Licor de Nozes (Trás-os-Montes Walnut Liqueur)

Every village in Trás-os-Montes seems to have a walnut tree in someone’s yard and a family recipe for what to do with the green walnuts before they ever get to harden into a shell. Licor de nozes was my grandmother’s answer: green walnuts, sugar, cinnamon, and aguardente, left to steep for weeks until it turns the color of strong tea and tastes like Christmas in a glass.

It sits in the same family as licor de amora, the blackberry liqueur already on the site, but where that one is fruity and bright, this one is deep, bittersweet, and a little medicinal in the best old-world way. The tradition calls for green, unripe walnuts picked in June, which is a hard ask outside a farm in northern Portugal, so I have adapted it here for the ripe walnuts you can actually buy at an American grocery store.

My husband, who grew up thinking all homemade liqueurs tasted like cough syrup, was converted by one small glass of this after a big Sunday dinner. It is meant to be sipped slowly, in tiny glasses, at the end of a meal — not shot, not mixed into anything.

Licor de Nozes Recipe

Prep time: 20 minutes · Cook time: 0 minutes · Total: 6 weeks (mostly steeping) · Servings: About 20 small glasses (1 liter) · Calories: ~95 per 2 oz serving per serving

Ingredients

• 2 cups shelled walnuts, roughly cracked (with some of the papery skin left on)
• 3 cups aguardente, brandy, or high-proof clear grain spirit
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 whole cloves
• Strip of orange peel

Instructions

1. Combine the cracked walnuts, spirit, cinnamon stick, cloves, and orange peel in a large clean glass jar.
2. Seal tightly and store in a cool, dark cupboard for 4 weeks, giving the jar a gentle swirl every few days.
3. After 4 weeks, strain the liquid through a fine sieve lined with cheesecloth into a clean pot, pressing lightly on the walnuts to extract the liquid. Discard the solids.
4. Warm the sugar with 1 cup of water over low heat just until dissolved, forming a simple syrup. Let cool completely.
5. Stir the cooled syrup into the strained walnut liquid. Taste and add a little more syrup if you prefer it sweeter.
6. Pour into clean bottles, seal, and let rest at least 2 more weeks before drinking — the flavor mellows and rounds out with time.

Recipe Notes

• The liqueur will darken over time; a deep amber-brown color after 2 months is completely normal and a sign it is aging well.
• Traditional recipes use green, unripe walnuts in the shell picked in June — if you have access to a walnut tree at that stage, use them instead of shelled ripe walnuts for a more authentic, slightly bitter result.
• Store finished bottles in a cool, dark place; this liqueur keeps well for over a year and only improves.
• Serve in small liqueur glasses after dinner, the same way you would a good port.