Cardamom Liquor -- Any ideas?

[jadenegro]

I have a bottle of cardamom liquor and I'm not sure what to do with it. I was wondering if anyone has any ideas?

It is "Licor de Cardamomo de Botran" made in Guatemala. It's 25% alcohol and a green color. It has a pretty strong cardamom flavor just sipping it straight. So I was thinking to sip it after a meal, but, thought I would check for more interesting ideas. Do you think it would be good mixed with anything in particular? Or served with anything? Maybe used in cooking? Or have any ideas on how to drink it otherwise? I'm not sure what to do with it and I really hate having a bottle sit around doing nothing but take up space.

ETA: Oops, I see I spelled cardamom wrong on the title. So much for proof reading the post!

Edited March 1, 2007 by jadenegro (log)

[Rebecca263]

I use cardamom pretty regularly in my cooking. I like it in home made applesauce, in apple tarts and apple cake, and of course, I use it in my Syrian coffee sometimes, too. I use it in roast chicken recipes, and in curries. I have a Scandinavian friend and he uses it in a lot of the cookie recipes that he learned from his mother. Does that give you a bit of a start?

I'd imagine that a touch of it drizzled on coffee ice cream would be good to start. And, perhaps there is a way to incorporate it into a braised chicken recipe-- maybe with some cumin and lemon. And GARLIC.

[JAZ]

As Rebecca noted, cardamom goes well with apple. If I had cardamom liqueur, I'd try mixing it with applejack or Calvados and some lemon juice to start.

I imagine it would be great in a hot buttered rum, too.

[bostonapothecary]

cardamom makes you kissable....

so for valentines day we made a syrup with orange and cardamom....and served it with sparkling wine....

i used the rest of the syrup in a cocktail called the del sesto....

gin, cardamom-orange syrup, lemon juice, ginger beer.....

better cocktails have been made but it was wonderfully frivelous and sold very well....

the name relates to a famous lush that likes to make out with random people when she is drunk....

you may enjoy trying your liqueur with similar flavors....

[KatieLoeb]

An Espresso Martini with a hint of cardmom liqueur sounds good. So does an Appletini, but not with that heinous Sour Apple Pucker but Berentzen's Apple Schnapps. Try a spiced Calvados Side Car with a little cardamom liqueur instead of part of the Cointreau.

Think of all of the flavors where cardamom is complimentary (coffeee, apple, vanilla) and play with standard drink recipes from there.

Please report back. This stuff sounds delicious!

[Sentiamo]

I have been eating an inordinate amount of cardamom and orange icecream lately, not of my own making I have to admit! This has pieces of soft candied orange added. Just gorgeous.

Summer is coming to your part of the world so....???

[varicose veins]

I find that cardamom and fresh pear work really well in drinks, might be worth messing around with. I'm creating a new spring cocktail list for my bar and have been thinking about some cardamom drinks, I'll get back to you when I've something a bit more solid. To me cardamom is quite lemony, so was thinking of making a thyme syrup and trying a a cardamom and thyme collins using freshly squeezed oranges instead of the lemons? I'll report back with some solid recipes in a week or so.

[Genny]

Its a liquor so its sweet? My Turkish friends put whole cardamom pods in their tea, would a dollop of this be good to use to replace the whole cardamom and sugar? Also it sounds like you could perhaps use it to candy lemon or orange rind...

[jadenegro]

Wow! Thanks for the suggetions. All I could come up with was spiked chai

They all sound good. Apple, pear, orange, not to mention ginger, thyme and vanilla... I will need to go shopping, I think the first one to try will be the apple or pear suggestion.

The other thing I was concerned about is color and the visual appeal once things are mixed together. The cardamom is a pretty good green color, not fake green looking like sour apple pucker or mint schnapps, but still pretty green.

[KatieLoeb]

The other thing I was concerned about is color and the visual appeal once things are mixed together. The cardamom is a pretty good green color, not fake green looking like sour apple pucker or mint schnapps, but still pretty green.

I suspect that sharp, spicy and herbacious flavor of cardamom would be exactly what I'd expect from antifreeze green coloring in a cocktail...

[hjshorter]

Pear juice, cardamom liquer, a herbaceous gin, and lemon, shaken and served on the rocks?

[nikkib]

Cardomom cosmos are delish to...

[varicose veins]

If your worried about the colour I reckon a good way around it is to use a spectacular garnish. I recently won a vodka martini competition using a Japnese tea flower as a garnish. Numi do some really good ones, simply add the tea bud to boiling water and watch it open, I did this twice to remove most of the tea tannin flavours. Then shake off excess water, place the wet tea bud in a martini glass and place in the fridge. When you want to make the martini simply shake your drink and pour over the teabud.

This works in a number of ways, it will add a little to the flavour without being too overpowering (might fit in nicely with someone previously mentioning Turkish tea and cardamom), the tea bud also acts a bit like an ice cube which will keep your martini colder for longer without further diluting it, and they look amazing. I used dragonlily which is a white tea yet a little sweet. These tea buds can be expensive so I would imagine this idea would mostly be used when your mixing to impress!! I want some of this stuff now! Cardamom cosmo sounds very interesting... xx

[cax77uk]

cardamom and mango mojitos are amazing!

Also works well with pineapple.

It really is a very versatile ingredient that will add a new dimension to many drinks.

Just play around with it.

RM

[Danne]

a while ago I made cardamom syrup.

I made a caipirinilla* and instead of using gommesyrup i used the cardamom syrup, I aldo added some gingerjuice... me and my guests liked it alot!

caipirinilla

lime

gommesyrup

vanilla vodka (I always use Koskenkorva vanilla, it's so much better than smirnoff or absolut, koskenkorva is from finland so i don't know if you guys can find it.. anyway..)

kruched is

make the drink exaktly like a caipirinha.

so I think that kardamom works well with lime.

[Tomek]

Wow I love cardamom especially with pineapple.

Can you let me know where I might be able to get this liquor by mailorder ?