Spring buds of a black currant bush have a great deal of esters, essential oils, tannins, resins etc. A small qty. of buds may affect on a huge qty. of likker. Just take 10ml of buds and add 20ml of 96%ABV neutral alco. Wait for about a week, then filter it. The brownish stuff you got is an aromatic essence for your blending. Add less then 1ml of it per 0.5l of your vodka. It will hardly change the color. But it may impart cloudity after dissolving in vodka. And the odor of your essence won't be stable for months - it may change to a worse one. Aminoacids are still inside to grant you somewhat "cooked soup/compote" off-notes.der wo wrote:I found out, it was flavored (mazerated and redistilled or vapor infused) with shoots of black currant bush in spring. And I spoke to a Polish guy, he told me he knows mazeratings with black currant shoots without redistilling. ... ... ... Do you have more information about this or similar vodkas (perhaps other plants) and methods (data about vapor infusion or mazeration)?
Sorry, we do it for a long while cause we need having done it right. Yes, we gotta re-distill it, man. First off, let's add very young leaves (as "shoots") to our buds, about 1:1. In the second place, I'd take at most 50%ABV alcohol here. Its strength does matter: 96%, 50% and 20% are the three different solvents. The weakest one has properties close to "water as solvent". The strongest may solve the helluva pull of complex substances, it has evidently polar properties, it denaturates and destructs proteins and it keeps all of it transparent till_you_add_some_water. So, let's use 50% as it's close to our vodka's strength and it's still quite a good solvent to make its job in a week or two. Well, pour 2 parts of spirit into 1 part of your shoots&buds and store it at some warm place for 10 days. Then re-distill that greenish swamp (as diluted to 10..20%ABV prior to re-distilling). I would do it "on full swing" using my reflux column. I'd get the stable essence with 80..90%ABV that makes no clouds after 1:1 dilution.
As for Absolut Kurant... I suppose they just use something like this