Out of all the hedgerow liqueurs we make, Rosehip Liqueur is one of our favourites. In fact, it is currently hidden away to give it a chance to mature before hubby drinks it all.
What makes it special, I think, is it is made with a brandy base. The brandy, along with the added spices gives this Rosehip liqueur a much richer flavour than a Rosehip Gin or Vodka.
What are Rosehips?
Rosehip berries are the beautiful red fruit of the rose (Rosa) bush. All roses and their fruit are edible, although flavour varies depending on the variety. We are fortunate in that we have lots of wild dog rose bushes growing in the hedgerows around our house and they have an excellent flavour.
Roses and their rosehip berries have been used as food, medicine and in cosmetics for millennia. The ancient Greeks and Romans highly prized them for their health benefits.
Packed full of vitamin C and Iron, syrup made from these fruits has a long history of being used here in the UK to prevent colds, particularly in children. Raw rosehip syrup is a no-cook rosehip syrup recipe that uses sugar to draw the juice from the fruit resulting in a thick, delicious syrup. They also taste fantastic combined with crab apples to make a Jelly.
I cant promise that our rosehip liqueur will stop you catching a cold, but since it tastes delicious, it’ll certainly cheer you up if you do have one.
Rosehips are traditionally harvested after the first frosts, which is said to soften them and improve their flavour.
Just as I do when making Sloe Gin, I like to store mine in the freezer before using. You can read all the advantages of doing so in our best reasons for freezing foraged fruit post.
What you Need to Make Rosehip Liqueur.
- Enough rosehips to half fill a litre glass jar (Amazon affiliate link). I like to top and tail mine and freeze them first
- Zest of 1 Lemon
- 3 cloves
- Half a Cinnamon Stick
- Bottle of Brandy
- 150 grams soft brown sugar
- Glass bottles (Amazon affiliate link)
Note: I like to use Brandy to make this liqueur, but you can make Rosehip Gin and Rosehip Vodka in exactly the same way.
Just pop all your ingredients into a clean jar, and allow to sit for at least a month, shaking periodically. Then strain through muslin and bottle.
This delicious, syrupy rosehip liqueur will continue to mature although it tastes fantastic from the start. It makes a lovely homemade gift, but I bet after you try it you won’t give a drop away!
If we have wetted your appetite for delicious foraged concoctions we suggest you check out our Magical Himalayan Balsam Gin that changes colour when the tonic is added, or our savoury Wild Horseradish and Ground Ivy Infused Vodka which is perfect for Bloody Marys.
And if you fancy making a gin infusion without having to forage first, try our delicious Raspberry and Mint Gin and our mouth-watering Seville Orange Gin.
If you have enjoyed our Rosehip liqueur recipe, why not check out some of our other wonderful foraged and hedgerow liqueurs and infusions. You can find a list of our favourites below.
How to Make Hazelnut Liqueur Easily at Home
This simple hazelnut liqueur recipe only takes minutes to prepare but results in a deliciously rich and smooth nut flavoured liqueur that is perfect for gifting.
Every year we forage for sloes berries to make sloe gin. Learn how to identify sloes, when to pick them and try the best sloe gin recipe ever.
Beech Leaf Noyau
Beech Leaf Noyau is a traditional liqueur made from young leaves of the Beech tree. The leaves are gathered in spring while they are soft and sticky and still have a translucent, delicate look to them.
How to Make Delicious Stinging Nettle Cordial
The Stinging Nettle plant is super nutritious. Here I show you how to make delicious Stinging Nettle Cordial, one of my favourite nettle recipes.
44 comments
Hi,
I’m not sure if this is a silly question! But what do you drink your rosehip liqueur with? Or do you drink it neat?
Thank you!
Hi Megan I’ve only drunk it neat but there’s no reason why you couldn’t add something to it if you wanted to :)
Really enjoyex these ideas, I have just made some sloe gin with ginger peel and sugar.
Sloe and ginger sounds delicious, thanks for visiting us :)
Great ideas
Thank you :)
Going to cheer me up? With this beautiful creation, I’m just not going to care altogether if its not a cure all!
Vibrant, appealing. Now i have a reason to try brandy!
I’m sure you’ll love it Barbara :)
I strained and bottled the Rosehip Gin liqueur this morning, so lovely! Thank you once again for the recipe and advice on sugar.
So pleased you like it Carinjo :)
I’ve had this post bookmarked since last year and have eagerly been testing the rosehips on my walks! Didn’t pick enough though, so am going out again this afternoon. I was planning on doing a brandy, but thanks to allotment pears I have a pear brandy and pear liqueur maturing in the cupboard, so want to have a go at gin. Would it be better to use say caster sugar for a clearer liqueur, or would you recommend the brown sugar for the added taste? I have both luckily.
I use caster sugar with gin, as you say you should get a slightly brighter end result, although both will work. Pear brandy sounds delicious – thats going on my to do list :)
I want to make your rosehip liqueur, and I have a question. Can I substitute honey for the sugar. I am a beekeeper, so I prefer honey!
