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