The latest delicious offering from Bourbony Labs is a pineapple sage and lavender liqueur. I started the steeping process about a month ago, using fresh pineapple sage leaves and lavender flowers, leaves, and stems from our garden. Unfortunately I didn’t weigh the amounts but I would estimate four or five stems of pineapple sage, each with 12-15 leaves, and five or six clipped lavender stems that I trimmed down to size but otherwise used whole.
(Interestingly, the blood orange and rosemary liqueur I made earlier this year is nowhere to be found on this site – I could have sworn I used it in a recipe or two… hmmm…)
These were placed in a large (70oz/2.1L) Mason jar with a spring lid, along with 1 liter of Cruzan Aged Light Rum and roughly a cup of Old Fourth Distillery Vodka. For a little extra zest, I added a 1/4 cup of black peppercorns. Sealed, and placed in a dark pantry for about two weeks. I’d go in every day or so and give the container a swirl. After two weeks, I added simple syrup made of 2/3 cup of white sugar and 1-1/3 cup of water. This sat for another 10 days, during which time I swirled the mixture around at least once every day or two.
The resulting liqueur is super-sweet. The steeping process gave it a nice, dark tea coloring. It has a sweet, lavender aroma with hints of pineapple and mint. On the front end, you definitely taste the lavender and, to a lesser extend, the pineapple sage. There’s a very interesting spearmint-like aftertaste that lingers on the back of the tongue.
However, as a sipper, this liqueur is much too sweet. “It’s really good, but it needs something,” as my wife said. I tried mixing it with several different spirits. It definitely goes well with a nice botanical gin. I mixed it with Old Fourth Distillery’s Atlanta-Made Gin, with which it blends very nicely. The botanicals in the gin and the botanicals in the liqueur compliment each other quite nicely. I tried a variation of this with Aperol, which also worked well.
Bourbon, on the other hand, pretty much overpowered the liqueur. I tried a standard Old Fashioned template, and was somewhat disappointed. The other liqueur I made, a blood orange and rosemary concoction, worked very well with the bourbon. This, not so much.
Because the liqueur is largely rum-based, you could mix it with rum, although I feel like that would be overkill. It might be a nice mix with vodka — I wouldn’t know, as I don’t care much for vodka so I don’t keep it around except to make liqueurs and to have vodka on hand should a guest request a vodka martini or something.
In any event, I’ll be working on a recipe or two using the pineapple sage and lavender liqueur in the coming days, so keep an eye out for them. If you want to know right away when I post a new recipe, sign up for the mailing list below and you’ll be the first to know!
