So you have been making homemade Cassis and other drinkable goodies to give as gifts. They are ready to decant, now what do you give them in?
There is no need to give someone a whopping big bottle fulll of handmade liqueur, afterall you are not meant to quaff the stuff back, this is something special to be savoured. Present youor liqueurs in small bottles and that way you can get more gifts from one batch.
For a really nice presentation I like to bottle my Cassis in those cute little single serving wine bottles you can get in the supermarket. The problem with this is you will of course be forced to drink the wine. What a blow!
So let’s talk about decorating bottles for those homemade liquaurs.
Fill your bottles with the Cassis you made earlier. Add some nice hand drawn labels. If anyone is interested I can upload some of mine as a free download for you.
Seal your bottes
To make the traditional looking wax top over the ribbon seal all you need is some snippets of ribbon (I used a nice dark red for mine), a glue stick, some coloured wax crayons and an old candle. You will also need an empty can to melt your wax in and a pot with water to heat up.
Measure the ribbon so it covers the bottle cap and reaches down about 2″ on either side. Use your glue stick to dab a patch of glue on the bottle top to keep the robbon in place.
Put the can in the pot of water and put it over a medium heat. Add your candle wax and let it melt. Fish out the wick. To get the right colour for your wax seal just slice off the ends of some wax crayons to add colour to the wax.
I wanted a purple colour so I started with a bit of purple wax but when it mixed with the white candle wax it went too pale, so I added a bit of black, a smidge of red and a touch of brown. Great fun getting all creative with the colours!
When you have the colour you want (it will set lighter) hold the bottle in the middle and use your finger tips to just hold down the ribbon on either side of the bottle top. You only have to do this on first dip as once the wax sets over the ribbon first time it will hold it in place for you.
Now dip it cleanly into the hot wax to about half an inch from the ribbon ends. Pull back out of the wax and let it dry for a couple of minutes while you go on to the next bottle.
I dipped my bottle tops four or five times to get a nice thick seal on them.
Label the bottles if you haven’t already and set aside to mature until Christmas. When it comes to opening time all you do is pull up on the ribbon and the wax seal breaks.
It is just an old fashioned but nice touch to your presentation.
Karon x
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