Sloe Gin
Sloe gin is one of the most popular home-made alcoholic beverages, often prepared in the build-up to Christmas. It is an infusion of plain gin with sloe berries, also known as blackthorn, and a little sugar, though everyone has their own recipe. The berries are traditionally picked after the first frost of the year, and must be pricked before infusion to allow the juice to come out. You can either use uncut gin or dilute it with water to lower the alcohol content. Commercially-made sloe gin tends to be lower in alcohol than home-made varieties (and is generally closer to a liqueur than a gin), and in the European Union commercial sloe gin must be at least 50 proof. In some countries the local equivalent of sloe gin is made by infusing vodka or other spirits with sloe berries. A Sloe Gin Fizz cocktail is made by combining sloe gin with lemon juice, sugar, and soda, although home-made sloe gin is usually drunk neat, on the rocks, or with tonic.
Top Sloe Gin Posts:
Sipsmith V.J.O.P. Gin and Sloe Gin
Spirit Works Gin, Barrel Gin, and Sloe Gin
Plymouth Sloe Gin
What’s a damson plum? Well, if you’ve ever had sloe gin, you’re on the right track. Damsons and sloes are cousins, both found in the hedgerows of Britain, and both have been used to make booze for centuries, because the fruits are too tart and astringent to eat on their own. In this spin on…
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Bombay Bramble is Bombay Sapphire’s first new expression 10 years (since the launch of Bombay Sapphire East in 2011). It’s also the most unorthodox gin to come out of Bombay, a red-hued spirit flavored with “the essence of fresh blackberries and raspberries harvested at their ripest moment.” For the most part, that’s not hyperbole: The…
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New Alchemy Distilling is a craft producer based in the El Dorado Hills of California, where, with nary a barrel in sight, it focuses on (mostly) white spirits — vodka, gin, white whiskey, and even aquavit. The company produces a collection of six different spirits, three of which we look at here. Let’s dig in!…
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Gin and Luxardo (aka Marasca) cherries go together wonderfully (they’re the core of one of my favorite cocktails), so it makes perfect sense that Luxardo would invent a new category, infusing gin with its own Marasca sour cherry juice — kind of an Italian spin on sloe gin. Here’s some additional backstory from the company:…
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Tired of Tanqueray? Here’s a crazy spin on gin that was new to me, a mashup of gin with shiraz wine. Let me get Australia’s Four Pillars to do the explaining: “Our home is in the Yarra Valley, where our neighbours make some of the finest wines in the world. So in 2015 we combined…
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Newly available in the U.S. is this collection of products from Germany’s Avadis Dsitllery. Bottled under the Ferdinand’s label, these products all involve a unique ingredient: Riesling wine from the Mosel region, where the distillery is based. Some additional details from the company: Ferdinand’s Saar Dry Gin is crafted from grain to bottle at Avadis…
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A unique line extension in the gin world, Boodles Mulberry Gin is the first-ever mulberry gin to be sold in America. Clearly inspired by sloe gin, Boodles calls this “a fresh interpretation of a British classic.” Sloe berries and mulberries are fairly distant cousins — same order, speaking scientifically — but the color of Boodles Mulberry is…
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Sipsmith isn’t content to just make a single gin in its garage of an operation in London, England. It actually produces a range of artisan spirits and fortified wines — including the two reviewed below, which are exported to the U.S. Sipsmith co-founder Sam Galsworthy (pictured) was recently in my neck of the woods, and we…
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Sebastapol, California is in the heart of Northern California’s winemaking operations, and it’s here where Spirit Works can be found, cranking out a variety of gin, vodka, and white whiskey products. They even make an authentic sloe gin here — and we were lucky enough to try it, along with the company’s standard gin and…
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Who knew they grew plums on the beach? This is the first commercial “beach plum gin” liqueur, and I have to imagine the reason for that is that making a liqueur out of beach plum gins didn’t occur to anyone. The beach plums in question hail from Long Island, and their juice is blended with…
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