Tuesday 31 October 2017

Tusky (Rhubarb) Gin

I've been away from my blog for a while for family reasons.
With the Autumn upon us, Nicky and I decided to make use of the fruits of the garden (well not quite our garden). When I was a child I lived near rhubarb fields and we loved to eat the rhubarb - or 'tusky' as we called it then - raw, dipped into bags of sugar. More recently we've enjoyed a rhubarb gin cocktail at a wine bar in the Rhubarb Triangle town of Rothwell (where I lived from 11 to 18). We enjoyed it so much we decided to have a go at making some ourselves.


We used rhubarb kindly donated by our neighbours: the only other ingredients were a bottle of gin, some sugar and lots of patience.


We chopped and washed the rhubarb and put it in a couple of kilner jars with the sugar! Full recipe link here We shook the jars - lots of frosty looking rhubarb. After a night resting on the Raeburn the sugar had all dissolved into a gloopy syrup!


The next step was simply to add the gin. And wait!


And wait. And wait. About four weeks later the gin was ready to drink. It tastes absolutely delicious on its own - more like a liquor. Fever-Tree Aromatic Tonic also works well with it. We're saving the rest for Christmas!