Cranberry Gin

Home-made Cranberry Gin

Zingy and zesty home-made Cranberry Gin is one of my favourite seasonal drinks. This delicious Cranberry liqueur has the wonderful sweet-sour taste of fresh cranberries and is perfect at a Christmas or New Year party or after a seasonal family celebration. I make it for my family to drink over the holiday season but also make a few extra bottles as they are brilliant Christmas gifts.

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What you need to know about making Cranberry Gin

  • Although it is incredibly easy to make, you do need to think ahead. You cannot just rustle up a batch of Cranberry Gin to drink tomorrow as it needs around a month for the infusion of flavour to happen.
  • You can make it with fresh cranberries, when they are in season in the winter months, but you can also use frozen cranberries if you want to make it at another time of year.
  • It is important to prick the cranberries with a skewer or sharp knife as this helps to release the flavour into the gin.
  • I use a basic, “own-brand” gin from the supermarket to make this recipe. It is not worth using anything fancy. You can also use vodka as an alternative.

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Cranberry Gin flavour variations

I have suggested adding a sprig of rosemary to the cranberries in this recipe. I think rosemary combines well with their sweet-sharp flavour. It is also one of the few fresh herbs that I can harvest from my garden in the winter months.

Sometimes, I make my Cranberry Gin without any additional flavourings. If I do decide to add another flavouring, I tend to just add one as I like the clear, clean taste of the cranberries.

The following flavourings go well with cranberries, so please feel free to experiment.

  • Orange or other citrus fruit such as clementines, mandarins or tangerines – add a few large pieces of the zest to the jar with the cranberries
  • Cinnamon – add a cinnamon stick
  • Ginger – add some pieces of fresh ginger

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Other home-made gin liqueur recipes

If you enjoy this Cranberry Gin, you may also be interested in my other easy recipes for Rhubarb GinPlum GinDamson Gin, Blackberry Gin and Elderflower Gin.

Other Cranberry recipes

I am a big fan of cranberries. They freeze very well so I use them throughout the year. However, as they are in season in winter, I make a lot of cranberry recipes around Christmas and New Year.

  • Cranberry Sauce – a classic and so much nicer when you make it yourself. I add cinnamon, white wine and orange and it is always on my table for Christmas dinner!
  • Cranberry Ice Cream – slightly more unusual but this is one of my go-to ways of using up any left over Cranberry Sauce. My other is Cranberry Pavlova which often appears as a dessert for family meals between Christmas and New Year.

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Home-made Cranberry Gin liqueur recipe

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Cranberry Gin

  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 30
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: 400 ml 1x
  • Category: Gin
  • Cuisine: English

Description

This easy Cranberry Gin liqueur has the zingy sweet-sour taste of fresh cranberries. Make it for your family or give as a seasonal gift.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 200 g (7 oz) cranberries (fresh or frozen)
  • 200 g (7 oz) caster sugar (superfine sugar)
  • 400 ml (17 fl oz) gin
  • 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary (optional)

Instructions

  1. If using frozen cranberries, allow to defrost.
  2. Wash the cranberries thoroughly. Prick each of them several times with a sharp knife.   This will allow the juice – and flavour – to transfer to the gin.
  3. Put the cranberries into a sterilised jar.  Add the sugar and then the gin. Make sure the gin covers all the cranberries.

  4. Add the sprigs of rosemary.

  5. Shake thoroughly to ensure it is mixed.

  6. Seal the jar and leave in a cool, dry, dark place for two weeks.

  7. At the end of that time, the gin is ready to drink.    Strain the gin into sterilised bottles through a clean muslin or cotton cloth held in a funnel and it will keep for approximately six months.


Notes

You can sterilise your jar by washing it in warm, soapy water, rinsing well and then drying off for 15 minutes in an oven set at 140C/120C fan/gas 1.

Although it only takes 30 minutes preparation time, you will need to allow four weeks for the flavour to develop.

You can scale this recipe up or down according to how much cranberry gin you want to make.   Simply double, triple or quadruple the quantities of all ingredients to make more and halve to make less.

Keywords: cranberry, cranberries, gin

Blackberry Gin

Home-made Blackberry Gin

This method for home-made Blackberry Gin is incredibly easy and results in a beautiful ruby-coloured, sweet liqueur. It has a delicious, rich, sweet-sour flavour.

I have only recently started making Blackberry Gin. Having had some initial success with Elderflower Gin and Rhubarb Gin (which is great for cocktails!) last year, I started to think about other seasonal fruits that I could use to produce delicious home-made gin! I have always been a keen blackberry picker but, in the past, have used them for jam and also cakes, puddings and desserts such as Blackberry Muffins, Blackberry Crumble and Blackberry Fool. However, it occurred to me that they might taste pretty good as a flavouring for gin.

Late August and early September is blackberry season in the Cotswolds. On my daily dog walks, I see the brambles growing rapidly during early summer. By mid-summer, their flowers are turning to fruit. In late summer, within a week or so, they suddenly seem to be covered in hundreds of juicy blackberries. You can, of course, buy blackberries all year round in supermarkets these days. However, there is nothing like picking your own. Even people who would never forage for any other kind of wild produce have memories of going blackberrying. Where I live, it is a pretty popular thing to do. On my relatively short drive to work last week, I saw no less than three groups of people, equipped with plastic containers and thick gloves, picking the blackberries that grow along the roadside.

In the past few years, there has been an increase in the popularity of flavoured gins, including Blackberry Gin, produced by niche producers and selling for a premium in supermarkets.  I think home-made and traditional is best in terms of both flavour and price, so why not try making your own? It is really easy!

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What you need to know about making Blackberry Gin

  • First off, it is incredibly easy. Even to describe it as a recipe is a bit of an exaggeration! You simply need to combine the blackberries, sugar and gin and leave for the delicious fruity flavour to infuse the liquid.
  • However, you do need to think ahead. You cannot just rustle up a batch of Blackberry Gin to drink tomorrow as it needs around a month for the infusion of flavour to happen.
  • I think of this as a seasonal recipe and make it in August and September when there are plentiful wild blackberries growing near my house. I make a lot of infused gins around that time of year using season produce such as damsons, plums and also late rhubarb. Their sweet, fruitiness makes them ideal as drinks over the Christmas and New Year period.
  • However, if you want to make this recipe using bought blackberries – either fresh or frozen – it will still work. It will just be a bit more expensive to make as the main flavouring ingredient is not free! Also, I find that shop-bought blackberries tend to be sweeter than wild blackberries so you won’t get such a tangy sweet-sour flavour.
  • I use a basic, “own-brand” gin from the supermarket to make this recipe. It is not worth using anything fancy. You can also use vodka as an alternative.

Loved this recipe? Checkout the Recipe Index

How to drink Blackberry Gin

The result of this recipe is a sweet, alcoholic liqueur-style drink. I like it best served on its own in a small glass (or maybe several small glasses!). You can drink it as an aperitif before a meal or, my preference, as a liqueur at the end of a meal. It is also a good to drink as an accompaniment to a dessert course, as alternative to a dessert wine. This is particularly true if the dessert includes blackberries or other complementary flavours such as apple.

Loved this recipe? Checkout the Recipe Index

Other home-made fruit gins

If you enjoy this Blackberry Gin, you may also be interested in my other easy recipes for Rhubarb Gin, Plum Gin, Damson Gin and Elderflower Gin.

Blackberry Gin recipe

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Blackberry Gin

  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Total Time: 15
  • Yield: 200 ml 1x
  • Category: Gin
  • Cuisine: English

Description

Making your own Blackberry Gin is so easy and the end result is a delicious reminder of blackberry season that you can enjoy all year around!


Ingredients

Scale
  • 200 g (7 oz) blackberries
  • 100 g  (3.5 oz) caster or super-fine sugar
  • 200 ml (quarter of a pint) gin

 


Instructions

  1. Wash the blackberries thoroughly.
  2. Mix the blackberries thoroughly with the sugar in a large bowl.
  3. Spoon the blackberries and sugar into a sterilised jar.  Leave for 24 hours to allow the blackberries to macerate in the sugar and   release their juices.
  4. Add the gin to the jar of blackberries and sugar.  Shake thoroughly to ensure it is mixed.
  5. Leave in a cool, dry, dark place for four weeks.
  6. At the end of that time, the gin is ready to drink!    Strain the gin into sterilised bottles through a muslin cloth held in a funnel and it will keep for approximately six months.

 


Notes

You can sterilise your jar by washing it in warm, soapy water, rinsing well and then drying off for 15 minutes in an oven set at 140C/120C fan/gas 1.       

Although it only takes 15 minutes preparation time, you will need to allow 24 hours for the blackberries to macerate  in the sugar and, once you have added the gin, it will take a further four weeks to allow the flavour to develop. 

You can scale this recipe up or down according to how many blackberries you feel like picking.  Add half as much weight in sugar as your weight of blackberries.  The amount of gin in ml should be equivalent to the weight in grams of your blackberries. 

Keywords: blackberries, blackberry, gin, home-made gin, blackberry recipe