StillSmart

I have totally fallen for a polish drink called Soplica, it's a cherry vodka that is thick, smooth and strong. It carries some almond with it too, so must be made with the cherry pits, too. Has anyone managed to clone this? I tried a cherry brandy essence and it left a lot to be desired, but it was the cheap one. I will try the top shelf essence, but I am not holding out much hope.

I have never tried it, but here is how i would approach it. Make some neutral. Get some cherries. Pit the cherries. Soak the pits in the neutral for a day or two and keep the cherry pulp in the fridge. Re-distill the pits and neutral to get the base. Dilute to 50+%. Then macerate the cherry pulp in this for a week. Filter slowly (!) through cotton wool to polish the spirit.

Chuck

FYI i spent a few summers out in poland in the 70's and 80's the rural process for flavouring the rectified spirits with softfruit was to pile soft fruit on a plate over a bowl and then cover the fruit with white sugar, the resulting syrup would flood the plate and drip int the bowl, the sugar was topped up if if=t became sodden within a few hours, after a day or two another plate was placed on top and the two were tilted to pour off the rest of the syrup,

this was then used to flavour a few litres of spririt with diluted rectified spirit, caramalised sugar and honey were also used.
thick skinned fruit would be split in 2-3 bits with a knife first (plumbs/cherries)

the bottles of pure rectified spirit used sold for less than a 330ml bottle of cocacola when available which wasnt often rectified spirit was always available..

You couldn't imagine the real life experiences that some of the members here can share,well I couldn't,and I thought that I had lived a bit on the wilder side.
Bring it on brothers and sisters.
Robert.