Nimm2 sweets do not taste of orange alone and not of apple alone. They have that one specific blend of multivitamin, blackcurrant and lemon. We carry exactly that profile into the liqueur by dissolving the sweets in real multivitamin juice and orange juice in the Thermomix®, rather than heating them dry in a pot.
We make this liqueur several times a year by now, especially when a birthday or Christmas is coming up. In the early days we had the problem many Thermomix® owners know: the sweets stick to the bottom of the mixing bowl, start to scorch slightly, and the filling pulls into stringy threads. We now know this has nothing to do with the sweets themselves, but with what you put into the mixing bowl alongside them. With juice as the base, the hard-caramel shell dissolves gently, and we never have to scrape the bottom.
Nimm2 Liqueur with the Thermomix®
Ingredients 0 / 5 ✓
- 30 Nimm2 sweets mixed, half yellow, half orange
- 300 g multivitamin juice
- 300 g orange juice 100% fruit juice
- 200 g white rum
- 100 g Cointreau
Instructions 0 / 3
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1
Dissolve the sweets.
Unwrap the sweets, add them to the mixing bowl with the juices and heat for 10 min / 70°C / speed 1 until the sweets have fully dissolved. Leave to cool for 15 minutes.
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2
Add the alcohol.
Add the rum and Cointreau and mix for 10 sec / speed 4.
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3
Bottle the liqueur.
Fill the liqueur into sterilised bottles and store in the fridge.
Tip: The liqueur keeps in the fridge for at least six months. Try it with sparkling wine and ice cubes. That combination is genuinely good.
Video
Nutrition per serving
Why the juices go into the mixing bowl before the sweets
The 30 Nimm2 sweets (mixed, half yellow, half orange) only go into the mixing bowl once the 300 g of multivitamin juice and 300 g of orange juice are already in there. There is a physical reason for this: hard caramel melts cleanly only when it is sitting in a liquid that distributes the heat. Dry sweets on the bottom of the mixing bowl would caramelise and stick right at the hot spot directly below the blade at 70°C. In juice they float and dissolve evenly while speed 1 gently keeps them moving.
The ten minutes at 70°C on speed 1 are not an arbitrary figure. 70°C is enough to soften the sugar structure while staying well below the point at which the fruit juices lose their flavour. Speed 1 matters here because we do not want to chop anything. We are waiting for the sweets to liquefy on their own. Anyone who chooses speed 4 or higher will whip the sticky caramel filling into foam, and a foam collar will then form on top of the finished liqueur.
Rum and Cointreau only go in after cooling
After the ten minutes we leave the contents of the mixing bowl to cool for 15 minutes. This is the most important waiting step in the recipe and we never skip it. If we added the 200 g of white rum and 100 g of Cointreau to the hot juice mixture, the alcohol would evaporate against the hot walls of the mixing bowl before we even put the lid on. The liqueur would taste flat and overly sweet instead of well-rounded. Only once the juice mixture is hand-warm do we add the alcohol and mix for 10 sec / speed 4. No more movement is needed. We want a clear liquid, not foam.
This is also the difference from a frying pan or saucepan, which many people used to use for this liqueur. On the hob, the sweets quickly burn on the bottom because the heat comes from one spot underneath. In the mixing bowl, the heating element works all around and the stirring mechanism at speed 1 keeps the liquid moving. That is exactly the benefit here: we can melt sweets without having to stand over them.
With rum and Cointreau, with vodka, or alcohol-free
The original recipe uses white rum with Cointreau because the light orange note of the Cointreau reinforces the vitamin profile of the sweets. Anyone who prefers a cleaner, more neutral liqueur can replace the rum 1:1 with vodka and leave out the Cointreau. That brings the sweet flavour to the foreground on its own. This is the version that gives children tasting it the strongest impression of “liquid Nimm2”.
We reach for mango or passion fruit juice instead of multivitamin juice when the liqueur is intended as a gift for a summer birthday. The acidity of passion fruit cuts through the sweetness of the sweets nicely, though a bit of the vitamin character is lost. For an alcohol-free version for children, we replace the rum and Cointreau with 300 g of apple juice in total. The apple juice is also added after the cooling phase so the mixture is not heated again and keeps its freshness.
14 days in the fridge, in sterilised bottles
We fill the finished liqueur into sterilised 250 ml bottles. Sterilising for us means: boiling bottles and caps in hot water for 10 minutes, or heating them in the oven at 120°C for about 15 minutes. This is not excessive, because the fruit juice content of the liqueur is high and residue from old juices or washing-up liquid will make the liqueur go cloudy.
In the fridge the liqueur keeps cleanly for 14 days. With the 30% alcohol content from the rum and Cointreau, three to four weeks is no problem either, and the flavour stays stable. What happens after a few days: the aromas round out and the sweet note comes through more clearly. Freshly bottled, the liqueur can still taste slightly alcoholic. After three days of resting, that almost completely disappears. We therefore like to make the liqueur a few days before a birthday or other occasion and keep it in the fridge in the meantime.
Serving as a shot, with sparkling wine or over vanilla ice cream
The classic way: we drink the Nimm2 liqueur ice-cold from small shot glasses straight from the fridge. At 6 to 8°C the vitamin profile comes through best. Lukewarm, the liqueur tastes too sweet. A version we like to offer guests: a splash of liqueur topped up with cold sparkling wine and one ice cube makes a light aperitif that goes well with cheese snacks or dried fruit.
One use we stumbled upon by accident: two tablespoons of liqueur over a scoop of vanilla ice cream makes a grown-up dessert that tastes like childhood. Added to a fruit salad, the liqueur also gives the fruit a fresh sweet accent.
More liqueurs for the gift bottle
Also worth a look: Mulled Gin with the Thermomix®.
If you enjoy the Nimm2 liqueur, a few other homemade liqueurs are worth making for a gift basket. Our classic remains the advocaat made with the Thermomix®, which we make throughout the year. If you liked the Nimm2 liqueur, you will probably also enjoy our After Eight liqueur made with the Thermomix®, because it is based on the same principle: gently dissolving sweets in cream rather than melting them on the hob. For something creamier and more festive, try our chocolate advocaat with the Thermomix®. And if you like caramel flavours, our caramel and nut liqueur with the Thermomix® is not to be missed.
