Despite having to eke it out over the huge amount of dishes I want to use it in right now, I’m so glad I reserved some of my precious mint for this fantastic Mint Cordial. Straight from the bottle, the finished cordial does taste quite sweet. However, bear in mind that it’s going to be diluted for use. By all means reduce the amount of sugar if you prefer. But also remember that it’s sugar that’s doing the work of preserving, so reduced amounts may lower the cordial’s keeping properties. Usually a simple mix of juice and sugar, boiled for a short time only, they don’t have the long keeping qualities of jams and chutneys. Store cordials in the fridge and they should last for a month though. Cover the pan with a lid and leaving to steep for another hour or so. The liquid will be golden in colour, rather than green. It might not even have a lovely golden colour like the photo I took with the sun shining through it. In normal light, it’s probably going to be a rather murky olive green.

You could also make a stronger tasting cordial by increasing the amount of mint but keeping the water and sugar levels the same. Lightly bruise the mint leaves and two raspberries with a muddler (or small tonic bottle, salt shaker or similar) and leave them in a glass with the cordial for 10 minutes or more. Pour the mixture into two champagne glasses (or short glasses if you would prefer) and top up with sparkling water, for a sweeter drink use lemonade. Garnish with a raspberry. Cheers!

Muddle the basil, cucumber and lime in a short glass. Add the Pressed Elderflower & Pear cordial and a squeeze of lime juice from the lime wedge. Fill the glass with ice and top with sparkling water. Stir everything together and garnish with a sprig of basil and a baton of cucumber. Due to the scarcity of mint in my garden, the recipe at the end of the post makes a relatively small amount of Mint Cordial: approximately 225ml. But do double or even triple the amounts if you’ve plenty of mint. Leave to cool before decanting into sterilized bottles and sealing. It will keep for a couple of weeks in the fridge. Variations

Free of the additives found in commercial squashes, and minus the hefty price tag of the high end ones, homemade cordials have a lot going for them. I’ve also made it with lemon balm, which gives a lovely, delicate flavour making it ideal to add to a glass of prosecco. However, even the first cordial we’d recognise as such, Rose’s Lime Cordial, was originally flogged for its supposed health-giving properties. Read more about the history of cordials. By the way, don’t expect your Mint Cordial to be a Crème de Menthe bright green: that’s fake colouring. The simplest way to enjoy Mint Cordial is of course to pour some in a glass over ice and top up with sparkling water, soda water, lemonade or ginger ale.Fresh mint is great for making cordials.The recipe below shows how to use it to make lime and mint cordial – but there are lots of other fruits you can use to make your own preferred flavour. Such as strawberries, gooseberries, raspberries, etc. How to make Lime and Mint Cordial Ingredients: I added a little peppermint extract to my Mint Cordial to intensify the flavour. But I just happened to have a bottle in the cupboard (albeit about three years out of date) and really wouldn’t bother to buy it just for this recipe. Especially if I had loads of fresh mint.