Seasons In A Bottle [flavoured spirits ]

[Darlica]

I got this idea yesterday, remember that I was talking about Summer in a bottle some time ago?

Yesterday I realised it should be Seasons In A Bottle.

Spring In A Bottle: Birch sap, tender birch leafs, lemon grass (or lemon balm) and vodka.

Summer In A Bottle: Wild strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and vodka (I think a rum version would be drinkable too).

Autumn In A Bottle: sloe berries and vodka (gin would work too).

Winter In A Bottle:? What in the world of fruits and herbs could represent winter?

Ideas?
Does this sound interesting or just horrible?

[Aggie]

Sounds very interesting!  My MIL makes several types of herb and/or fruit spirits - I think she starts with grain spirits (basically vodka) and adds in whatever.

Winter...  aside from culinary associations (baking spices like cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg) - how about pine?  (MIL makes a pine 'wine').  Oooh, I wish one could capture the taste/odour of fresh snow in a bottle.

[Darlica]

We were discussing this with some friends on-line, earlier this evening, I think my SO capture what I would like it to taste like very well.

that dry, crisp, almost woody and slightly tingling electrical smell you get in the air in the stillness just before a snowstorm? I am aware that it is probably impossible to capture that extremely delicate smell in a flavour -wehat I am after is something that would trick your senses into smelling and tasting it, and thinking "Yes, this is what a snowstorm tastes like", much on the same lines as an impressionist painting is really just blobs and smears of colour -that also happen to suggest a breathtakingly beautiful pond of water lilys. -Darlica's SO

[Aggie]

Yes!  That's it!  (the southlanders probably think we're crazy, but snow does have a smell - I can tell a storm is on the way by smell sometimes).

Fresh glacier water comes close, sometimes.  A very subtle hint of woodsmoke would not hurt, birch smoke maybe?


Spring for me needs a little bit of that "rotting under the snow" humus smell, and I think for my locale, poplar bud-case gum (those nasty 'stickies' in the spring) would be a better stand-in for birch.  On second thought, I grew up with more birch 'stickies', but the poplar ones have a stronger smell.

[The Meromorph]

For winter. Pinon nuts in Peppermint Schnapps...

[Darlica]

Peppermint schnapps Brrrrr!

But good neutral vodka with pine nuts, and a hint of peppermint (2 leafs) a bottle might work but I think it need some thing more...

[Lindorm]

For winter. Pinon nuts in Peppermint Schnapps...

Peppermint schnapps? Hmmm... I am not really sure how toothpaste vodka would convey the spirit of winter.

I am thinking more of something along the lines of a small, small hint of cedar wood and perhaps a touch of birch. Agujjim's idea of birch wood smoke was intriguing...

[Opsa]

Oh yes, I was thinking along the lines of peppermint shnapps, too, but more subtle. It needs a mineral note, too to represent the ice crystals. Maybe the vodka would provide that.

An artemesia might supply a slightly rotting sweet flavor for spring. I hear that some version of Absenth is making a comeback.

I love the wild strawberries in the summer brew. So Ingmar Bergman!

How about the Absenth base for spring, the rum for summer, gin for autumn and vodka for winter?

[anthrobabe]

snow does have a smell
and so does the rain in Arizona-- it is on the wind,

hmmmm-winter, I like the mint ideas(but I do not like peppermint schnapps- too minty like Lindorm said, toothpastey), and how could one capture the smell of wood fires and fuzzy blankets..... some sort of inner bark but probably not cinnamon(it is good but overdone). something more woodsy--- I wonder what liquid smoke would taste like? probably not good but maybe a start. And I think pine would be good--- I've eaten the little tiny pine needles as they just begin to emerge and are all soft and piney- but that is sort of spring I suppose.

[Opsa]

I don't know, I think you're onto something, there, 'Thro.

It'd be fun to produce these if we get a physical monastery at some point.

[Darlica]

Oh yes, I was thinking along the lines of peppermint shnapps, too, but more subtle. It needs a mineral note, too to represent the ice crystals. Maybe the vodka would provide that.

An artemesia might supply a slightly rotting sweet flavor for spring. I hear that some version of Absenth is making a comeback.

I love the wild strawberries in the summer brew. So Ingmar Bergman!

How about the Absenth base for spring, the rum for summer, gin for autumn and vodka for winter?

There is a slight trouble, I don't like the Pastisse family, Pernod, Abshint, Ouzu etc. and I wouldn't make anything I didn't like to drink my self. 

I can guess why you associate wild strawberries with Ingmar Bergman but I don't think it's fair, on behalf of the strawberries...  I like my berries without Drama thankyouverymuch!

