Thrifty Tipples

I have just seen a warning on Rosemary's blog about the new 'blogger format', I popped over to have a look and oh dear it doesn't look promising.


Changes always feel strange at first so I'm quite happy to give things a go but I can't seem to access my photos. That may be because the new format hasn't gone fully live yet? It does indicate an option to continue with this style of blogger so we shall see.

Anyhoo, on to more important things, thrifty tipples.

I originally posted about making elderflower fizz way back in 2014, so I thought I would revisit the making of said fabulous tipple as the flowers are just about ready, after all of our recent sun and rain.

There are many folk posting various recipes and I guess it doesn't really matter who you follow on this, as the results of this concoction are usually delicious whatever the ratio of ingredients are.

I did watch a deightful little film on Dick and Angel Strawbridge's site on the making of elderflower fizz, so if you like to see how it's done pop over there. (No pun intended)

Ingredients

600 grams caster sugar
4 litres hot water
2 litres cold water
juice and zest 3 to 4 lemons
2 tbsps white wine vinegar
25 or thereabouts fresh Elderflower heads (try to keep them upright when picking as this will help keep any natural yeast on the blooms and don't wash them for the same reason. You can strain out any bugs later, but feel free to pick the big ones off as you collect).

Kit

Flip top glass bottles or plastic bottles. I used glass flip tops from IKEA but if you check out the Escape to The Chateau way (above link) they reuse pop bottles. Wash these in the dishwasher just before you decant the fizz then the bottles will be sterilised.

10 litre plastic bucket for fermenting the fizz

Funnel to decant into bottles.

Muslin fabric to strain any unwelcome bits of flowers and creatures from liquid.

lemon zest

How To

Dissolve sugar in 4 litres of hot water, then add 2 litres of cold water stirring to mix.
Add the lemon juice and zest, then the white wine vinegar, stir well to combine.
Add the flowerheads cutting off any excess stalks before you do so.
Cover with a lid or clean tea towel and leave to ferment.

When I made this before I added champagne yeast and left it for 4 days before bottling. This time I'm hoping the natural yeast will work it's magic and I decanted after only two days. The last batch was soooooo explosive it broke the first bottle on opening, so I'm hoping I will get a good fizz that won't take an eye out.

Wash everything you use in hot soapy water and rinse well before use. ALSO WHEN OPENING THE BOTTLES AFTER TWO WEEKS COVER WITH A CLOTH JUST TO BE ON THE SAFE SIDE.

Now if you can't be bothered to do this or you can't get your hands on the flowers you could order a very reasonably priced substitute. I've done both, so typical of me, FOMO.

I saw an advert for a case of 6 fruity La Vida Bonita, a VERY light soft 5% alcohol summer tipple, made from the Moscatel grape. Amazingly thrifty at £19.74, plus I got a small 10% cashback from Visa offers, so rude not to really. If you go to radiotimes.comvidabonita you can take a squiz yourself.

Cheers and a very warm welcome to my three new followers.