The Pink Drink

Several weeks before Christmas 2008, I made homemade cranberry liquor, gave some away at Christmas and put the remaining jars in the barn to rest.  And completely forgot about them til last Saturday when we had a barn sale and my daughter-in-law found them while looking for more stuff to sell.  We cracked a jar open, fished some shot glasses out of a sale box and drank some. It was excellent - smooth, fruity but not exactly refreshing on that 85 degree afternoon, but when we added it to some pink lemonade and ice, it was transformed.  Shirley’s Pink Drink now will be our official drink of summer 2010.  You can buy cranberry liquor, or you can make it like I did. 

Here is the process, excerpted from my original blog post at The Domestic Episodes of a Rodeo Princess (dec2008)

“First step: research. I read about fifty recipes on line, all of which seem to be cut and pasted from an original one.

16 oz Cranberries1

1 1/2 cups vodka

3 cups of simple syrup - equal parts of sugar and water, heated until the sugar is completely dissolved

1/2 lemon or lime peel

1/4 orange peel

Optional: 

1 stick cinnamon

1/8 tsp. ground allspice

I quadrupled this, which is why I have leftovers in the barn. 

Second step: buy the ingredients and amass the tools. (I even buy a new vegetable peeler because I realize that the one I have is not very sharp, and I bought it in 1978). DO NOT get any of the white stuff in the mix because it will taste bitter.  I have to go to the Liquor Store to buy the vodka. In Pennsylvania, you have to buy wine and liquor (except rubbing) at a special state owned store, with state employees, during restricted hours. I am explaining this for out of state readers, because this system exists NO WHERE ELSE in the world.  If you want beer or malt beverages, that’s another store. But not on Sundays, at all. I think that this is a holdover from our Quaker heritage, not that I know many Quakers who don’t bend an elbow. I googled the subject but got more complaints about the system than information on its history. However, Pennsylvania was also the location of the Whiskey Rebellion - moonshiners fighting government regulation of home stills. However, here I am at the liquor store, buying three huge bottles of vodka. I can read minds, so I know that everyone in the store has noticed what is in my cart and has decided I am an alcoholic. I fight the urge to explain the purchase to the clerk, because A.) I know he thinks I am an alcoholic B.) I know he doesn’t care. I trip going out the door and feel that everyone has confirmed their suspicions. I have been to the Liquor Store about four times in my life and felt this way each time. More pointless self loathing.

Third Step: Mulching the cranberries and pouring the vodka in the big jars. Add the simple syrup. Close up and wait for a while - maybe two-three weeks, or as I did, 18 months. “

The cranberry mash is great over lemon sorbet, or vanilla ice cream or pound cake.  Strain off the liquor and use in cocktails or serve as cordial in small glasses.  I like to keep it in the freezer, but this stuff does not spoil.