When you get past all the commercial hype and branding of most common liqueurs you find that they are all basically the same thing. A mixture of water, ethanol, sugar, flavouring and colour. For some higher profile brands they use natural herb extracts for the flavouring (if you actually believe the marketing).
It's easy to make your own base, unflavoured and uncoloured liqueur and then add the flavours of your choice. This means you can have a bottle of the base mix and then make up a single shot of any flavour you like instantly.
The base mix is created using a blend of vodka, rum or any other standard unflavoured spirit. It doesn't have to be expensive because the sugar and flavours will dominate any natural flavour. The main thing is that it should be the standard 35 to 40% ABV (Alcohol By Volume). If you wish to use your own brewed and distilled spirit (hooch) then that's also fine.
The sugar is added in syrup form by making what is referred to in the cocktail industry as "simple syrup". Just white sugar dissolved in water. As shown in the video, this is made up using a ratio of two parts sugar to one part water by weight. In the case of a standard 750ml bottle you would use 6oz/170g of sugar and add 3oz/85g of water to give a total weight of 9oz/255g. Put the sugar and water in a tall glass and microwave it until it starts to boil. Keep an eye on it and stop as soon as it starts to boil, as it will make a real mess in the microwave if it boils over. Also keep in mind that the boiling sugar/water solution is a LOT hotter than boiling water, so allow it to cool in the microwave before attempting to handle it.
Once the syrup has cooled completely you can pour it into an empty bottle and top it up with your spirit (vodka) before putting its lid on and shaking it thoroughly to mix it all together.
That's your base liqueur made. Now for the flavourings.
The availability of super-concentrated flavourings is really good these days. The flavourings sold in supermarkets tend to be very diluted, so you're best getting the super concentrated ones online. These are often aimed at the e-cig or vaping market as high strength flavourings for e-liquid. But you must NOT use actual e-liquid as it contains nicotine. You just want the flavourings.
You can also use pure essential oils as a flavouring, but you must use care in the quantity you use. As mentioned in the video I really like a blend of oils called Four Thieves blend. (There a story behind the name.) It's a mixture of Clove, Lemon, Cinnamon, Eucalyptus and Rosemary oils that has a very aromatic smell and taste. You only need a single drip of oil per 100ml of base liqueur, so for a full bottle you'd only need between 5 to 8 drips. Do not exceed the quantity needed to add the desired level of flavour as some oils are toxic if consumed in large quantities. (As are most things.)
For making a single shot of the non oil based flavours you simply fill your shot-glass with the base spirit, add a single drip of your chosen flavour and then stir it. And that's it. You've now got an entire range of designer liqueurs at your fingertips for the weekend.
If you want to try something more specialised you can steep herbs and spices in the vodka to extract their natural oils before adding the syrup. That way you can make surprisingly strong herbal liqueurs for tonic or medicinal uses. The ethanol in vodka or rum is very good at extracting oils from herbs including standard store-bought dried herbs.

11 thoughts on “Make your own custom liqueurs easily.”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Topi Linkala says:

    I don't like sweet things very much, so I like snapch more than liqueurs. The way I did them was using 80% Estonian vodka to diffuse crushed berries or somesuch and then dillute and put half teaspoon of sugar in a liter of 40% snapch. It needs little sugar or it tastes awful. Also one way to do it is to get quality berry concentrate and dillute it with the vodka until you get the prefered taste & precentage. You can't make mint or anis snapch this way though. If you want them get 40% vodka & extracth unless of course you don't mind cloudy snapch.

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars darensta says:

    Not sure why I would would go though the effort to use flavors out of a bottle.

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Sandra Natali says:

    I make plum liqueur from plums growing in my yard. Ever year I make bottle this liqueur as Christmas gifts. I put a nice little ribbon with a gift certificate attached. The gift certificate is for 1 pint of ice cream, along with a note telling them about a wonderful dessert. A scoop of the ice cream, drizzling my plum liqueur all over the scoop of ice cream. What a wonderful dessert to serve a dinner party or on Christmas eve. The children will complain, so make sure you have chocolate syrup and sprinkles available for them. Enjoy!

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Phuck Onyou says:

    Never heard anybody say “raspberry” before 👌

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Captain Chaos! says:

    Blue Peter was never this good. Big Clive taking one for the team.

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Ole Kristensen says:

    E-cig flavourings does not contain nicotine. Great video!

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Tobias Parker says:

    Wow, Clive you might just save me a lot of money. So many liqueurs are between 50-80 dollars each and usually taste like cough syrup.

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars bam-skater says:

    Malibu is made in Dumbarton.

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Phil Davies says:

    you got me on to this. just made another little batch this evening. Thank you for all your vids. Very cool.

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Paul Bev says:

    Aniseed floats
    on top even after mixing with a spoon it settles out

    Really good idea

    Not sure I got the strongest food flavourings as I added 2-4 drops of each I purchased

    Banoffee pie

    Peach

    Aniseed

    Cookies and cream

    Cant wait to try some more

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Phil Davies says:

    Learning a lot from your videos. Thank you.

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