Firstly the blueberry vodka didn’t wait till Christmas - it’s bloody lovely and I’ve very nearly supped the lot already. I’m now making a much bigger batch with frozen blueberries. I’m also recording how I make it much more thoroughly so I can reproduce it in future. Of course the second batch won’t be nearly as good and I’ll be really disappointed I bet.

Secondly the Plum Brandy has turned out to be a bit of a disaster. The brown sugar made the mixture cloudy - bad move their then. The plums weren’t really strong enough to overcome the brandy flavour (perhaps 1/2 brandy and half vodka would be better in future?) so I added some raisins and sultanas. Then the mixture seemed to be missing something so I added a cinnamon stick which didn’t seem to help so I added some cloves, but perhaps too many and the mixture had a rather earthy aftertaste. In the end I’ve added some mulled wine syrup. Apart from being cloudy it’s not unpleasant - quite Christmassy really. I dunno what to call it though - Adultered Plum Brandy perhaps?

Finally the Blackberry and Apple Vodka - this didn’t really have enough fruit, but did have a fairly pleasant summer fruits taste. It seemed a bit thin though - it was lacking something. As an experiment I added about 8 full star anise wheels for a few days. Wow, they work really fast and after only 3 or 4 days it was ready to bottle. I think if I’d left it any longer the aniseed flavour would have become overpowering. As it is it has a kick of aniseed over a nice fruity taste. Mark really likes it and has already finished the first bottle. If you like Ouzo you’d like this. I’m not that keen on Ouzo myself but I don’t mind a drop of this. This is good recipe for rescuing mixed fruit mishaps.