Beech Leef Noyau

[Crastney]

I've got the Andy Hamilton book - Booze for Free, and there's a recipe in there for Beech leaf Noyau (sp?) - it says to use half a jar of fresh young beech leaves, in a bottle of clear spirit (Gin in my case) - now I'm no tree expert, and I don't want to risk poisoning myself, and I'm having difficulty in saying definitevly if a tree is a beech or not, when I spotted a copper beech tree. These are very easy to say are definitely beech - but the question I now have is would the recipe still work? Is there likely to be a colour issue? or any other reason why not to use the dark coloured copper beech leaves rather than fresh young green leaves from a n other type of beech tree?

thanks in advance for any help on this - hopefully I'll get some on the go before The Spring Thing.

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

Copper beech (Fagus Sylvatica Purpurea) is the same species as European beech (Fagus Sylvatica), it's simply a group of subspecies that happen to have deep purple leaves.

The pigments in the leaves are anthocyanins, which range in colour from red to blue according to the pH. They're common in many fruits popular for wine-making, such as blackberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, cherries and black grapes, so should have no negative effect on the flavour at all, although there will probably be an effect on the colour.

 

[Crastney]

Thanks for that useful information Tim - I thought it was extra tannin, as I tasted a leaf, and it was very bitter, so decided to go for the 'normal' green ones instead.
I picked a small amount in a carrier bag, and they're now in a jar under gin for three weeks.
Maybe I'll do copper beech next year - just for a different colour.

 

[Crastney]

Resurrecting an old thread - we tried this over Christmas.for my tastes it was too sweet, but very nice. Couldn't taste the beech though.

 

[rosie]

Thanks for the follow up. :

 

[Pedro]

Resurrecting an old thread again! Made this last year, and kept it very simple - and did it with Vodka.
---
Kilner jar of beach leaves (young green ones)
Covered in 1ltr vodka (decentish vodka that was on offer)
Left to steep for about a week.
Filtered, then added a sugar mix of 250ml water and 300g sugar that was heated then cooled
----
The left glass shows what last years now looks like. The right is this years :wink:
Wasn't too sweet, actually was a perfect snifter during the winter months. Now (late April) is the time to do some!