Maple Wineberry Vodka

This maple wineberry vodka is made by infusing vodka with sweet and tart wild berries similar to a raspberry; the same technique can be used with any fruit for a flavorful addition to summertime cocktails.

Every July at my dads house upstate, the wild wineberry plants that dot the borders of the yard burst with sweet and tart little red berries that are similar to a raspberry. My childhood Saturday afternoons – when they weren’t spent working with my dad and brother building things like the pizza oven – were spent playing in the yard, pausing to (carefully) grab and handfuls of wild berries and chow down. I say carefully because these wineberry plants are sprinkled with thorns, which combined with the fact that the plants are pretty large and sprawling and the berries quite small, make the fruit somewhat annoying to pick in excess. This makes it difficult to use them for things where you need a lot of berries, like a pie, and in my childhood they were pretty much only eaten straight off the plant by the handful on warm summer days.

 

My dad’s girlfriend Nicole is a trooper when it comes to picking handfuls of wineberries – and not immediately eating them. This past weekend we braved the mosquitos, ticks, stinging nettles and thorns that make up the wilderness of my dads property, not to mention the blazing sun, to help her pick berries for what she described only as “wineberry experiments.” We came home beat, with bites and scratches as proof of our hard work, but it was well worth it for a huge bowlful these delicious little berries. But while this past weekend’s bounty of berries will be used in new recipes in the upcoming weeks and months, last summer’s berries are the heart and soul of this maple wineberry vodka.

 

 

 

The recipe Nicole used for this fruit infused vodka, which she made up herself, is really quite simple – so simple that she actually wrote it right on the label of the jar she stored it in. Wine berries – Nicole eyeballed it, but it was probably a cup or two – get added to a jar with 3 tablespoons of maple syrup and 9 oz of vodka. The maple wineberry vodka then gets stored in a cool dark place optimally for a few days, but up to a few months, to allow the flavor and sweetness of the fruit to really infuse into the vodka. There is nothing in there that will really go bad, and the vodka works to preserve the berries, so there really is no need to actually go through the jarring process – just make sure the lid is on nice and tight.

The wineberries used for this recipe were frozen from the summer before, but since wineberries may be hard to find if they’re not growing in your yard, raspberries or blackberries can be used instead for a similar flavor. Really any fruit or berry, fresh or frozen, can be used in this same technique to infuse vodka. Simply add the vodka or fruit to a mason jar along with any desired herbs, spices, or sweeteners, and allow it to sit for a minimum of a few days to infuse. We strained our vodka before serving to remove the tiny seeds from the berries, but feel free not to if you don’t mind the texture. We served our maple wineberry vodka was served in two ways: either on the rocks, or mixed with lemon soda for a lighter drink with some added tartness and fizz – my personal favorite way to drink it. Regardless of what you serve it with or what fruit you use, a sweet fruit infused vodka will put a fresh spin on your favorite summertime cocktail.