I Can Cello That

In my ongoing quest to become a real life Portlandia character, I've adopted an "I can cello that" attitude.  And I don't mean pulling my bow across some strings to entertain the ears.  I'm talking about throwing whatever I can find into everclear and mixing it with sugar syrup to entertain the taste buds.  Today's victim: green almonds.

Acquired on an unfortunately rare trip to Berkeley Bowl last weekend, these green almonds cried out to me from the exotic fruit isle (which always seems like gilding the lily at a grocery store with seven kinds of mango and at least that many different types of apricot in the "regular" sections).  Green almonds are only around for a couple weeks every year, and when I spotted them my first thought was "you need to get into a 151-proof bath, ASAP, my pretties."  A quick google search on my phone turned up plenty of recipes for infusions of green walnuts to make nocino, but bubkas on using green almonds (other than for syrup, which didn't seem nearly intoxicating enough).  

Fifty-five green almonds came home with me from the store (for a whopping $2.50 - extortion I say!), and, undeterred by lack of internet instructions, I proceeded to cello the hell out of them.  Everclear in mason jar?  Check.  Giant cleaver to cleave these babies in half?  Check.  Half a cinnamon stick, half a vanilla bean, and a few strips of zest from a lemon picked from our backyard to complexify the flavor a bit?  Check, check, and check.  Given that I don't know how or how strongly flavored a green almond infusion will be, I decided to forego the wide array of other flavorings people seem to add to nocino, from cloves to wine.  

And now we wait.  One pleasant surprise after a few days of infusing is the color.  While green walnuts apparently produce a pitch black liqueur, my green almond experiment is still a lovely chartreuse.  If this holds up, I'll be a very happy camper.  Updates to come once infusion, proofing down, and aging have been completed.