Licor de Amora (Portuguese Blackberry Liqueur)

Wild blackberry brambles grow along every stone wall and abandoned field in Trás-os-Montes, and by late summer my grandmother would send us kids out with buckets, arms scratched to pieces, to pick enough amoras for a batch of her licor. It was never a fussy, measured project. She eyeballed the sugar, used whatever aguardente her neighbor had made that year, and left the jar on top of the kitchen cupboard for weeks, out of reach of curious hands, until it turned a deep, almost black shade of purple.

This sits in the same family as ginjinha de óbidos (recipe on the site), Portugal’s beloved sour cherry liqueur, and poncha (recipe on the site) from Madeira, that whole tradition of turning whatever fruit grows nearby into something you sip in a tiny glass after dinner. Blackberries ripen right around now in most American backyards too, which makes midsummer the exact right moment to start a jar, even if you will not taste the results until autumn.

I use vodka instead of aguardente since it is easier to find here and stays neutral enough to let the berries shine. Max the dog has learned that blackberry season means I am distracted in the kitchen and takes full advantage of any unguarded counter, so consider yourself warned if you have a food-motivated dog of your own.

Licor de Amora Recipe

Prep time: 15 minutes (plus 6 to 8 weeks infusing) · Cook time: 0 minutes · Total: about 8 weeks · Servings: about 4 cups · Calories: ~90 per serving

Ingredients

• 1 lb fresh blackberries, rinsed and dried well
• 2 cups vodka or other neutral 80-proof spirit
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 strip lemon peel (no white pith)

Instructions

1. Lightly crush the blackberries with a fork in a large clean glass jar, just enough to break the skins.
2. Add the vodka, sugar, cinnamon stick and lemon peel. Seal the jar tightly and shake gently to start dissolving the sugar.
3. Store in a cool, dark cupboard, shaking the jar gently every couple of days for the first two weeks to keep the sugar from settling.
4. Let infuse for at least 6 weeks, and up to 8, tasting occasionally after week 5.
5. Once the flavor is deep and fruity, strain through a fine mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth into a clean bottle, pressing gently on the solids to extract the last of the liquid.
6. Discard the solids, or spoon them over vanilla ice cream if you cannot bear to waste them.
7. Store the finished liqueur in a sealed bottle at room temperature, away from light. It keeps well for a year or more.

Recipe Notes

• Frozen blackberries work in a pinch if fresh ones are out of season, though fresh gives the brightest color and flavor.
• A wide-mouth mason jar makes this whole process much easier, both for crushing the berries and for straining later.
• Serve well chilled in small glasses after dinner, the way you would ginjinha, or drizzle a spoonful over vanilla ice cream.
• This is an adults-only recipe. Keep the infusing jar somewhere out of reach if there are curious kids in the house, as mine always tried.