Our friend Richard introduced us to Sloe Gin – a sweet syrupy after-dinner drink that’s made from sloes and gin. Now, we didn’t know what sloes were, but we have a much better idea now. And we didn’t know how to make sloe gin, but thanks to Richard we now do. Firstly, we have to pick the sloes.

Stage 1: Picking the Sloes

Well, before you actually pick the sloes, you have to walk a long way to the sloe bushes through very English farm land.

Sloe bushes are fairly unremarkable and typically line farmer’s fields. The sloes themselves look like blueberries.

However, note from my expression below – they do not taste like blueberries…

We asked how many sloes we would need for sloe gin. The answer was – as many as you can pick before sunset. So, we picked sloes for about 4 hours and filled many plastic bags.

Hands grubby and cold, and all the bushes within range quite thoroughly picked, it was time to head back to Richard’s for stage 2 – mixing the sloe gin.

Stage 2: Mixing the Sloe Gin

We picked about 7 kgs of sloes – a massive haul considering how tiny the sloes are.

Now, the ratios. Ricahrd typically goes for 1 kg of sloes + 1 kg of sugar + 1 litre of gin/vodka/white rum

We took home a 1 litre flagon which had a standard mix of sloes + white sugar + gin. Richard mixed up a few variations for his flagons, including using brown sugar instead of white and trying different types of gin.

Stage 3: Shake and Wait

Once the flagons are full, you need to give them a good shake everyday for a few months. Yea, a bit of effort. Patience is definitely required to make sloe gin.

(Also, this is Rob’s mid-Movember mo below. He raised £40 for the cause! And I raised £30 for putting up with it. 😀 )

Then you’ll get syrupy tasty sweet Sloe Gin. Here’s one of Richard’s from last year. You can still see the sloes in the bottle. And its pretty darn yummy.

We’ll let you know how our one turns out in a few months. 🙂