Homemade liqueurs with essential oils

IS IT POSSIBLE TO MAKE HOMEMADE LIQUEURS WITH ESSENTIAL OILS?

For many years we have been serving some important Italian artisan distilleries with our essential oils.
For example, if you have ever drunk a craft gin from our country, it is very likely that our juniper was in it.

For a few months we have been producing the our first liqueur with the scent of citrus fruits, spices and herbs from our catalogue.

But is it possible to use essential oils to make homemade liqueurs?
Yes, and with a little care you could get much more satisfying results than with fresh ones.

First of all, you should know that essential oils are widely used in the liquor and spirits industry.
Why?
Because the essential oil of a plant has some benefits.
– The first is control: being able to add your aroma in drops will make it much easier to measure its intensity.
– The second is the aroma itself: plants have their seasonality, when it is not the right period it is difficult for the freshness and goodness to be the same, while essential oils fix in time the best moment of each plant as they are obtained in the so-called “balsamic moment”.
You will also have the certainty of having a controlled and natural product; our plants are grown without the use of any medicine and our essential oils are subjected to scrupulous laboratory controls before being put on the market. (Can you perhaps say the same about the lemon peels you find at the supermarket?)
– The third is the quantity and the waste: for a liter of limoncello you have to peel 8 lemons (about 1 kg) and after that it becomes particularly difficult to squeeze the juice so that whole fruits are often thrown away, while to make a limoncello with essential oil you will need 10 drops (recipe at the bottom of the article).

We are often asked if it is difficult to use essential oils in the food sector but a simple trick is to proceed one drop at a time and taste, whatever preparation you are making.

For liqueurs the process is quite simple: buy ethyl alcohol at 96° (not lower as ethyl alcohol reaches its maximum purity in food distillates at 95.8° while lower grades may contain molecules that are not very pleasant for the body), demineralised or mineral water with low fixed residue and high quality sugar.

Mix water and sugar in a saucepan over low heat without bringing to the boil (syrups for bitters and cordials generally contain between 20% and 30% of sugar), then add the alcohol; for example, to obtain about 30° you will mix 300ml of alcohol and 700ml of syrup per litre (NB this is an approximate calculation, if you want to reach exactly 30° get an alcohol content spreadsheet).

Once you have the basic mixture, you are ready to add your essential oils and you can proceed, as already said, one drop at a time until you reach the desired taste. If you are undecided whether to add another drop or not, we always recommend stopping and tasting at a SECOND moment because most of the time you make a mistake when adding (personal experience).

Once you have discovered how many drops of essential oil to add to the basic mixture, you will have your recipe that can always be replicated; write it down on a sheet of paper and the next time mix the drops first in the pure alcohol and then add the syrup, this will help to prevent the oil from separating from the other liquids, especially in low grades.

Adding essential oils to alcohol can produce cloudiness and make your mixture milky, if you want to eliminate it filter your liquor with paper (take a funnel and cover it with paper towel and place it on top of a container, pour the liquid and wait for it to drip, it will take a while).

We already know that at this point you will have some doubts and we will try to answer the most common ones below.

Why should I use essential oils? Fresh is so much better!
False, or rather, in addition to the issue of availability all year round, perhaps not everyone knows that when you put citrus peels or spices in alcohol, you are simply using the alcohol itself as a solvent to extract the essential oils contained in the raw material. We do it in steam distillation and, in addition to being good professionals, our extraction method goes much deeper into the plant and extracts many more aromatic molecules with which you will make your liqueur much more interesting and detailed in taste.

Why demineralized or low fixed residue water?
All the liqueurs you have tasted in your life are made with osmosis water, a process that demineralizes the water from the aqueducts (even beer is often made this way), using "purified" water helps to keep your liqueur longer and will make the taste much clearer and "focused" (if you don't believe it, try it, the difference is surprising!!)

Are essential oils harmful?
Essential oils are generally non-toxic, and on our site we clearly indicate when they are. However, do not take anything for granted in this field because there are some oils that come from edible plants that are not.

Ready to see a simple recipe?
Limoncello with Santa Bianca Lemon essential oil Essential Oils

Ingredients for one litre of liqueur at about 30°

300ml of 96° ethyl alcohol
700ml of 20% or 30% sugar syrup
10 drops of Lemon Essential Oil Saint Bianca

Mix the various ingredients as above and let it rest.

How much?
The beauty and convenience of using essential oils also lies in the fact that by preparing them in the morning these liqueurs will be ready for your guests to taste that same evening without long waits.

Try it and send us your recipes!