Hi, I'm wondering how the Camellia wine turned out, because I tried making a batch, and got pink lemonade. My brewing experience is limited to a half-dozen gallons of dandelion wine - I tried this basically because my husband looked at the camellias in Mom's yard and said, That would be an easier harvest than the dandelion petals!
Toxicity: The American Camellia Society, the ASPCA and an organization devoted to finding multiple food-uses for underutilized plants (whose website I of course cannot now find) all agreed that it's non-toxic, and some people running a B&B/event site in Brazil make and sell camellia petal jelly. After finding all this, I ate 3 petal over the course of 3 days, and felt fine.
I used a recipe for rose-petal wine published by Richard Bender in Herb Companion magazine, in 2004, and treated the petals just as he advised for rose petals - washed and trimmed of the white "heel." Pound of raisins, 90 mL lemon juice, 1.75 lb sugar, 523 grams camellia petals made into "tea" with 4 quarts water, small packet Red Star champagne yeast, and a teaspoon of "yeast energizer."
It seemed to bubble up and be fermenting nicely; after a week I strained the raisins out, left it for another 3 weeks, then tasted - very syrup-sweet, not alcoholic at all. Treating it like bread dough that wasn't rising, I stirred in another packet of yeast, and left for another month. More bubbling in the airlock - looked successful.
Today I went to decant it, and it still has no alcohol (under 1%, if I'm reading the hydrometer right, and no scent/tang of alcohol) - it tastes like sweet, flowery lemonade.
It has not gone to vinegar, nor molded, at all.
Now, am I just spoiled by the dandelions' quick ferments, so I should leave it another month? Or do camellia petals contain some microbial-inhibiting factor that stops fermentation? Or . . . .?
So I'd really like to know how yours came out. Thanks.
