Its that time of year

[Harry Eales]

Hello J,

There are two different types of Elderflower which you can't separate with the Mk 1 eyeball. Every Elderberry bush will be one type or the other, and a simple sniff will tell you which is which.

No.1 The flowers smell very fragrant.

No.2 The flowers smell like cats pee, and wine made from it tastes like it.

Use the former blossom only, a single flowerhead of the cats pee variety will spoil your brew, so take care when you are picking. All the blossom ib a tree or bush will be the same, so if there is a hint of No.2 find another bush.

Regards,

Harry

[FungiJus]

Originally Posted by Harry Eales

Hello J,

There are two different types of Elderflower which you can't separate with the Mk 1 eyeball. Every Elderberry bush will be one type or the other, and a simple sniff will tell you which is which.

No.1 The flowers smell very fragrant.

No.2 The flowers smell like cats pee, and wine made from it tastes like it.

Use the former blossom only, a single flowerhead of the cats pee variety will spoil your brew, so take care when you are picking. All the blossom ib a tree or bush will be the same, so if there is a hint of No.2 find another bush.

Regards,

Harry

Thanks Harry - this is interesting stuff.
I had previously thought that the difference between the fragrant and cat's pee flower heads was due to the time of day they were collected. Do you happen to know if the differences are actually at a species level?

I have read that Blackberries come in a surprisingly large number of microspecies (up to 400!) and each of them has a different flavour. This explains why some taste fantastic, others perfumed, some sharp, some insipid etc.

So it stands to reason I guess that being such a common native tree that there may have been genetic variants of elder develop over the years?

J.

[Harry Eales]

Originally Posted by FungiJus

Thanks Harry - this is interesting stuff.
I had previously thought that the difference between the fragrant and cat's pee flower heads was due to the time of day they were collected. Do you happen to know if the differences are actually at a species level?

I have read that Blackberries come in a surprisingly large number of microspecies (up to 400!) and each of them has a different flavour. This explains why some taste fantastic, others perfumed, some sharp, some insipid etc.

So it stands to reason I guess that being such a common native tree that there may have been genetic variants of elder develop over the years?

J.

Hello J,

To be honest I have no idea why the flowers of Elder smell that way, but I learned over 50 years ago that the 'cats pee' smelling flowers didn't produce a palatable wine.

Your possibly correct in that this may be genetic, but I'll leave that to the botanists to sort out. I'm too busy emptying bottles of last years vintage to be bothered. I need the empty bottles for the early glut of fruit the farmers are rabbiting about, (hic, scuse me).

Harry