Propolis in drink format!

[Nakedapiarist]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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 !!

 

[oliver90owner]

Illegal to do this in the UK, but they are on sale....

http://www.brewsmarter.co.uk/smartstill-4-litre-water-purifier-uk-model-783-p.asp