Elderflower Cordial update...

To follow up on my cordial making over the weekend, on Monday Sean and I finished off the process and have already been enjoying the summery drink - the only summery thing we have right now in the midst of this wet July.

The infusion of elderflower and orange slices along with the syrup were kept for two whole days covered with clingfilm and in the fridge.  So when it was time to take it out, the next job was to remove the fruit and sodden elderflowers (the big bits by spoon) by draining through a large piece of muslin.

Once all the liquid was strained and no bits were remaining, all that was left to do was bottle it up.  The glass bottles we'd stored up were washed and then placed in a hot oven for 30 minutes to sterilise them. Hot bottles at the ready, our cordial was poured by jug, filling each bottle to the rim.

Three of the four bottles

From the recipe which we followed and doubled in quantity of elderflowers and sugar, we decided not to include six pints of water but four with the intention of making the cordial more concentrated.  We came out with four bottles and a little left over to make about five or six drinks, so if we'd made up the full water content, we'd have had a few more bottles out of it.  I think four bottles is still very much worth the effort though.

Me with my first taste!

The end result is a really tasty drink!  We hadn't included any slices of fresh lemon to our recipe so I was curious as to how it would turn out with mainly the oranges providing the fruit flavour.  Although we did add two spoons of lemon juice, I think the taste is gorgeous and not as orangey as I'd expected.  The elderflower really comes through and is very moreish.  I'm chuffed with how it turned out and even though we won't be able to make any more this year (the flowers are now dying off outside not helped by all the rain) we'll definitely do it all again next summer.

Tip: Don't waste any the discarded orange (or lemon) slices.  Instead, keep them and add to your drink, because the fruit is saturated in the cordial syrup.  The rest of the slices are frozen to add whenever I fancy a slice!

Becky x