Post #784534 by Piddersthecat on Thu, Mar 1, 2018 11:36 AM

I do some amount of canning every fall. We get great fruit at some points during the summer, but we don't do so well in the winter.

I do jams and pickled things because my dad likes jam and I like pickled beet. For cocktails, I have done passion fruit syrup and pineapple syrup. I've also done cocktail cherries and pineapple spears with rum. All of those things have high enough acidity to be water bath canned (read fairly easy to do at home). I use info from here http://nchfp.uga.edu/ to make sure I won't kill anyone. The texture of fruit does change some, but pineapple holds up really well. The cherries taste great but commercial ones use chemicals and stuff to make them stay firm. My fav recipe right now uses a heavy syrup and luxardo. I think it gives a better mouth feel than simple syrup.

I've never canned liqueurs. They have high enough levels of alcohol and sugar to really not bother.

As for taste changing in the heat...I know that my syrups maintain their flavor. But those are heavily sweetened, so not overly complex. Not as complex as a drink. I would think some of the complexity would be lost. Plus there is the issue of the ph of the drink...it has to be high enough to be safe for water bath canning. So theoretically if the drink was acidic enough to can...it would work, but how it would taste would have to be tested :)