Tips and interesting facts about tinctures.
The devil is in the details - things to remember.
Tips and curiosities:
- The fruit should be healthy, fresh, very ripe. They should be rinsed thoroughly, pile and remove the seed nests.
- Water - use only spring water.
- Honey - the best one will be bought from a good apiary (I do not recommend cheap store honeys). The type of honey should depend on our preferences.
- Storage - in a dark place or in a dark bottle, which prevents loss of color.
- Tinctures are the better the longer they mature (min. a few months and maybe even a few years).
- Pitting - the stones contain a lot of prussic acid which causes nausea and headaches, therefore it is worth having stoners, especially for cherries.
- Alcohol - Use only from proven sources, preferably about power 70 %.
- We always pour the ready-made infusion into the sugar syrup, not the other way around, because the tincture may become cloudy.
- Maceration should take place in a warm place.
- Maturation or aging should take place in a dark and cool place.
- Filter preferably with gauze, cloth or coffee filter.
- Additional aroma can be obtained by adding to the tincture, e.g.. cinnamon, cloves, vanilla, cardamom, lemon zest.
- The vessel in which we will prepare our tincture, should be thoroughly scalded beforehand.
- Only glassware and bottles should be used(plastic is absolutely not suitable).
- Pure spirit should not be used 96 %, because it will not extract all the aromas from the fruit.