Homemade Mint Extract
Easy DIY homemade mint extract with only two ingredients.
Equipment
- Mason jar
Ingredients
- 1 cup fresh mint leaves
- 1 and 1/2 cups vodka or rum
Instructions
- Pick your mint leaves in the morning when they have the highest concentration of oils in leaves. Rinse and pat dry.Discard any burnt or damaged-looking leaves. Strip the leaves from the stem. Roll the leaves up between your fingers so they're good and bruised. Or you can roughly chop them.Put leaves inside of your glass jar. Fill jar with vodka so mint leaves are submerged in the alcohol. Place lid on jar and give it a good shake.Place jar in a cupboard or out of direct light, but somewhere you'll remember to shake it every few days. Let mint leaves steep for at least 6 weeks. You can allow it to steep longer for a stronger flavored extract.When mint extract has reached its desired strength, strain liquid through a sieve into a glass container.
Notes
- You can use peppermint, chocolate mint, or spearmint leaves. Each imparts a slightly different flavor but all are delicious.
- To make a mint extract with dried leaves, cut back by 1/2 to 1/3 of the fresh amount. For this recipe use, 1/3 to 1/2 cup dried mint leaves. The leaves will rehydrate with the alcohol. Make sure you check the liquid level after a day or two and add more alcohol if needed to keep submerged.
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