Easy Elderflower Cordial Recipe With Vodka

Preserve the taste of summer with this easy elderflower cordial recipe made with vodka. With no cooking required, it’s an easy way to bottle up this delicious summer flavour.

Something I love making every summer is grown-up elderflower cordial. Unlike traditional cordials, which are alcohol-free, I make this one with vodka, and without citric acid. The flavour is fresh, lightly sweet, and gently floral, with subtle citrus notes from the lemon.

It’s really easy to make (no cooking required!), and it stores for around a year, meaning you can bottle up it’s delicate floral flavour, and enjoy the taste of summer all year round.

Want to make some too? Here’s my failsafe recipe, plus I’ve included handy hints and tips on foraging for elderflowers. They’re pretty ubiquitous from May until June, so the chances are you have some near you. Never foraged for elderflowers before? Don’t worry, I’ve also got heaps of tips to help keep you safe:

How To Make Infused Elderflower Vodka

Ready to go? Here’s my full recipe:

Ingredients

• About 15 elderflower heads (see below on how to identify and pick elderflowers)
• 1 litre of cheap generic vodka
• One large, unwaxed lemon (organic if possible)
• 5 tablespoons of sugar (caster or granulated is fine)

Equipment Required

• A 1-litre capacity jar (cleaned and sterilised),
• A sterilised bottle or two for after the alcohol has infused (clean and sterilise these when the cordial is ready to be bottled).
• A measuring spoon
• A sieve

Method

• Dip your elderflowers in water and give them a good shake to dry. Peel your lemon, and keep the peel to the side.
• Next, add your flowers to your sterilised jar, adding the lemon peel as you go so it’s evenly distributed in the jar. Keep going until you’ve added as much elderflower as the jar will hold and all of the lemon peel.
• Add your sugar, about 5 mls of juice from your lemon, and pour in the vodka until you’ve completely submerged all of the elderflowers. You may have some vodka leftover – that’s ok, keep it for later. Screw the lid on and give the jar a good shake.

• Leave for four weeks in a cool dark place, shaking occasionally to mix the sugar in.
• During the four weeks, occasionally open your jar to check that the vodka is still covering the elderflowers, otherwise the top ones might go a bit brown and make it taste a bit bitter. If this happens, take out the brown flowers and top it up with more vodka.
• Once your four weeks are up, sieve your mix to remove the flowers and lemon peel, and decant your flavoured vodka into a sterilised bottle or jar. At this stage, you’ll have a golden, fragrant liqueur. The strength will be similar to the vodka you started with, but with a softer, more rounded taste.

Variations You Can Make

As well as infusing your elderflower in vodka, you can infuse it with your own creativity too, by adding any flavours you want to your elderflower cordial.

I added a punnet of local raspberries to another jar, and it turned out beautifully. Elderflower cordial tastes like summer at the best of times, but the addition of raspberries was extra summery! Strawberries, cherries, or blackberries would also work well, I’d imagine. However, blackberries are never ready here in Scotland in time for elderflower season.

How To Serve

You can drink your cordial straight over ice, or add some lemonade, tonic, or soda water (see my guide to ethical soft drinks for some of the best ones) for a refreshing summer drink.

How To Store Your Homemade Elderflower Cordial

Store the sealed and labelled bottles in a cool, dark place. Because of the alcohol and sugar content, they should store for a year, provided you have properly sterilised your jars and bottles. If it looks or smells off before then, then discard it.

How To Find Elderflower

If you’re not familiar with picking elderflowers, you are going to need to know where to find them, how to identify them, and how to pick them. Here’s what you need to know:

Elderflowers are in bloom in the UK from around late May to mid-June. Pretty ubiquitous around the UK, you’re most likely to find them growing in woods, beside rivers or canals, or in graveyards. Another common place is beside roads, but I tend to avoid picking beside busy roads to avoid contamination from traffic fumes.

Elderflowers are quite easy to spot. Look for a flowering bush (not a tree or plant), with delicate white flowers and a distinct sambuca-like smell. If in doubt, I found a handy elderflower identification guide that you might find useful. If you’re still in doubt, don’t pick anything and ask an expert or consult a book on foraging – better safe than sorry!

Things That Elderflower Can Be Confused With

Elderflower is often mistaken for other white, umbrella-shaped blooms found in hedgerows, including cow parsley, hogweed, and the highly toxic hemlock.

While these plants can look similar at a glance, elderflower grows on a woody bush and has a distinctly sweet, floral scent. Meanwhile, cow parsley, hemlock and hogweed grow on soft, green, hollow stems as herbaceous plants rather than woody shrubs. These plants tend to grow straight up from the ground without the shrub/bush structure you’d expect from the elder.

When To Pick Elderflower

Once you’ve found your elderflowers, it’s time to pick them. I find it’s best to pick elderflowers on a dry sunny day, in the morning, when the flowers are at their most fragrant. This apparently translates to a richer, sweeter flavour, but if it’s late afternoon, don’t worry too much!

Avoid picking at ground level (dogs!) – instead, pick from the higher branches. You also want to make sure that you pick nice, creamy white flower heads. Anything brown or a bit discoloured may taste a bit bitter.

How To Be An Ethical Forager

It’s important to be an ethical forager, to help ensure there are plenty left for the insects that depend on them. This means:

• Giving the flowerheads a good shake before you put them in your bag to dislodge any insects
• Not picking from just one bush so that you leave plenty of flowers for insects.
• Not taking any more than you need – this elderflower cordial recipe calls for about fifteen elderflower heads.
• Leaving plenty of flowers so that they can turn into elderberries later in the season, which are an important source of food for wild birds.

More Elderflower Top Tips

I’d also recommend keeping an eye out for elderberries in early autumn. These glossy, dark berries grow on the same bush, and you can make this delicious non-alcoholic spiced elderberry syrup from them!

I made a small batch last year, which we used up far too quickly. I have made a mental note to make triple what I made as it was just incredible (and I’m not 100% certain if it was down to the syrup, but I didn’t catch a cold once over the winter season…).

Just don’t eat the berries raw, as they can be toxic when uncooked. In this recipe, the berries are thoroughly cooked, which makes them safe to consume.

More Infused Alcohol Recipes

If you liked this, do make a note to try my cranberry and orange-infused gin recipe in winter. It’s one of my very favourites!

Printer-Friendly Recipe

Want a printer-friendly recipe to keep? Here you go: