Here we go again. After my last fairly successful attempt at making liqueurs, I've made some more umeshu-inspired concoctions, and I'll admit I got a little crazy with it this time.
I amassed these ingredients and a list of the planned concoctions. As you can tell by the two lines that are struck out, I abandoned two of them. I will get to the reasons shortly.
1) Coconut (light) and Cut Spike Rum
2) Coconut (heavy) and Cut Spike Rum
3) Coconut and Blackheart Rum
4) Bing cherries and Christian Brother's Brandy
5) Longan berries and Cut Spike Vodka
6) Dragonfruit and Cut Spike Vodka
7) Dragonfruit and Suzume Shochu
8) Soursop and Cut Spike Vodka
9) Soursop and Suzume Shochu
10) Cactus paddles and Suzume Shochu
After my last experience, I learned a couple things. The first is that I don't really want to use sugar cubes again. I didn't want to use them in the first place, but I couldn't find any Rock Sugar (or 氷砂糖). I've had six months to look and found some.
Why exactly the sugar has a yellow-brown color to it, is something I don't understand. Also, there's a bit of a sharp smell coming from them. It reminds me of ginseng. I can't taste it in the sugar so I don't think it will affect the concoctions. And not that it matters that much, I could only find rock sugar that was made in China.
1) Coconut (light) and Cut Spike Rum
2) Coconut (heavy) and Cut Spike Rum
3) Coconut and Blackheart Rum
The first three are just upgraded versions of the coconut and Cut Spike Rum concoction I made last time. This time though, I am adding an excessive amount of coconut to one and adding a light amount to another. Thirdly, I wanted to see what would happen to already spiced rum if coconut were added, so I pulled out my bottle of Blackheart Rum.
The process began with the usual coconut prep. I drained the coconut and cracked it open using my bag and smash technique. And just like last time, I found out that the first coconut I opened had already gone bad. I've decided to leave the pictures out because not only was the coconut water yellowish, the inside was full of a greenish mold. Ick.
After that, I went out and got two more coconuts because I didn't want to keep making trips to the grocery store. I was immediately glad for that foresight because the first one I opened had something wrong with it. The coconut meat had a weird fermented smell was soft and squishy instead of fresh and firm. I have spared you the pictures on this one mostly because visually nothing looks amiss.
The third coconut which is the one you see in the pictures, however did something I had never seen before. It popped out just as you see in the above shot. The coconut meat was firm and came out as one beautiful egg-shaped piece. This made my life a whole lot easier.
I cut it into slices and added varying amounts to each jar. For the light one, I only added four pieces. For the heavy one, I lost count at ten pieces, but I think they're might be twelve pieces in it. Going moderate, the Blackheart Rum got only seven pieces.
Then I added a chunk of rock sugar, poured in the alcohol, and sealed them up. The first two, as aforementioned, had Cut Spike Rum added to them. I rather like the mouth feel and the whiskey-like touches that their rum has so this should make for a robust coconut rum just like last time. Blackheart Rum, on the other hand, is a spiced rum that somehow ends up tasting like cherries which may or may not be a good fit for the coconut. We'll see.
4) Bing cherries and Christian Brother's Brandy
Revisiting berries and brandy, I chose bing cherries for the mixture this time around.
Cherries thankfully, aren't complicated. Using a knife, I sliced around them and popped out their seeds. I thought of throwing the whole fruit into the brandy, but I decided there was always the possibility that the cherry pit could contribute some bad flavors. The cutting process amused me because the cherries gave the paper towel the appearance of scattered lipstick kisses. I'll have to remember that for some sort of future prank.
I tossed in about half as much cherries as brandy and added only a small piece of sugar. Brandy's pretty sweet already, so I think it won't need the help. I sealed it up, and Voila! #4 was complete.
5) Longan berries and Cut Spike Vodka
Longan berries. Do you even know what Longan berries are? I really didn't until this project. I was trying to get lychee, a red on the outside but white on the inside fruit, but I couldn't find any. I did find these though, and since they are a relative of the lychees I thought it would work.