[Opsa]

Well personally, I'd be very impressed if my strawberries played chess with Death.

I guess you're right about the Absinth. What about an earthy white wine?

[Darlica]

I guess you're right about the Absinth. What about an earthy white wine?

For a drink yes, but wine will go sour if you try to re bottle it and probably mouldy if other substances got added. One has to use a spirit with somewhere 25% alcohol to get around those troubles. I prefer Vodka with 38-40% as base for my experiments, if it gets stronger the alcohol usually overpower the taste of the other ingredients.     

[Lindorm]

some sort of inner bark but probably not cinnamon(it is good but overdone). something more woodsy

What about birch? Perhaps not inner bark, since that contains a lot of tannins and acids and would probably just taste yuck, but perhaps young buds? There is a sort of flavoured vodka traditionally made here in northern Sweden and Finland (and Ukraine, too) where vodka is flavoured by budding young birch leaves, of "mouse ear size" that are steeped in the vodka for a while. Perhaps something on those lines? Or rowan?

And I think pine would be good--- I've eaten the little tiny pine needles as they just begin to emerge and are all soft and piney- but that is sort of spring I suppose.

Sure, that is perhaps more something of spring. But I do think that it does carry something of the dry, woody flavour I am imagining. But perhaps a bit over-powering on it's own? And how on earth would you get a drink to taste somewhat electrically? I don't think mixing in battery acid is the right method...

[Darlica]

Capsicain?

[The Meromorph]

Capsicain?

Vodka, pinon nuts, a couple of leaves of peppemint, and a touch of Sandalwood?

[Aggie]

And how on earth would you get a drink to taste somewhat electrically? I don't think mixing in battery acid is the right method...

Ozone, but that'd wreak hell (oxidatively) with everything else.

Was thinking on the snow 'smell' - I've got the same taste (only bitter) from caffeine purified by sublimation.  There was a bit of burnt material from the pill-fillers that may have contributed to the taste - I haven't got the same result when purifying based on solubilities, I'm sure it was from the burnt material.

[Opsa]

Hey-o!

Last weekend we went to a local winery (the kids were students in my summer theater workshops) and tried a preview of their not-yet-released maple port. Okay, I'll admit I'm a maple maniac, I LOVE the flavor of real maple syrup and maple sugar candy. It's in my northerner roots, I guess. This stuff was fabulous! It was a dessert style wine, and I prefer dry wines, but the maple port (flavored with Vermont maple syrup)was enchanting. The color was amber, the taste was like brandy. Really lovely. We went so nuts about it that they sold us an unlabeled bottle and we ordered three more for the fall release. (Our excuse is that we mean to give them away as holiday gifts. Well, not all of them!)

[Aggie]

I'm growing what looks like it might be a considerable crop of sugar pumpkins, and have been mulling on making pumpkin wine this fall.

This thread has me thinking also about maybe a pumpkin liqueur.  Something with a bit of cream and spices, that tastes like pumpkin pie?  One could roast the pumpkin first.

[The Meromorph]

Still trying for the 'WinterHeart':

Paper Vodka, infused with Gorse Needles and a hint of lemon?

[Aggie]

Hmm, I'm partial to pine-flavoured beverages for the winter season; start with some pine tips and add...?  Needs something spicy.  I've been meaning to try flavouring rum with Ponderosa pine bark.

[Swatopluk]

A guy in Berlin established a quite successful company for pine needle soda

[Aggie]

I have several cans of (Korean) Pine Bud Drink around the house at the moment.  It's delightful on its own, but a great mixer with gin, too.

[Opsa]

Pine sounds like it would go great with gin.

I think I've had pumpkin cider before, but I'd definitely try pumpkin wine. Maybe a mead approach would work?

[pieces o nine]

For those siblings seeking a boozeahol sensation wherein a moderate serving delivers an immoderate smile, I humbly suggest UV Chocolate Cake Vodka.   


O
M
G


If one poured a soupçon upon one's vanilla icecream, that icecream would get up out of its bowl and cry, Спасибо товарищ!   


If one blended ... oh, I don't know, let's say ... two parts UV Choc Cake with one part Kahlua ... let's say, and frappéd it with frozen raspberries, then one might have a dessert drink to end all dessert drinks. I'm just saying.   

[Opsa]

Holy carp.  Have you yet committed this blessed sin? 

[Aggie]

What about soaking it into a chocolate cake?

[pieces o nine]

^ One cannot believe  that this excellent suggestion had not yet occurred to one!