Yours cordially…. or your cordial

I was having an exchange of comments about tea wine, the recipe of which I came across recently. From that came the idea of maybe a tea cordial and I thought that sounded rather refreshing and nice… if only I could decide on which tea and which recipe for cordial.

I had a little intent trawl and came across recipes for blackcurrant, elderflower, rhubarb, gorse flower – wait a minute gorse? Really? Oh well, maybe… also apple and blackberry  lemon, nettle – well if you can have gorse then you can surely have nettle, lime, orange, strawberry, and raspberry…

Now I’m intrigued! Hannah Woolley who was born in 1623 and an early cookery writer give a recipe for lemon cream cordial, and an even earlier writer, Elinor Fettiplace gives a variety of recipes for cordials, syrups and juleps, including rose petal, violet, herbs, rosemary, sage, purple clary, and red cockle (otherwise known as field Nigel’s weed – no, I’ve never heard of it either!)

I have actually made rose petal jam and it was so aromatic, so deep in colour and flavour… so maybe next summer rose petal cordial? In the meantime I’m going to try something else… but which?