Alcohol liqueur lemons mint

I love holidays, all these feasts, an abundance of food and wine. Don't think, I'm not a hidden alcoholic, I just like when there's plenty of everything on the table. Most often, everything I cooked was what I ate. But about a drink, here the situation is worse. However, I recently came across one culinary recipe, it seems simple, I will try it.
First, prepare the zest: on the smallest grater, three lemon or orange peel, mix it with mint and alcohol. Moreover, alcohol must be pre-diluted with water, just be careful, when alcohol is diluted, so much energy is released from it that it's just creepy, everything gets hot. We leave our mixture for a few days. We prepare a syrup from all the sugar and a glass of water – boil the water, add sugar and bring to a boil.
Pour this syrup into the mint liqueur. Now we are waiting for a few more days. Filter it. Ready to use. However, it is not entirely clear why it turns out this way, there is little mint here, and the smell is strong, that's the discrepancy. And the color confuses me, I would like something greener, more saturated. Well, if nothing works out, I'll buy some food coloring and paint over as I please.