Propolis in drink format!

Nakedapiarist · Oct 21, 2015

I love the smell of propolis and I was determined to find a way to use it in the kitchen, it turns out with a few other ingredients it makes a great bitter.
In short I made tinctures of california poppy petals, grapefruit peel, propolis and hawthorn berries, blended them and added a little honey. Volumewise the propolis looks like a minor component but weight for weight it makes up most of the material in there and dominates the flavour.

http://thenakedapiarist.com/2015/10/20/try-a-little-bitterness/

Fritillary · Oct 21, 2015

I love Angostura bitters too, so I'm interested in your experiment. But what's the texture like, once in a drink? Does it really mix in, and not stay as a skim on top? - And does it stick to your teeth?!

oliver90owner · Oct 21, 2015

Does it really mix in, and not stay as a skim on top? -

Get enough alcohol in there and it should stay in solution.

Nakedapiarist · Oct 21, 2015

Yeh it stays in solution and doesn't coat your teeth

Even dropped into straight tonic water it works. There was a little precipitation on first mixing them up - I suspect some of that was the honey being none too happy in strong alcohol.

The poppies were just sort of feral around the edge of the allotment, I may plant a load in the garden next year

Nakedapiarist · Oct 22, 2015

For reference I used 3g propolis in 15ml of 80% alcohol and used 9ml of that in the final mix - there was quite a lot of sediment ( if you can call bee body parts sediment ) in the tincture.

BrianO · Nov 19, 2015

Interesting.... Looks like I will be bringing back on my next Italian visit, that bottle of near pure alcohol I was so bemused with on the local supermarket shelf !!