Ratafia

Ingredients

Base

• 30green walnuts, picked around 24 June while the shell inside is still soft enough to cut through, quartered
• 3 litresaiguardent or unflavoured grape spirit, 40% ABV

Herbs and spices

• 2cinnamon sticks
• 8cloves
• 1whole nutmeg, cracked
• peel of 2 unwaxed lemons, no pith
• peel of 1 orange
• 10 gfresh mint leaves
• 10 glemon verbena leaves
• 5 gdried chamomile flowers
• 2star anise
• 10coffee beans
• 6juniper berries

Sweetening

• 800 gto 1 kg caster sugar
• 300 mlwater

Directions

1. Wear gloves: green walnut juice stains hands brown for a fortnight. Quarter the nuts through the soft shell and drop them straight into a wide-mouthed glass demijohn.
2. Add every herb and spice and pour the spirit over so everything is submerged by at least 3 cm. Seal loosely.
3. Stand the jar outside where it takes full sun by day and the cool night air, the sol i serena method, for 40 days, from Sant Joan to the start of August.
4. Shake or swirl it every day or two. Within a week the liquid turns inky black-brown; by three weeks it smells of walnut husk, spice and resin.
5. At 40 days, taste on a teaspoon. It should be intensely bitter and aromatic; that bitterness is what the sugar will balance.
6. Strain through a colander, then again through a double layer of muslin, pressing the solids only lightly so the liqueur stays clear.
7. Dissolve the sugar in the water over low heat to a clear syrup, cool it completely, then stir it into the strained liqueur a third at a time, tasting as you go; stop when the bitterness is rounded but still present.
8. Bottle in dark glass, cork, and rest in a cool cupboard for at least three months. It goes on improving for years and the harshness of the young spirit disappears entirely.
9. Serve in small glasses, lightly chilled, after a meal, or poured over ice with a strip of lemon peel.

Technique

• The timing is fixed by the walnut, not the calendar: pick when a knife passes cleanly through the whole nut, shell and all. Once the inner shell has hardened, usually by mid-July, the nuts are useless for ratafia.
• Every Pyrenean family claims a different herb list and most keep it secret, so there is no single correct recipe. What is constant is green walnuts, spirit, sun-steeping and a long rest in the dark.
• Do not press the solids hard when straining. Squeezing pushes fine sediment through the cloth and the liqueur stays cloudy for months.
• Sweeten in stages after steeping, never before: sugar added at the start slows the extraction of the walnut and the herbs.

Substitutions

• No aiguardent: use grappa, marc or a neutral grape spirit at 40% ABV. Vodka works and is cleaner but tastes less of the mountains.
• If you cannot leave the jar outdoors, a sunny windowsill for 40 days extracts nearly as well; the swing between day heat and night cold is the part you lose.

Variations

• Ratafia dels Pirineus, heavier on juniper and mountain herbs.
• A lighter version sweetened to only 200 g of sugar per litre and drunk chilled as an aperitif.
• Poured over vanilla ice cream or into black coffee as a carajillo de ratafia.

History

Made in Andorra and the Catalan Pyrenees from green walnuts picked around Saint John’s Eve in June, then steeped with herbs and sugar.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ratafia?

Ratafia is a wine & spirit from Andorra: green-walnut and herb liqueur steeped in the sun, drunk after meals. Made in Andorra and the Catalan Pyrenees from green walnuts picked around Saint John’s Eve in June, then steeped with herbs and sugar.

How long does Ratafia take to make?

Ratafia takes 45 min of preparation and 40 days steeping plus 3 months resting of cooking. The recipe makes about 3 litres. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Ratafia?

Yes, within limits. No aiguardent: use grappa, marc or a neutral grape spirit at 40% ABV. Vodka works and is cleaner but tastes less of the mountains. If you cannot leave the jar outdoors, a sunny windowsill for 40 days extracts nearly as well; the swing between day heat and night cold is the part you lose.

What is the most important thing to get right in Ratafia?

The timing is fixed by the walnut, not the calendar: pick when a knife passes cleanly through the whole nut, shell and all. Once the inner shell has hardened, usually by mid-July, the nuts are useless for ratafia.