned to Oswyn and Jael that I felt like it was missing a dairy component, since the Tazo mix was originally supposed to be mixed with milk. But what? Almond/soy milk? Non-dairy creamer? What would hold at room temperature. Jael suggested irish cream, potentially Bailey's Vanilla Cinnamon (which sounds like a heck of a combination to go with chai!). I have a bottle of Saint Brendan's, however, as I generally prefer it to Baileys. A cup of that in the mix really seems to balance it out where I want! First I took a small bit of the tazo/vodka and poured it into a bit of the cream to make sure it wouldn't curdle or have another reaction. After a moment I figured it was safe and poured it into the cordial jar.

Let's see how it goes in a month or two. I may need to tweak the syrup and/or the irish cream.

Cordial: Banana Nut Bread (testing)

I'm going to make a banana and a walnut cordial and blend them to try and achieve banana nut bread.

Banana:
1 and 1/2c sugar
3/4c water
1tea vanilla
3c alcohol
2 ripe bananas, peeled and mashed

Mix all ingredients and stir/shake every day for 3-4 days. Strain. Age a month.


Walnut:
1 c toasted walnuts
Simple Syrup of 1c and 1c
1/2 c honey
1tea. pure vanilla extract
1/2c brandy

Steep walnuts in liquor for 1 month. Then prepare simple syrup and honey. Once cooled to 'warm' add the syrup and vanilla.

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4/13/15 edit: I've strained them today. I used a scientific pipette to take 2ml of walnut and 6ml of banana to guess at a proportion. I added a little corn syrup for my imprecise test. It's drinkable, but I think a proper syrup and some vanilla will help. The two jars are currently without vanilla or sweeteners at all

cordial: peach brandy

1 cup sugar and 1 cup water made into simple syrup
1 and 1/2 pounds of peaches
1 bottle (1 fifth) Brandy.

I used frozen fruit from the supermarket. The original called for slicing them thinly, I more chunked them and scored the chunks. I used E&J brandy. The recipe also called for fruit protector which I skipped.

Gave it to a taste tester after a month who said it will be amazing, but needs to age further!

Cordial: Chai (Testing)

Looking at a tea-based recipe, estimating the following:
2c prepared tea-type substance
1 cup honey
1 c vodka
1/2 c brandy

Think I'll try
2c prepared chai
1 cup simple syrup
1 1/2 c vodka

Other Works in Progress

Right now this is alcohol-heavy, as I prepare things for Pennsic and donations to the Known World Party.

Mugwort tincture
Peach brandy
Vanilla
Rum Truffle (orange chocolate)
Double Raspberry (Rasp/Lemon... why is it called Dbl?)
Vanilla Cherries
Citrus Rum

Cordial: Salted Caramel

The idea struck me while driving that a salted caramel cordial would be AMAZING. It's that time of year when Starbucks seems to push salted caramel hot chocolate.

I turned to Cordials from Your Kitchen and found a caramel cordial. To my dismay it's what I think of as a "cheater", in that you basically just add alcohol, simple syrup, and a flavoring extract. I later found this recipe from Mixthatdrink on making a more involved version, but I followed the book's recipe.

2 c water
2 c sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon concentrated caramel flavoring extract
3/4 cup brandy
3/4 cup vodka
4 drops caramel food coloring

- Cordials from Your Kitchen, p. 108

Of course, I screwed with the recipe. I'm almost certain that I used 1 1/2 cups of vodka and skipped the brandy, and the vodka would most certainly have been svedka. The flavoring I used I ordered on Amazon in a 3 or 4 pack, by Bakto Flavorings because their listing said they are all natural flavors.

WOW.

It lacks some of the complicated awesomeness of Genrose's famous Raspberry cordial (sitting next to this on the bar) but the Bakto flavoring seems to be of excellent quality. In the future if I need to order a flavoring online, I am going to try theirs first. It also included the colorant, so I left off 4 drops of food coloring.

After 3 or 4 months I tested this with a shot's worth, stirred in some salt  (we pretty much exclusively use kosher salt, I had some Spicewell's Fleur-de-sel which is described as a sweet salt, though I don't think I get that (maybe less powerful saltiness though). I stirred in a tiny amount of salt and the salted caramel shot was absolutely wonderful.

Since I have a lot of svedka laying around, and a few more bottles of this (one batch used less than half a bottle of flavoring) I think I am going to make another large batch as my primary contribution to the Known World Party this summer at Pennsic.

3/21/15 Edit - Multiple taste testers approved! The brewers suggested that the flavors were a bit uncomplicated and suggested I look into using caramel, or making my own, potentially using demerara sugar cones I can get from the local store.

6/18/15 Edit - "Version 2"
I decided to try a clear brandy for version two, and use proper measuring instruments (teaspoon set, rather than food teaspoons). Notes to follow! Judging from the color I may need/want to add more, 1 and 1/2 teaspoon of extract does not seem sufficient at this point.

