Elixirs of the gods...?

So, for my first entry, I thought I would talk a bit about my dabbling in the art of liqueurs. I call them homemade because they sort of are, but to be honest, it's more of an infusion than anything else. Not that semantics matters much, especially the more you sample. I've been delving into my memory (a bit of a scary place at times) and trying to recall all the different types I have made. Here's what I can remember limoncello, lime, orange, cinnamon, ginger, prickly pear, raspberry, cranberry, anisette, and almond, I think that's it so far. I'll start with the old standbys. The very first one I made was anisette, anise infused vodka. At this point I should mention that for all the liqueurs I use Burnett's 100-proof vodka. I use Burnett's because it's a good product for the price, $20 for 1.75 L (which is the size bottle I use for all my recipes).
Ok, back to the anisette. A buddy of mine introduced me to it, but mentioned that when his family made anisette it was way too sweet. So, he and I decided try to work out our own recipe. We ended up putting much less sugar and more anise extract. Here's what we came up with:

3 C water
2 C sugar
1/3 C anise extract (4 oz =1/4 C, but I buy the pure extract in bulk now, which I'll provide a link for)
1.75 L 100-proof vodka

Bring water and sugar to a boil (just until sugar is completely melted), add anise extract. The mixture will be cloudy for a minute or two, and cook for a little longer until liquid is clear again. Cool and add vodka. Store in freezer. Very simple.

For the almond, it's exactly the same, except I use 1/4 C pure almond extract.
For the citrus liqueurs, it's a bit more work. As far as the lemons and limes, I zest 2 bags, which is about  16-18 lemons and 12-16 limes. I find that for citrus, the best way to zest is with an actual zester, not a grater, or even a grater/zester. When using zest in recipes, like cookies or cannoli, a zester grater works well, because you want it finer. Also, it's imperative that no pit gets in there as it will make whatever recipe bitter. So, I then "steep" the zest in the same size (1.75 /L, 100-proof) vodka for 10 days to 2 weeks. The longer you let it sit, the better it is, but I'm not very patient. Strain well. I use a metal wire strainer and then a cotton towel. Then add the same simple syrup (3 C water, 2 C sugar) and store in refrigerator. I would prefer the freezer, but it does actually freeze  bit.

For the raspberry, I use 2, 12 oz bags of frozen berries, thawed, mashed, and "Steeped" Strain and add simple syrup. (Same for the cranberries, although I used 2 bags of fresh and cooked them down first).

For the ginger, it's the same procedure with 2 medium ginger roots cut up fine or mashed, steeped 10 days-2 weeks, strain, add simple syrup.

So, that's about the bulk of it. I'm more than happy to answer any questions on all of this, too. Most of it is experimentation. Coming up will be coconut and possibly passion fruit, we shall see.

Buon Appetito!

Extract link:
http://www.adamsextract.com/product.asp?table_545=9249&productID=7466&btnSubmit=Continue