Blue Honey – Lantenhammer Heidelbeer Liqueur

Yes, this recipe hast not written “tropical” all over it. Yet, the flavour combination does remind me of an exotic drink. On top of that, the cocktail just seemed perfect for this month’s Home Bar Awards challenge – “stirred Tiki”. Be warned however, the recipe calls for some work in advance!

Ever since I read the ingredients list of a drink from the Velvet Cocktail Bar in Berlin, I wanted to recreate the flavour profile. Therefore, I was in need of a blueberry liqueur. While the team of the Velvet Bar makes most of their ingredients themselves, I took the lazy way out. The Lantenhammer Heidelbeer Liqueur uses wild blueberries from the Carpathian Mountains for their eau de vie. After double distillation on pot-stills the spirit spends around twelve months in stoneware vats. Next, the eau de vie is blended with blueberry juice and some sugar. The liqueur is then bottled at 25 % ABV.

Natural blueberry flavour

Unsurprisingly, the Lantenhammer Heidelbeer Liqueur tastes of… Well, I think you guessed it, blueberries. Yet, the intensity of the flavours caught me a bit by surprise. You almost think you are tasting pure blueberry flavour. However, after a short while you will also notice some additional menthol notes and spices which remind you that you have an alcoholic beverage in front of you. Additionally, you can taste some lemon and red wine flavours. I like the blue berry liqueur from Lantenhammer very much, it hast natural blueberry flavour and probably is a great crowd pleaser.

Worth the effort

The original drink by the Velvet Bar called for white rum, blueberry liqueur, blueberry aquavit, Citronge, verjus, red wine and distilled fir. Obviously, I was not able to recreate the original recipe or all the different homemade ingredients. However, I loosely based my drink on the mentioned ingredients. For a rum I chose the Veritas Rum and for the blueberry aquavit I infused 200 ml Lysholm No. 52 Aquavit with 25 g blueberries. Instead of Citronge I went for the Clement Creole Shrub. For the pinewood note I added a few dashes of Hepple Douglas Fir Eau de Vie. Since, I did not know in which form the red wine was used in the original recipe I just made a red wine syrup from a local organic red wine cuvée.

*Blueberry Aquavit:
Add 25 g of blueberries to a clean container – slightly crush the berries – add 200 ml of aquavit – let rest for a week – strain through a fine mesh strainer – bottle in clean bottle;

**Red Wine Syrup:
Add 200 ml of high quality medium bodied red wine to a pan – add 200 g organic sugar, one cacao bean and a vanilla pot – bring to a boil – remove from heat and cool – strain through a fine mesh strainer – bottle in clean bottle;

The drink is clearly dominated by blueberry notes. Apart from that, you also get some spicy notes from the aquavit, esters from the rum and a distinct orange note from the liqueur. Beneath it all lies a layer of grape notes as a combination of the verjus and the red wine syrup. The fir eau de vie just delicately adds some resin notes which you really need to focus on to detect.

*The fact that I received a product reviewed in this article for free, did not – in any way – influence the rating of said product. The blueberry liqueur was provided by Lantenhammer.