Refreshing Homemade Elderflower Cordial

I've been spending far too much time on Tik Tok as of late and my 'cottage-core' videos are my favourite to create, so after seeing somebody make elderflower cordial on there, I thought I'd turn my hand to it too. Every year I've always sworn that I would do something with the elderflower that grows in abundance and finally I did, so I thought I'd share just how easy it was to make this refreshing Summer drink. 

Although most recipes you will find will use citric acid, I decided to skip this as it's usually used to add a tang and as a preservative, but as I was giving most of it away to be drunk pretty quickly (with tonic and gin!), I didn't bother to add any. 

Ingredients - 
20 Elderflower heads

750ml Water 
1 Lemons 
700g Sugar 


Method - 

In a large pan, heat the water and sugar until boiling. Keep stirring so all of the sugar is dissolved. 

Remove as much of the stems as possible on the elderflower heads, you want as little of the green as you can, only the flowers should be left. 

Take of the heat and add in the juice and zest of one lemon. Slice the remaining lemon into slices and place in the water too. Add the elderflower heads to the mixture and stir until all of them having been covered. 

Pop a lid on your pan and leave for 24 hours, stirring occasionally. 

Once 24 hours are up, using a colander, pour your cordial into a separate bowl under it, separating the liquid from the lemons and elderflower. 

There will still be a few flower heads in the liquid, so you need to use a clean tea towel and strain your cordial. 

Once done, just pour your cordial into storage bottles (I've used glass Kilner ones) and keep in the fridge to be used over 2-3 weeks. 

Have you made elderflower cordial before?