Diet diet diet… all over my elimination diet. But its going on very well so im making some great future plans. Like picturing myself enjoying ‘my homemade’ gin, sipping out from a huge glass sitting in the sun with friends all around and chatting while getting slowly drunk till the sun goes down. F’ck coron@ virus. THIS IS A BEAUTIFUL PLAN.

And its MAY now – everything is blooming, trees and bushes are all covered in flowers. Its time now to capture this moment and preserve it in a bottle for later on.

Let me share how im making my ‘own gin’ for the day i will celebrate my successful diet outcome. Hahahaha – not so far by now. Less ahead then behind.

First of all – im not really making gin – in a way that im not destilling it from sloe berries from scratch. Thats too much work and really doesnt worth the pain as u can find massive selection of gins in any bigger supermarket from cheap sh*t to expensive luxurious ones. What i do… is make it unique by giving some personal touch into.

Here is what im talking about. My LILAC GIN.

Lilac is a very powerful and gorgeous looking flower growing in bushes. In Hungary we all know that Mother’s Day is coming soon when we see Lilac blooming (mother’s day is the first Sunday in May). U have all the palette of white and purple colors. Smell is pure, calm but powerful and vibrant. See how its coming out in my GnT :)

So first of all u buy the cheapest gin u find in your shop. I know it might sounds weird from me – but we dont want to have any particular flavour in our booze – mainly because we want to flavour it up. So get the cheapest gin – its still gonna be alright dont worry. Then get out and pick some lilac (or other flowers i will talk about later on).

The hardest part is probably to get rid of the stems – they can make your gin bitter easily. So while picking the flowers off try not to loose the ‘anthers’, the middle yellow bit which is pretty nice and sweet. I know it looks crazy… but just give a try :)

I always use a touch of lemonjuice and a bit of sweetness (honey, maple or simple sugar) to macerate my flowers and get out as much flavour as possible. Then just squeeze them in the bottle and fill up with your gin. I used a touch of cardamom with my lilac because i think it suits.

So u just have to repeat this 2 more times in the next two days leaving the flowers in the gin overnight – changing the flowers every day. Its fast method and the result is a pretty strong flavour. Final tasting after and last strain.

U can try the slow method – waiting for a week or more with the flowers innit. But after the ‘flower boom’ it might turn more greeny and bitter – so just keep checking. Every flower is different. But u will not regret – pinky promise.

What about some ELDERFLOWER GIN?

It wasnt a serious question to be fair. Elderflower is one of my very favourit. Pure spring. Reminds me to my childhood sooooo much when we were making elderflower drink in huge demisons (i was small so it looked so big!) and let them infuse for 3 days in our cold dark shed… we kids could hardly wait to open and pour it on some ice and finish off quickly before the sun melted the ice cubes. If i can wish for one flower to bloom all year around – that would be elderflower for sure.

Same process here – try to catch the flower heads after the bees but before those little annoying black bugs – they can cover the whole plant and u never gonna get rid of them.

U dont panic – no need to pick each every tiny flowers off from the stems – but try to cut the main stem off, u can leave small green bits on, its ok. Macerate the flowers with some maple and lemon juice the same way i did before – i add a touch of vanilla here cause i know it will give a beautiful hidden aroma. Squeeze them in your bottle and fill it up. U dont need to change the flowers just leave them a bit longer to infuse, like 4-5 days – feel free to ‘taste’ after the 3rd day LOL. Upp uppp upppp. And wait.

footnote: both of the flowers (with many more) are great in tea, cordial and also making vinegar with. Endless possibilities. LOVE.