Sloe gin: one of Britain’s best-loved liqueurs, and there’s a fair chance you’ve either made some yourself or know someone with a slightly questionable bottle lurking at the back of a cupboard.
We’ve been thinking about making our own pretty much since we started Loveday. And lots of people have been asking us about it for almost as long! But our reservations have always been the same as what I imagine yours could be: too sickly, something you can manage one little sugary nip of to warm you up before putting the bottle back in the cupboard for another year.
We wanted to make something different, and after much experimenting (and picking!) it'll be here on October the 2nd
There’s a particular kind of madness that comes with making sloe gin.
It starts in August or September time, usually in a lay-by off a B-road somewhere unremarkable, or down a lane, clambered into a hedge with stained hands and prickled fingers. Sloe berries are not generous. They’re small, they’re tart to the point of aggressive, and they refuse to come off the branch without putting up a fight. But they’re also, when treated properly, one of the most delicious things growing wild around here.
The sloe (Prunus spinosa, if you’re feeling formal) is the fruit of the blackthorn bush, a thorny, rather dramatic shrub that lines hedgerows across the UK. It looks like a tiny blueberry. It tastes nothing like one. Raw, it’s bracingly bitter, the kind of thing that makes your face do something involuntary. But macerated in alcohol over time, with the right balance of sweetness, something remarkable happens. The tannins soften. The sharp edges round out. You get this deep, hedgerow-wild flavour that tastes genuinely like Britain in autumn, earthy, a little brooding, with a gorgeous almost-jammy depth underneath.
Traditionally, sloes are steeped in gin with a fairly generous amount of sugar and left for a few months. And that sugar is where sloe gin’s reputation for being syrupy and overly sweet comes from. We wanted all that deep, dark, jammy fruit, but with enough tartness and dryness left to make you actually want another glass. Which meant being more thoughtful about what we partnered it with, and considerably more patient about timing.
And while we were at it, we made it a friend.
This autumn we’re releasing a duo of little 20cl bottles: our Sloe Gin and a Spiced Damson liqueur.
Two takes on some of the best fruit growing in British hedgerows, made for pouring into small glasses and passing around the table.
More on exactly what we’ve done with both very soon!
Join the waitlist for first dibs here →
And see last year's sloe-picking shenanegans here →
Chloe x
P.S. If you’ve ever made your own sloe gin, or have thoughts reply to this email. Always welcome your words of wisdom!
