Clarified Lime Mint Cordial

This cordial is an excellent answer for bartender who doesn’t want to muddle limes and smash mint for their mojitos. This recipe takes a lot of time and you have to be really careful with measuring the ingredient and executing it.

Source: The recipe has been adapted by the author (with variations).
Bottle With Mint Inside On A Table With Greens Background And Mint
table of content

ingredients

  • 16 g Citric Acid
  • 8 g Malic Acid
  • 3,4 g Agar-Agar
  • 1 whole Lime
  • 400 g White Sugar (Granulated)
  • 400 ml Lime Juice (Fresh)
  • 600 ml Cold Water
  • 100 g Fresh Mint
equipment:
China Cap, Digital Micro Scale, Electric Blender (2-Liter Capacity), Medium Pot - 5 L, Muslin Cloth, Peeler, Pitcher with Scale (Large)
production times:
Preparation Time
20 Minutes
Cooking Time
20 Minutes
Cooling Time
3 Hours
Filtering Time
1 Day
storage details:
Refrigerator between 1 - 2 Weeks
batch size:
0.8 - 1 Liter

steps of production

  1. Blanch the mint. Put some water into a pan, let it heat up to boil, put the mint inside, and after 15-20 seconds, remove the mint and step it into an ice bath for 1 minute. Afterward, you take the mint and wring out the water.

  2. Measure each ingredient: malic acid, citric acid, sugar, water, and citrus juice. Place each of them into the mixer if it is large enough. Then, you add the peel of 1 lime into it. Cut the blanched mint into smaller strings and add them to the mixer. Blend at the highest speed for about 2 minutes.

  3. Prepare a huge bowl with an ice bath, and place 1 to 2 mugs or a pitcher inside it. You will need them once the liquid for pouring is hot enough.

  4. After blending, move the liquid from the mixer into a pitcher or another container. Now, you measure out the agar agar powder. Place 1/4-1/3 of the liquid into a pan. Add the agar agar and slowly heat it up to a boil. Let it take at least 2-3 minutes until it gets to the boiling point. While heating up, use a whisk and whisk the mixture constantly. It is important that the agar gets rehydrated. Otherwise, you might end up with an unexpected result.

  5. Once the liquid is heated up to a boil, remove it from the stove. Slowly add the remaining cold liquid into it while whisking until everything is well mixed together. Now fill it from the pan over into a different container. From this container, you slowly pour it into the 2 containers that are sitting in the ice bath. Let it cool down for 2 hours.

  6. After cooling down, prepare one large pitcher or container, place the large mesh funnel on top, and place a muslin cheesecloth or any other material with fine meshes. Now, use the whisk, gently go through the cold and gelatine-like liquid, pour it slowly into the funnel, and let it sit overnight. The best practice is to keep it in the fridge while the liquid slowly runs through the meshes.

recipe notes

Once you have done it several times, it’s actually quite fast and easy to prepare.
I mainly do this Cordial while I’m also doing the blanched basil syrup, so I save one step in doing the blanching step because it takes time as well as space.
The critical part will be to measure out the ingredients exactly. By the way, the citrus juice is the leftover we use on weekends. The lime juice is not good enough for drinks anymore, but it serves its purpose well as an ingredient. Further, it helps to reduce waste and save some money. The only upside down is that I save money but use time instead.

And while you do the lime peel, think about not keeping too much white pith on the peel. Because it also works as a gelling agent, and then your result will be pudding-like.

Let it slowly run through the cheesecloth and wait a day. You should end up with an almost clear liquid.

Written by Timo Wessels
Published on the September 14, 2024 and updated last time on the October 4, 2024.