Sloe Gin

Meet Prunus Spinosa, ore better known as sloe berries or blackthorn plums. These dark, small and kind of unpopular berries grow in the wild around northern Europe as hedgerows, and  they are particularly common in UK.

Unlike more popular berries, sloe berries are quite tart and astringent, which is why you won't often see them topping a cheesecake. The British, ingenious folk that they are, did find a way to make good use of the wild berry-they steeped it in gin to give the fragrant spirit a bit more personality, added some sugar, and Slow Gin was born! Yay for us!

Sloe gin is a traditional British after-dinner digestif. Smooth and fruity, with its own unique flavour. It's a real autumn and winter treat, flavoured with fruit from the hedgerow, perfect beside warming fires for cosy evenings at home, enjoying the long winter evenings.

This sloe gin recipe needs only four ingredients: sloe, gin sugar and time. There is something wonderful about having a couple of bottles at the back of a cupboard, gently maturing and gaining flavour from the foraged fruit, ready for the great decanting.

I find that leaving the fruit in for a good long while is really worth it; I usually leave my sloes infusing for at least 6 months and decant at the same time as I make the next batch. Don't leave it too long, however. The bottle needs drinking within a few years of decanting. Very old sloe gin loses its colour and flavour.

Ingredients:

• 500g sloes
• 250g sugar
• 70cl gin

Method:

After gathering your sloes, wash and remove any stems and leaves. Dry the sloes with a kitchen towel and freeze the sloes for a couple of days. 

Pop the frozen sloes into a air-tight glass jar, approximately 1.5 litre. Add the sugar and slowly pour in your chosen gin.

Keep the jar in a dark, cool spot. For the first week or so, give the jar a good shake. Once all the sugar has dissolved, leave it in the dark as long as you can beat, three months at the very least. If you can make a year ahead before drinking for the best results.

Finally strain the mixture through some muslin and decant into two clean bottles, and it will ready to serve either on its own or with a mixer such as tonic water.

This gin is lovely on its own or reduced and drizzled onto cakes, but is also a great cocktail ingredients. To make a slow fizz, simply pour 25ml of sloe gin into a champagne glass and top with prosecco.