Friday Cocktails: On Pepper Fruit Gin & Simple Syrup

I’ve been thinking about a way to create a non-alcoholic infusion of pepper fruit without losing flavour and fragrance and then two things happened:

• Ramon shared that cooking killed the flavour [baking them in scones worked well though – flavour remained]
• And I watched Mary Berry make an Elderflower infusion.

So I knew there’d be no direct cooking of the pepper fruit in any liquid. And I knew how to go about trying this syrup out..

I wanted a non-alcoholic version because I’ve already succeeded in creating a gin infusion with pepper fruit, a few ways – green/ unripe, red / ripe and a mix with lime leaves. It works beautifully but I’m light headed so….

To create my infusion, here’s what I did:

Blitzed pepper fruit coarsely so seeds and flesh are chopped up

Make some simple syrup – combine sugar, water and bring to a boil

Turn off heat and leave to cool down for a few minutes

Finally, combine the chopped pepper fruit and simple suryp

Decant into bottles and refrigerate

I’m not sure how long it’ll last refrigerated but I’ll let you know

Its currently in the fridge – chilling…

My first trial was to sweeten a glass of zobo and it was interesting. Pepper fruit is floral and herbaceous at the same time. Really interesting dichotomy in flavour. My drink reminded me of tea, cordial, and something a bit more.

I’ll share other uses as and when. Excitedly.