Post #759622 by AceExplorer on Wed, Feb 24, 2016 9:16 AM

Good questions, I really want your final product to turn out stellar! My thoughts:

The German word for Almond is "Mandel." I'm sure you've seen Mandelbrot (Almond bread) at certain times of the year.

Allspice - this is a fork in the road you have to decide on, as the two recipes are different. I decided in favor of Paul Clarke's recipes, which others more experienced than me have also encouraged me to do. Allspice and vanilla seem to be considered "variant" additives, and there is quite a bit of room for friendly discussion on what "real" Falernum is, and what color it is.

To use lime juice or not? Again, a fork in the road for you. To me, it's not real Falernum without the lime juice, and I don't understand KP's problems with his lime juice. I do use the lime juice, and it's an essential and fundamental element to me. I obtain two bottles of syrup when using Paul's recipe, and I refrigerate a reasonable amount that I'm expecting to use over SIX months. I freeze the second bottle for future. Big hint here ---> I add 1.5-2 ounces of pure grain alcohol (Everclear) to each bottle to help ensure it stays preserved. This last part was told to me by Jeff Berry when I was a wee little tiki cocktail newbie, maybe 10 or so years ago.

Zest your limes first, then squeeze them for juice afterwards. They would be very hard to zest if you squeezed them first. Remember -- the zest is the green outer layer, and you definitely want to avoid the bitter white pith. Many have resorted to using a Microplane grater for this reason - it makes it harder to dig deep into the lime.

Falernum is good. Let us know how yours turns out. Don't forget that in the early 20th century it was served on-the-rocks all by itself. I test mine this way to see if I over-gingered it. I think how you slice your ginger is one of the determining factors. I once grated my ginger, made my Falernum, and it was WAY too ginger-tasting. Made a good "ginger" syrup of sorts though.

Ignore my capitalization of Falernum. It is quite likely not supposed to be capitalized, and I flip back and forth... I blame sobriety for that...

Cheers!