The Theory

Making fruit-flavoured liqueur is fairly simple in theory - regardless whether it's sloe gin, or anything else - you need fruit, sugar and some kind of alcoholic spirit.

These ingredients are then mixed together and left to steep for a while so that the flavours of the fruit can be drawn out and infused into the liquid - but the fruit needs to be crushed or broken - which is messy and time consuming - and the infusion process may take months.

Fruit flavoured Liqueurs

This is something that crossed my mind a while back when I was sitting preparing sloes for making sloe gin - a drink that I do enjoy making and consuming - so not really too bad a chore.

But I just got to wondering if there was another way to make a tasty fruity drink without too much fuss, and maybe without the season-criticality that comes with liqueurs made from fresh fruit.

The shortcut we're trying here is to take fruit that has already been processed and mixed with sugar - in the form of jam.

This should not only cut down on the preparation time, but also the time taken to infuse - because the fruit is already substantially broken up and the flavour components are in solution - albeit a thick, spreadable solution.

Method

It really couldn't be simpler - a 450g jar of raspberry jam and a 75cl bottle of vodka put together into a clean, empty litre bottle, capped and shaken to dissolve the jam, then left for the solids to settle out.

Here's a short video detailing the whole process:

The Result

The end result is a beautifully crystal clear ruby-coloured liqueur that tastes not just of raspberries, but has that delicious sweet dessert aroma of raspberry jam.

Not too sweet or syrupy - so enjoyable on its own, but probably also nice diluted with a little soda water or tonic, or used as the basis of a cocktail.