In many countries of the Far East, lingonberries are considered a healing berry, with which you can treat colds and infectious diseases. Home-made lingonberry-based tinctures not only preserve the healing properties of berries as much as possible, but are also an original treat thanks to a pleasant aroma and light astringency of taste.
Selection and preparation of ingredients
For the preparation of drinks, you can use both fresh and frozen berries. In the second case, the tincture preparation time is slightly reduced. When using fresh berries, they must be sorted out by removing rotten or moldy fruits. As the basis, choose cognac, moonshine, alcohol or vodka (depending on the recipe).
Did you know? Lingonberry has a fairly rich and vibrant taste, which sometimes completely interrupts the astringency of alcohol, creating a deceptive impression of a light drink. Be careful, after 3–4 glasses can be pretty drunk.
Recipes
There are a large number of interesting recipes for cranberry tinctures, but it is better to pay attention to classic proven options.
Best recipe
815 minutes
Nutritional value per 100 g:
- It is necessary to freeze lingonberries (you can immediately buy frozen) and fill it in a glass jar with moonshine. Such berries will give juice faster and immediately react with alcohol.
- After this, add honey to the jar and shake the mixture a little.
- Now the jar is covered with a tight lid and cleaned in a cool dark room for a month. Shake the drink every day, so that all the honey is sold in moonshine.
- After a month, the tincture is filtered through cheesecloth and bottled for storage.
Video recipe
Important! Do not store the finished tincture in a plastic container — This reduces the shelf life to 3 months. The main reason is that plastic allows air to pass through, causing rapid oxidation of the drink.
With honey
215 minutes
Nutritional value per 100 g:
- It is necessary to rinse lingonberries and pour it directly with leaves into a glass container for infusion (this will give the drink an additional taste and aroma). You do not need to grind the berries: thanks to this approach, the tincture will be transparent.
- After this, you need to add honey to the berries and pour vodka into the mixture.
- The drink must be placed in a cool room without direct sunlight for 1 month. Shake the container once a week so that the honey is completely dispersed.
- After a month, the finished tincture is filtered and poured into a clean glass bottle for storage.
Important! If frozen berries are to be used in the process of preparing the tincture, they should be thawed only naturally at room temperature. If you pour berries with boiling water, they will lose the bulk of their beneficial properties.
Video recipe
Filling
845 minutes
Nutritional value per 100 g:
- Wash and carefully sort the lingonberries, then chop them using a blender.
- Transfer the crushed berry puree and mint into the container for insisting, then pour the mixture with vodka.
- The drink must be left for 2 weeks in a dark, cool place.
- After this, the mixture must be filtered, squeezed the cake and add sugar.
- The drink must be poured into a clean container and put to ripen for another 2 weeks (in a cool place with no direct sunlight). The liquid must be shaken once every few days to achieve complete dissolution of the sugar granules.
- After the specified time, the beverage is filtered and poured into glass bottles for further storage.
Features of storage of blanks
Ready tinctures can be stored in glass corked containers without loss of taste and useful qualities up to 5 years. The main condition is that drinks should be kept in a dark, cool place without direct sunlight.
Did you know? Various lingonberry-based drinks are used even for the treatment of serious diseases. For example, decoctions from the leaves of this plant are used to eliminate anemia, genitourinary diseases, reduce the symptoms of gout and rheumatism.
Lingonberry tincture is a great option for home cooking. Due to the fact that the recipe is quite simple, the taste of the drink always turns out to be interesting and rich.
