Lime Liqueur

nospam@example.com (John) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:00:00 -0800

I've always been a big fan of limes. Love them in my water and especially in my sweet tea.

I have yet to see a Lime based/flavored Liqueur, something that has always disappointed me. So, when someone poured me a glass of homemade Limoncello/Lemoncello I realized I would have to make my own (a moral imperative, if you will).

Full list of ingredients and directions after the fold.

Mon Oct 26 - Day 1
I peeled 16 Limes into a sun tea jar. Then poured a 750 mL container of 151 Proof Everclear (Nevada being one of the states that doesn't allow anything higher than 151), along with about 3/4 of a 750 mL container of cheap 80 Proof Rum (less flavor than other rums). I used the rum to increase the sugar content, Limoncello recipes call for Vodka or Everclear only.

I ended up storing it under my sink for the next 16 days, shaking it up a little bit each day to unsettle the peels, making sure none got only partially absorbed.

Thu Nov 12 - Day 17
Strained the liqueur into a large stock pot; make simple syrup, let it cool, then added it to large stock pot, mixed the results, then busted out the funnel to try and bottle the stuff. Here I ran into problems.

Stock pots are unwieldy, thus attempting to pour one into a funnel to get liqueur into bottles did not work. Lost a little bit of alcohol attempting that :(
Thankfully, I had a soup ladle available and using that worked MUCH better. One bottle went into the freezer, the other 2 went into my pantry.

Fri Nov 27 - Day 32
Time to try my tasty beverage! I poured some into a shot glass and sipped. Very fragrant, mellow green in color, and quite strong. Jon would not approve of the alcohol taste in the beverage, but it was not bad. Next up was pouring a tasty beverage. For this I took a large glass, ice, water, Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka, and added my Lime Liqueur.

Very, very nice. Reminded me of having Sweet Tea with Limes like I had growing up, only with alcohol. After one glass I had a very pleasant buzz.
Continue reading "Lime Liqueur"

Review: Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka

nospam@example.com (John) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:00:00 -0700

As I was at the grocery store recently, I happened to find myself in the liquor aisle. At the time, I was looking for Everclear, but that is a matter for another blog post.
I did not find the Everclear, but what I did find was a number of Sweet Tea Vodkas, which piqued my curiosity enough that I decided to buy one. There were a number of choices, but I settled on Firefly brand Sweet Tea Vodka, for two reasons: the first should be obvious; the second was the combination of name and graphics. They evoked in me a memory of a time long past when my brother, my father, and I would go out in the backyard and catch fireflies in a mason jar (yes, one with holes in the lid) and bring them over for my little sister to see.

The bottle recommended that I pour a glass of half spring water, half vodka, with a lemon twist. I took this into consideration and started with a tall glass with about a quarter vodka, tap water, ice, and no lemon twist (I prefer limes personally); this had a nice taste of sweet tea to it, but not quite enough, so I poured in a bit more and tasted perfection. It tasted just like the sweet teas I grew up with; as Dolly Parton pointed out in Steel Magnolias, Sweet Tea is the House Wine of the South.

I have imbibed said concoction a few more times, and what little is left of the bottle is currently sitting in my freezer. I will definitely be buying more. If you grew up in the South or have ever enjoyed a nice cool glass of sweet tea, I would highly recommend this. A quick google reveals that I'm not the only one.

Now, whenever I make an alcoholic beverage that I talk with Jon about, I give a special consideration to the "bite", that is the taste of the alcohol in the beverage, something Jon (and most people) dislike. This is one beverage I can easily make for Jon, though as he didn't grow up down south and is more of a hot tea kind of person, I doubt this would be his cup of tea (look, sometimes a pun is like T-Ball: the only way to lose is to not swing).

Lastly, a quick word about the company. They use twitter and have a decently designed company website (warning: flash content); their store however does not (no link because it goes to an IP address).

Snowulf - Booze

Lime Liqueur

Review: Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka