Jumbleberry Gin

It was my best friends birthday this weekend. As a crafty-type, I do normally try and give her a homemade present. I think she appreciates the effort, even if she is not always over the moon with the actually gift ..... oh how we laughed, when, in the early days of my crafting adventures, I presented her as a house-warming pressie with my original take on a hanging wreath decoration. It become obvious after a minute or two of awkward silence that she thought I'd given her a 'unique', if over-sized, accessory which she would have to wear. I can't describe the relieve on her face when I explained that it was actually for hanging on the wall.....

Anyway, we both love a G&T, so this year I thought it would be fun to make her some fruity flavoured gin. Ideally I would have liked to have used a mix of berries (to truly make some 'jumbleberry' gin), however, being the type of chick that leaves everything to the last minute, I actually only had raspberries to use, but that's ok coz they are my favourite anyway.

I searched the internet for recipes and there are loads to choose from, but in the end I went for a simple mix of a punnet of raspberries, 50g of caster sugar, and enough gin to fill the bottle. I think ideally it should sit for two weeks and then be poured through a coffee filter to remove all the bits, but I must admit I made my version straight in the gin bottle.

Gently shaking the bottle to mix in the sugar, released the berry juice turning the gin pink, which I thought was really pretty. Hopefully my friend will like the end result. And, more importantly, hopefully she'll share some of it with me, tee hee.

Have you ever made any flavoured gin?

Jumbleberries xx