It is time to pick sloes to make sloe gin ready for Rye News Sloe Gin Competition to be held in the spring. There also is a class for any other fruit liqueur using locally grown fruit.
Sloes are a fruit found growing on the blackthorn (Prunus spinosa). Blackthorn is a hermaphrodite, meaning both male and female reproductive parts are found in one flower. White flowers appear on short stalks before the leaves in March and April, either singularly or in pairs.
Once pollinated by insects, the flowers develop into blue-black fruits measuring 1.5cm across. Spiny and densely branched, mature trees can grow to a height of around 6-7m, and live for up to 100 years. The dark brown bark is smooth, and twigs form straight side shoots, which develop into thorns. The slightly wrinkled leaves are oval, toothed, pointed at the tip and tapered at the base. It’s mainly found in hedgerows quite often along the roadside.
Sloe gin is rich red in colour, and sweet in taste, the fruit liqueur is the perfect winter warmer when the weather starts to turn a little nippier. Sloe gin is a liqueur made with gin and the sloes. Traditionally sipped neat, sloe gin should be treated the same as normal gin, with a single shot being 25ml and a double 50ml, it has an alcohol content between 15 and 30% by volume, however the EU has established a minimum of 25% ABV for it to be named sloe gin (presumably this ruling may soon no longer apply).
Sloe gin is relatively easy to make and there are plenty of recipes and instructions on the internet. It does, like all good things, however, require patience and many experienced makers have their own secret recipes.
Image Credits: Rye News Library .