How to Make Cytrynówka | Homemade Recipe

Moving to Poland has been probably the most difficult challenge in my life: different culture, different traditions, crazy opposite weather and of course different food!

Getting used to all of that new stuff was not easy, during each family dinner I was learning new things that were really common in Poland, but in my country were completely unknown! For example, making or preparing their own food (I don’t mean normal food) or beverages was extremely common! It was the first time in my life that I tried homemade ham and sausages, which were ten times more delicious than the ones you get at the supermarket.

But for Poles it is also common to prepare their own kind of alcoholic beverages: wine, beer and of course vodka. I believe I’ve tried vodka in all of the possible flavors, but so far the most delicious one for me is lemon vodka flavor, or in Polish knows as: Cytrynówka.

Cytrynówka is basically a super-tasty homemade lemon vodka! If it’s prepared correctly it is the perfect drink to have at parties or family dinners. As each day I want to adapt more and more to Poland I thought it was time to prepare my first homemade cytrynówka! It was super fun and not that hard to do, so I want to share with you the best recipe to prepare homemade cytrynówka.

“If life gives you lemons, make cytrynówka”

-Pan Janusz

Recipe to Prepare Cytrynówka

If you prefer to watch tutorials and follow the steps there, I’ve prepared a video with all the steps you need to follow, you can watch it below (if you prefer to read the tutorial please keep scrolling):

This recipe is to prepare 3 liters of cytrynówka, which is more than enough for a party.

Time of preparation: 1.5 hours

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:

• 1 liter of Spirytus (I bought half a liter for 42zl) – you can buy it in almost any supermarket in Poland
• 1 liter of honey
• 1 liter of lemon/lime juice (more or less 3kg of lemons)
• water

Things you need:

• 2 big containers
• 2 gauzes
• 1 big spoon
• 1 lemon squeezer

What you need to do:

1. Start by washing the lemons, I don’t want you to get sick
2. Then you need to roll and squeeze each lemon (like giving a massage), just roll and press my friend
3. Cut the lemons in half
4. Squeeze all of the lemons into a big recipient (remember you need to get 1 liter of lemon juice)
5. Filter all of the lemon juice in another recipient with the gauzes
6. When you have all your lemon juice filtered, it’s time to add the Spirytus. Add 1 liter of spirytus to the lemon juice container.
7. Add 1 liter of honey into the container of lemon juice and spirytus
8. Mix all of the ingredients
9. Try the cytrynówka, if the taste is still really strong add one glass of water, and mix it again. Keep doing that until the taste is good for you
10. When the cytrynówka is ready, you need to pour it into bottles. The thing is that the cytrynówka has to ‘rest’ for one week in a room so the ingredients mix correctly and the flavor is ideal!
11. After 1 week, put those bottles in the freezer and enjoy!

I hope you liked this recipe! Share in the comments if you are planning to prepare this awesome drink!