Sloe Gin

Sloe gin is a British red liqueur made with gin, sloes and sugar.

There are many locations in and around our lovely village where one can gather sloes from the Blackthorn bushes which had beautiful white blossom in the Spring. The number of sloes you will find on a blackthorn bush or tree each year is very much linked to the weather during the previous spring and summer. Too dry and the sloes will be small and shrivelled. Too wet and cold and they will not develop at all. A good crop of plump, well-ripened sloes needs the perfect balance of warmth and water. This year – crops are good 🙂

There is a lot of debate about when to pick sloes. For the best flavour, wait until the berries are ripe. They should be a rich dark purple and should squash easily between your fingertips. It’s a good sign if they’ve already started to drop naturally to the ground.

If you’re picking them for sloe gin then traditionally you wait until after the first frost. These days, there’s no reason why you can’t pick them earlier, bag them up and pop them in your freezer to mimic that first frost. The theory behind this is that the frost splits the skins so the juices can flow into your gin without you having to go to the effort of pricking all the berries.

Ingredients

1 litre bottle of gin
500g sloes
250g caster sugar
1 large sterilised jar or 2 empty gin bottles

Method

Wash sloes and seal in an airtight bag. Freeze overnight or until you’re ready to make the gin.
Put frozen sloes into sterilised jar or empty gin bottles.
Add gin then the sugar directly onto frozen sloes. Their skins will split which means you avoid the laborious pricking of each individual sloe berry.
Seal jar tightly and shake well.
Store jar in a cool, dark place and shake every other day for a week. After the first week you only need to shake it once a week for 2 months.
Leave for a minimum of 12 weeks. The liquid should now be dark red and ready for drinking, although it does improve over time.

Serve sloe gin neat, over ice or drizzle over ice cream. You can also make the cocktail Sloe Royale by adding some to sparkling wine, prosecco or champagne.

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Wendy Shields