Ingredients:
10 lemons
1 x 750ml bottle vodka
3 1/2 cups water
2 1/2 cups sugar
Take the zest from the lemons (use the lemons for something else, like lemonade). Place the lemon zest in a container that will hold at least 1 litre and then pour the vodka over the zest and cover or put the lid on. Steep the lemon peels in the vodka for about 4 days at room temperature.
After 4 days, stir the water and sugar in a large saucepan over medium heat until the sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes. Allow to cool completely then pour the sugar syrup over the vodka mixture. Cover and let stand at room temperature overnight. Strain the limoncello through a mesh strainer and discard the zest. Transfer the limoncello to bottles, seal the bottles and refrigerate until cold, at least 4 hours and up to 1 month.
This is really easy to make and one of those recipes where everyone has their own variation. The base of alcohol, honey, cinnamon and citrus peel is fairly standard but in my last batch I had no fresh fruit so missed out the peel, it was still lovely 
Here’s my version:
750ml Vodka
400 to 500g Honey (My personal taste is more)
3 Cinnamon Sticks, crushed
10 Whole Cloves
5 Allspice Berries, crushed
10 Black Pepper Corns, crushed
1 Vanilla Pod or 1 tbsp Extract.
10 Cardamom pods , crushed
1/4 Nutmeg, crushed or 1/2 tsp Ground Nutmeg
1 tsp Caraway Seeds
1/2 tsp Coriander Seeds
1” Root Ginger, finely chopped
5 strips mixed Orange & Lemon Peel
Simmer all the ingredients apart from the vodka and honey in 2 cups of water until the spices are well infused and the liquid a dark brown colour (around 5-10 minutes). Then add the honey and mix well, allow to cool for about an hour. Add the vodka, cover and leave to cool fully (if you don’t allow the mix to cool prior at adding the vodka you’ll evaporate all the alcohol and you don’t want that!!).
Leave to stand for up to a week, stir well, strain through a fine sieve and bottle it, tastes just like Christmas!
Take half a cup of instant coffee (powder or granules), one and a half cups of sugar, two cups of water and two tablespoons of vanilla extract. Heat the whole lot up to make sure everything is dissolved properly and then allow to cool. You should end up with three cups of coffee syrup, if you are a little short just add water.
Once the syrup is nicely down to room temperature add a 750ml of vodka and Robert’s your Mothers Brother there you have it, coffee liquor. Now you can drink it straight away but if I were you I would leave it a month in the bottle to “age” properly. I have tried mine (couldn’t wait) and it is a little over-powering so maybe an extra half cup of water in the mix wouldn’t hurt.
Ever fancied an Amaretto but have none in the cupboard because you are a Vodka person usually?
Take 1 cup water, 1 cup granulated white sugar and half a cup brown sugar and mix it all together whilst warming to make sure all the sugar is thoroughly dissolved. This drink is very sweet so you can cut back on sugar a little according to taste. Once the liquid is thoroughly cooled, add 2 cups cheap vodka, 2 tablespoons of almond extract and 2 teaspoons of vanilla. Mix the lot thoroughly and there you go, almost a litre of Amaretto for about 6 Euros. Happy, happy, happy!!
This was Nicky’s experiment first off this morning. Not the best time for alcohol but it started the day off great
Grab a nice large mango, peel it and then cut up as much of the flesh as you can as close to the stone as possible so as not to miss anything. Throw out the peel and put all the flesh into a liquidiser with lots of crushed ice and a good chunk of fresh mint to your taste. Liquidise the lot and add a really good slug of white rum and then top up to about half a litre using soda water.
The final result is quite a thick drink and really refreshing