Hi Peter, How lovely to have bees! We bought a ‘Gardeners bee hive’ this year in the hope that wild bees would move in, but sadly no luck yet. I haven’t tried it but I would imagine that honey would work very well in my Rosehip liqueur recipe – I’m sure the brandy will prevent anything unwanted growing in it. I do know, however, that honey isn’t suitable for my raw rosehip syrup recipe – just in case you stumble across that recipe too. :)
I’m just discovering rosehips and was planning to make some infused vodka before I saw your post. My family loves brandy old fashioneds (I think making with brandy instead of whisky or bourbon is a WI thing) and I wonder if this would be good. I wonder if the sugar is needed if you want to use it to make cocktails and not sip. Any thoughts? I’m having a hard time deciding between gin for G&Ts or the brandy though…maybe I’ll have enough to do both :-) It sounds delicious.
Hi Caitlin I think both the versions sound delicious and you can easily leave the sugar out. I often don’t add any until my infusions are ready so I can then sweeten to taste :)
Can I use dried rosehips for this recipe?
Or is it best to use fresh?
I haven’t tried dried yet Julie, but keep meaning to. I think they would work but might need loner infusing time. Let me know how you get on if you do try it :)
Hi, I’ve just bottled my rose hip liqueur after 5 weeks, but do you have any recipes that I can use the left over rose hips with? Seems such a shame to waste them with all that taste. Thanks Gill
You could use them in a fruit leather Gill, but I would sieve the seeds out as they can cause irritation. Here’s my fruit leather recipe that you can adapt to use any fruit How to Make Easy and Delicious Fruit Leather
What soft brown sugar do you use, when making rosehip liqueur.
I use light soft brown sugar Angela but any sugar will work, the darker ones will just make the resulting liqueur a little darker :)
Thank you so much for all your information! I have a batch aging right now to give as Christmas gifts. I was wondering if you saved the liquor infused rose hips from this recipe and what you could do/ make with them?
You can use the rosehips again, but it is best to remove the seeds as they can cause irritation. They’d be great in fruit leather just sieve the pulp once it is cooked to remove the seeds
Do you use the rose hips the way they come off the rose bush or do you need to cut them open or do something to them to use them in a syrup or a liquor?
Hi Krista. I tend to freeze my rosehips so I can pick them in batches (when I am walking the dog) so I tend to top and tail them so they are ready to be used in whatever recipe I want. Freezing does soften the fruit a little and in this recipe they steep for quite a lo0ng time so I don’t cut them up further. If I was going to make cordial which is a quicker process I would chop them up roughly. My post on freezing foraged fruits explains a little of what happens to fruit when you freeze it. Hope that all makes sense!
Ooh I’m going to give this a go. We do Rosehip syrup but I’ve not heard of the liqueur before!
It’s delicious so we tend to keep it for ourselves but it would make a lovely gift :)
Ohh great! It’s so yummy and delicous.
Thanks Piyush :)
Do u know if u can make this with dried rosehips? And if so, how much would you use?
I’m planning to try that next Kristen. I have used other dried fruit in liqueurs before and it’s worked out well so I’m hopeful dried rosehips will be the same. I’ll probably start out trying a quarter jar of the dried fruit. If you do try it out before me please come back and let me know how it turned out :)
Sarah, have you ever used it as a vinegar? If not…do you think it would have merit…
I’m not sure if you mean the liqueur or whether I have made rosehip vinegar Elizabeth. I think they’d be great in a vinegar but I have never made one :)
This sounds so interesting! We have a rose bush in our backyard that produces berries. I never would have thought about turning them into a liqueur. Thanks for sharing!
During World War 2 our government had a campaign to get everyone picking rosehips to make into syrup for children due to them not eating so much fruit due to rationing so here in the UK using them is part of our heritage :)
Oh I can’t wait to try this Sarah. I have always heard that rosehips contain the highest concentration of vitamen C that our bodies can absorb and we have a pretty large bush that produces them. Strange, not all our roses bushes have rosehips. I must go research why that is. Anyways, I’d really love to try making this.
Do let me know what you think if you do Michelle. I’d imagine your rose hips will be really sweet due to your climate. Maybe you dead-head your roses so don’t get the fruit?
Yummy! That looks so pretty, but I bet it tastes even better! You’re so lucky to have that growing naturally all around you!
Thanks Florence, we are lucky to live in an area where so much grows in the hedgerows and picking is a lovely way to spend some time relaxing :)
Even though I’m not much of a drinker, I would like to try some homemade liqueur sometime. You make some interesting blends. After drinking this I guess you probably wouldn’t care if you had a cold or not. LOL
Haha I do think it’d definitely take the edge off any cold Linda, it really is particularly good. If I do ever make it over to the US I’ll be bringing a suitcase full of little bottles for you all (you’ll probably see me on the news!)
This does sound delicious! Only I don’t like brandy or whiskey! Do you think this would work with vodka or perhaps a red wine? I have used vodka in the past to make Tipsy Berry Sauce very successfully.
I think it would work very well with vodka Imelda.I use Vodka in many of my fruit liqueurs and they are all delicious. I don’t think the alcohol content would be high enough in the wine though and I think it would end up as vinegar.