Prepare your ingredients: crush dried herbs in a mortar and pestle as much as possible. If using dried fruit, finely chop the fruit with a knife. Fresh herbs and fruit should be chopped fine.
Fill a clean glass jar with fresh or dried herbs and fruit according to the proportions above.
Pour the alcohol over the herbs and fruit, filling the jar to the top.
Put a lid on the jar, label the jar with the date and contents, store it in a dark place, and let the ingredients infuse for one month. Make sure your fruit and herbs stay covered with alcohol. Occasionally check to see if you need to add more alcohol, as some of it may have been soaked up by the plant material. This tends to be more of a problem with fresh ingredients than with dried. Especially check your mixture the first few days after making it. The alcohol should cover the ingredients by at least 2 inches.
Place a funnel into the mouth of a clean, sterilized jar and lay muslin on top of the funnel.
Carefully pour the alcohol through the muslin and funnel, letting the muslin catch the herbs and fruit, and being careful not to let them spill into the jar.
Allow all the liquid to strain through the cloth into the jar. If you are using dried herbs or dried fruit, squeeze the rest of the liquid out of the dried plant material through the cloth into the jar. If you are using fresh fruit, do not squeeze the muslin, or you will end up with a cloudy extract. When making fresh fruit cordials, just let the liquid drip through the cloth.
Discard the herbs and fruit. Add it to your compost or just put it on the dirt in your garden.
Once you have decanted the herbs and fruit from the alcohol, you now have an herbal tincture that needs to be sweetened. The amount of maple syrup you put in is up to you. Traditionally, one-half part sweetener is added to one part tincture to make a cordial. Once you strain the herbs and fruit out, pour the liquid into a measuring cup to see how much you have. Divide that number in half, and that is the measurement for the sweetener.
Plan on a shelf life of one year for fresh fruit cordials and a couple years for everything else.
