Steeped in Mythology, the flower of the Elder tree, or Judas Tree as some may know it as, is a revered and unique flavour.

The petals of the elder tree are small and delicate and drop off the tree in order to make way for the elderberries, which are also an often used as a mead ingredient. See the separate entry for Elderberry

Elderflower provides a distinct floral and light fruit flavour that could also be described as slightly herbal with some vanilla notes. It is unique, it is flavour in its own right and is not really like anything else at all.

The flowers are only on the tree for a very short period of time. This is not an ingredient that would have featured on ancient mead recipes all year round, but it would have certainly featured big in any foraged mead made during the flower season.

These days we have dried flowers all year round, but there is still something about the taste of elderflower that reminds one of summer, it is well suited to being a seasonal mead or wine that is made after a day of foraging in the sunshine. 

My experience with elderflower is not to make a tea, or tissane with it, it bitters very quickly when heated. I add the dried elderflower to our honey several weeks before making our elderflower mead, this extracts the most floral notes, and the most pleasant, flavours. I have no 'fermentation" around the flowers" which is a risk when using florals and herbs in this manner and am not really concerned if I do.

I have worked with ice cream makers with this unique floral and we both found that at 60 deg c and above we are getting bitter tannings and flavours.

Elderflower is an ingredient that will benefit from a yeast sympathetic to flavour and aroma retention. The flowers form a cap that is easily manageable, they drop to the bottom fairly quickly and can be left there for the duration of the ferment. Of course using a bag will make it easier, but I don't bag the elderflowers, they cause no concern at all swimming around freely and I do believe this gives the best extraction.

When used primary they bring a floral wine attribute to a mead and the flavour is undoubtable elderflower. When used in secondary they bring a brighter and fresher flavour and aroma with them but this does blow off in the glass fairly quickly.

They pair well with a variety of flavours particularly vanilla, citrus and other bright notes. They an also stand up and be heard within a big herbal or floral mead with their unique flavour. It never really melds into other flavours, it always remains next to,  behind or in front of them.

I like to pair theses elderflowers with Elderberries, the fruitiness and complexity of the berries, those big deep notes just go so well with the bright notes of the flowers.

When using fresh flowers, I find that 1kg per 7 to 10 litres is a big flavour if I have left them in the honey for a while, 
1kg per 15 to 20  litres when using dried. 

If using fresh, you just want the flower, you really want to avoid rinsing the pollen off it so I shake them into a container and then give the bugs and things a good chance to run away, I do then later rinse them, but keep the water, checking it for, and removing the inevitable tiny bugs.

Recipes I use Elderberries in:

The Elders: - A mead featuring clover honey, elderflowers and elderberries.

Olde World Mead - The elderberries provide a nice fruit back drop within this complex and big flavoured mead. 

Elderberry Wine: - The elderberries feature big here, this is aged for two years in french oak before being bottled. It is a full bodied red wine that competes nicely for table space with many grape varieties.