Yuzushu
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Yuzu infused Sochu. A more interesting alternative to Limoncello.
I found some fresh yuzu fruit at my local Asian market, which is a pretty rare occurrence! Usually you can only find bottles of juice, or preserves. Since this was such a special find, I wanted to make something that could extend the shelf life of them, and be able to use them in cocktails. After doing some research, i came across yuzushu, which is yuzu infused Sochu that is sweetened with rock sugar. A sweet citrus liqueur, like a limoncello.
You’ll need the following equipment:
Coffee filter or a nut milk bag
Ingredients:
Yuzu
Sochu
This liqueur uses both the peel and fruit of the yuzu, so nothing here will go to waste. I even made a yuzu essence by taking the bitter pith and soaking it in everclear to get the most out of these yuzu fruits. The essence turned out to be really incredible! There was so much oil and fragrance left in the pith.
For the yuzushu itself, I combined the yuzu peels, and peeled fruit with the pith removed and placed them into a bowl.
I covered both the yuzu flesh and the peels with a half a bottle of yuzu, and let them sit for a really long time. I kind of forgot about it at one point.
I believe it was about 3 months before i removed the fruit and peels from the sochu. It may have oxidized a little bit, but the flavor still tasted great, so I wasn’t worried.
After straining out the fruit and peels, I went ahead and strained it through a coffee litter to remove any remaining sediment.
The next and final step is to add rock sugar to the yuzu infused sochu. I let this sit until the sugar dissolved, which was about 1 day. Then I just added it to a bottle and let it sit for another 2 weeks.
For the yuzu essence
I used the pith from all 4 yuzu fruits and covered them with Everclear. I let them to sit for a week in a dark place. When I went to strain out the pith, I was left with this lovely yellow heavily yuzu scented tincture.
The final product is a deep yellow color with insane yuzu flavor! Its so delicous I can’t wait to use it in so many cocktails. I think it would be excellent in a savory kind of cocktail, or even a vesper riff.
Ingredients:
4 yuzu fruit
375 ml Sochu
100g Rock Sugar
Method:
Peel the yuzu and remove fruit. Remove pith from the peels. Set aside pith and all yuzu fruit and peels to a bowl. Cover with yuzu and let sit for 8 weeks. Strain out fruit & sediment through a coffee filter or nut milk bag.
Add roughly 100g of rock sugar to yuzu infused sochu. Once dissolved, transfer liqueur to a bottle and let condition for 2 weeks
Equipment:
Coffee filter or a nut milk bag
