Zirbenschnaps

[der wo]

There's a traditional Austrian mazerated spirit named Zirbenschnaps. Zirbe or Zirbelkiefer is a pine, which grows mainly in the upper regions (1500-2000m) of Styria (yes, the part of Austria, Arnold Schwarzenegger is from...). It has purple cones with a red sap.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinus_cembra" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
Here a picture of my holydays this summer:

DSC07094kl.jpg

The unripe cones fall down (or probably were thrown down by birds? Why should a tree drop unripe cones?) and are eaten by animals. So it's easy to find and pick some, but unfortunately the most of them are pitted. Under older trees you normally see more than ten or cones, but never more than one is unpitted.
Sliced cones look like this:

DSC06978.JPG

Mazerated with alcohol it gets a beautiful color like raspberry juice. Left jar fresh mazerated, right jar after 24h:

DSC06999.JPG

In those jars are way too much cones, because I only had two liters neutral with me. At home I did a "second fill" with two liters more.
I recommend per liter drinking strength neutral spirit:
- 4 sliced cones
- 50g sugar

If the cones are too ripe, the spirit gets brown instead of red, but will taste good too. Because of that, some climb the trees and pick the cones in early summer. I have read, 5g citric acid per liter help to remain the red color and improve the taste. Without it oxidation will cause a color change after a time.

The mazeration time depends on the thickness of the slices. Normally two weeks is enough. Before bottling I filtered it through coffee filters. Here the result:

DSC07216.JPG

It tastes resinous of course. But it also has fruitiness (it's not only an illusion because of the fruity color).

Of course this thread is mainly information and entertainment, because you will not find this tree at home. But probably there are other usable coniferes, perhaps pines. I have found recipes with cones of mountain pine and larch too. Of course you have to ensure, that they are not poisonous. Many coniferes have very poisonous parts.