8/23/15 Edit -
I find that this version, with clear brandy, has a less distinct caramel flavor. Other cordial makers are strongly encouraging me to go to brandy instead of vodka, but I don't think that works for some of these using flavor extracts. It works great for recipes using fruit, juices, etc. but the simpler extract+syrup+alcohol recipes seem to need vodka (or, I suppose everclear, but bleh!)

8/2/15 Edit - "Version 3"
I'm making a double batch right now before I return to Pennsic for War Week. I've decided to make the simple syrup with turbinado sugar ("Sugar in the Raw") because that Just Seems Right for caramel.

8/23/15 Edit -
The "brown" salted caramel (from 8/2) was a tremendous hit. It was a bit too sweet, however. I made it following the same recipe as before but using Sugar in the Raw turbinado sugar. 2 cups water, 2 cups SitR, 1 1/2 cup of vodka. Definitely no need for the food coloring. A few mentioned how sweet this was, and I can agree. I tried uping the caramel flavoring by an extra teaspoon but it was still overpowered by the turbinado syrup. I think next time I will try 1 1/5 cups each sugar and syrup to make it less sweet (but still very sweet!) and give the caramel flavoring a fighting chance.

Ironically I never got to try this with the actual salt in it, though others did.

"Cordial": Jolly Rancher Vodka

I had once tried to make Skittle vodka, and it was terrible. I kept reading and discovered jolly ranchers are supposed to give a much better product. This is described as drinkable after 12 hours, or once the candies are fully dissolved. I'm curious how it would be in 18 months if treated like a proper cordial.

The original site showed a much large bottle, filled with cheap vodka, and 12 candies of a single flavor. I instead went with 3-4 ozs of better vodka (grey goose) in a small jar, and the 12 candies. They dissolved overnight just fine, telling me this is not the saturation point of candies.

It still has serious bite, akin to drinking straight grey goose, and it is not smooth. it IS definitely flavored with the candy, and is a little sweeter, however. I've sipped it straight and that's is fine, if you are accustomed to drinking vodka straight. Easier to dilute it with some 7-up! Either way, this is definitely frat food, but good in the right circumstances.

Cordial: Kahlua

I was reminded today that my mom was the original cordial maker in the family, not me! She used to make Kahlua by jug, usually for my nana (her mom) periodically. I asked her today for the recipe and she told me it was originally from Jeff Smith, the Frugal Gourmet, and was shown on his show and written in one of his cookbooks:

4c sugar
4c water
2 oz instant coffee
1 vanilla bean
1 5th "of cheap bourbon"

Heat the sugar and water together, just below simmering. Add the instant coffee to create a coffee simple syrup. Get a gallon glass jug and add the bourbon and vanilla bean, then pour in the warm coffee syrup. Age at least one month. 
--Jeff Smith, "The Frugal Gourmet"

I haven't made this one yet, but it has proven excellence in my family.

Tincture: Mixed Mint

The tincture in a quart jar, held up to a 5k happylamp for illumination

I took a quart jar and packed it with as many unblemished mint leaves (pepper/spear, taken from my backyard) as I could pack in "reasonably" (not loosely, but the pile was still squishy). I topped the bottle off with svedka vodka and let it sit for 4-5 months. Then I strained out the leaves. I keep the bottle in my pantry out of direct sunlight. I haven't had a strong need to use this yet, but I believe the right method is to dilute some in a glass of water. Direct mint can be bad for you. I was motivated to do SOMETHING with the tremendous amount of mint growing in my yard I didn't want going to waste.

The consistency is the same as vodka, since I added no syrup to sweeten it (I wasn't aiming for a mint cordial).

Cordial: Strawberry/Tequila

My favorite cordial to date!

I made this almost two years ago, and very little remains. The color is not extremely strong, similar to what you might expect from a "watermelon" jolly rancher more than a "cherry" one, a pinkish red.

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Unfortunately as I was just experimenting and didn't realize how enthusiastically I would take to cordials, I didn't document these as I was making them. I'm reasonably sure the base was this:

3c strawberries
1 1/2 c sugar
2 cup 100-proof vodka
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon orange zest
1 teaspoon fresh-squeezed lemon juice

Crush berries and sugar in a bowl, let sit 1 hour. Transfer to container, add all other ingredients. Sit two days, strain out solids. Transfer to new container, age 1 week. Rack into final container, age for at least 1 month before serving.

(p. 25 of Cordials from your Kitchen)

But, I didn't follow that! I'm reasonably certain I omitted the lemon and orange zest, and the lemon juice. I MAY have included the lemon juice, as I simultaneously made a lemon cordial.

My big difference is that I used tequila, not vodka. I am fairly sure it was clear Sauza silver (I won it as a door prize at a casino event). I let it sit for six months before bottling, and another six-12 months before I got a better strainer and re-strained it. People opening the bottle comment it smells like pure tequila but tastes nothing like it! I will definitely remake it, and document it better this time.