First of all, they do not taste the same, but they are just as hard to peel. The outer shell is just that, a shell. It cracks and sheds only with a pretty hefty amount of effort. I'd place the opening difficulty of a longan berry right in between a walnut and a kiwi. One requires a special tool, the other doesn't, but this one sorta just takes elbow grease.
The most important thing to remember though with this family of fruits (Lychee, Longan berry, etc) is that the seed pits taste horrible. In fact, it's one of those things people like me just have to actually try. Bad idea. If you're like me, you'll stick one in your mouth and bite it anyway. You'll regret it. The black pit casts an entrapment spell of bitterness on your tongue and just won't go away. Water doesn't save you. Sweet fruits don't chase it away - they just taste nasty because of the effect. I resorted to beer and that sort of worked, but the effect of the bitter ick made the beer nearly un-enjoyable until the end of the bottle.
That said, it is too bad the seeds aren't palatable because they are a pain to extract. Initially, I used the knife to try and get the squishy fruit off the seed. Then I got frustrated with that and feared that I would slice myself if I slipped. Surprisingly, the seeds come out easier if you don't use a knife. You ended up losing a bit of the fruit on each one, but the pit peels out nicely with just your fingers.
In a twist of fate, I didn't actually like the taste of Longan berries, so instead of making a whole batch, I only made a half batch. They just don't have the same sweetness of a lychee. I'm hoping that the Cut Spike Vodka has the sense to only extract flavors that I like.
6) Dragonfruit and Cut Spike Vodka
7) Dragonfruit and Suzume Shochu
Dragonfruit is a fruit that is more impressive in name and externally than in taste or internally. The outside is bright and vivid, but the inside is gray scale. The fruit itself has a texture not unlike kiwi, but the taste is much milder and even leaves you questioning whether it is a tropical fruit at all. However, I rather like it precisely because of its mild sweetness.
Getting into one is easy. If it is ripe, the skin peels off a bit like a banana peel. I like to start it by cutting off the end and then pulling on the edges. You end up with a nice large fruit with barely a mess at all. Now if mangoes could take a lesson from this fruit, I'd probably eat more of them.
I cubed the fruit, added a couple chunks of sugar and added the alcohols. I decided to go with both Cut Spike Vodka and Suzume Shochu so that I could compare later.
8)
Soursop and Cut Spike Vodka
9)
Soursop and Suzume Shochu
In short, after cutting the soursop open, I hesitated. Then I tried it. It was really fleshy and sour with a distinct taste that reminded me of a lemon left on the sidewalk too long. Somehow, even though I was still a touch curious what kind of liqueur it would make, I couldn't convince myself to waste the alcohol. Too bad too. Soursops are expensive at about eight dollars a pound.
10) Cactus paddles and Suzume Shochu
This one just seemed like a bad idea, but then again, nothing ventured nothing gained. After removing about a half a dozen little cactus spikes from my hands, I kinda wished I hadn't ventured. The process for cleaning a cactus paddle is something I haven't perfected yet. Using a long knife and a glove, I somehow got ones tines all removed.
This is when something hit me or rather stuck to my hand. The paddles had a clear ooze coming from the points where I'd cut it. I suspect that will increase the viscosity of the mixture, but that didn't concern me near as much as the taste and smell. All I can describe it as is "green plant matter." Whatever the result is, my guess is that it is going to be like drinking a fresh mowed yard.
Again, because I'm leery of the end results, I only made a half batch of this one. I thought of going with Vodka on this one, but I then I decided the lightness of the Suzume shochu would make for a more interesting combination. Its breathy grain-born smoothness should offset the strange viscous goo from the paddles.
Here are some pictures of the end results.
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| Left to right, top to bottom, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,and 10 |
1) Coconut (light) and Cut Spike Rum
2) Coconut (heavy) and Cut Spike Rum
3) Coconut and Blackheart Rum
4) Bing cherries and Christian Brother's Brandy
5) Longan berries and Cut Spike Vodka
6) Dragonfruit and Cut Spike Vodka
7) Dragonfruit and Suzume Shochu
10) Cactus paddles and Suzume Shochu
See you in 2-3 months for some of these, and not until December for the others!
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