---
title: Elderflower Cordial, the Taste of Early Summer You Can Bottle
description: Great creamy heads of elderflower steeped into a cordial that holds the season in a glass, foraged free from the hedgerows.
author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2026-06-14T10:00:00.000Z
updated: 2026-06-14T10:18:49.565Z
canonical: https://richwoman.co/article/elderflower-cordial-the-taste-of-early-summer-you-can-bottle
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/svitlana-M2ooPEqSE-k-unsplash.jpg
categories: Food
content_type: Guide
region: Europe
publication: Rich Woman Magazine
access: members
schema_type: Article
---

For a few short weeks in early summer, the hedgerows fill with great flat heads of creamy elderflower, and the smell of them on a warm afternoon is one of the best free things in the British year. That scent goes straight into a cordial, a pale golden syrup you dilute with cold water or sparkling wine all summer long, each glass tasting of the exact week you picked the flowers. It is the most generous recipe in this column, because the main ingredient grows wild and costs nothing but the walk to find it.

The window is short, which is part of the pleasure. Elder flowers for perhaps three weeks, and missing it means waiting a year, so when you see the blossom out, that is the weekend to make this.

## The Flower

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