Founder of Gift Her Gin, Louise spills her secrets on her two favourite flavour gin making and her process on these two very different but delicious gins, that is now somewhat of a tradition...
Damson Gin Making
To be honest it’s become something of a tradition ever since I came to live a mile or so up the hill from my good friend, KK: every year late summer/early autumn I nip down to her garden and plunder the beautifully ripe damsons from the old tree. Usually KK is out at work (a busy teacher/musician) and she only gets to see the finished product as a Christmas present from me to her.
This year it was different. The tree was uprooted during one of the summer storms and as KK spends more time at home at the moment, she picked me a proper bucket full and left it outside her back door for me to collect.
That week I picked up a couple of rather large bottles of gin during my weekly shop and instead of making one large jar of damson gin, I have made two! My recipe comes from an old internet search after testing a few; this is the best;
Method/Ingredients
Take one sterilised 2 litre Kilner jar
Rinse 1 kg damsons – remove any leaves, twigs or spoilt ones – break skin of each damson with a fork and place damson in the jar
Pour 500g of castor sugar over the damsons
Add 2L gin
Each day rock the jar to move the sugar around.
Decant into empty saved gin bottles through a sieve or a paper coffee filter Xmas week and share with friends and family!
Elderflower Gin Making
The new ‘tradition’ came earlier in the year and to be honest needs a lot of tweaking if I do it again next year! Home-made elderflower gin made from the flowers that grow in the hedgerow of my garden.
I made it for my daughter Emma’s socially distanced outside Summer Birthday BBQ. It was pale yellow in colour then, sampled and liked by both Emma and later by KK too! However, if I tell you that it still tastes good, it is the colour which is probably not one which you would want: it is the colour of mother earth now!
Method & Ingredients
Take one sterilised litre Kilner jar
Collect 12-16 elderflower heads and shake off any bugs.
Put in large jar and add 2 strips of lemon peel
Add 4 tbsp of castor sugar
Pour the 1L gin over
Leave to infuse for 24 hours
Strain through paper coffee filter and put into clean bottle.
Add tonic and ice as a long summer drink
If you try this next year or know the secret to getting home-made Elderflower flavoured Gin to remain a beautiful pale colour then do let me know!
My passion for all things gin has allowed me to create some beautiful gin gift boxes, that all have their very own flavour experience from some of the top gin distillery's all over the UK. It has been my pleasure to bring them all to life. Check them out here.
Love, Louise