| Sloe
Ride from Imbibe Magazine |
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Photo
by Stuart
Mullenberg
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| courtesy
from Imbibe Magazine |
| Wild,
hard
and
inedible |
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Wild,
hard and inedible are hardly selling
descriptors for any type of food. But for the humble
sloea type of wild plum that grows in abundance
in the British Islesthe same characteristics that
make it unsuitable for snack time make it perfect
for cocktail hour.
Sloes are the fruit of the blackthorn tree, a type
of prickly shrub found in the hedgerows that line
Englands roads and fields. The fruit is small,
knobby and spectacularly astringent. But when
picked, pricked and soaked in sweetened gin, sloes
lend a fruity resonance, a brisk tartness and a rich
ruby color to the resulting liqueur.
Like many other liqueurs (such as limoncello), sloe
gin is traditionally made at home; outside of the
U.K. and Ireland, however, commercial brands have to
suffice. And thats where sloe gins problems
started: Long abandoned to the artificially flavored
and colored neighborhood of spirits, sloe gin has
for decades been a denizen of a liquor stores
lower shelves. Generations raised on sugary
knock-out drinks, such as the Alabama Slammer, came
to view sloe gin as a low-rent liqueur, a formula of
mystery fruit mixed with grain alcohol, corn syrup
and red dye.
That all changed last summer, when Plymouthproducer
of one of the worlds most celebrated ginsbegan
distributing its sloe gin in the United States using
an 1883 recipe. An initial round of 1,000 cases
began entering the market this June, and bartenders
and cocktail enthusiasts thirsty for a decent Sloe
Gin Fizz quickly snapped up the shipment; a second,
similarly limited batch should be arriving in 2009.
While the citrusy Sloe Gin Fizz is perhaps the most
classic drink made with the liqueur, bartenders and
cocktail enthusiasts have taken the opportunity to
break out several more esoteric sloe gin recipes.
Mixed with equal parts apple brandy and sloe gin,
the Depression-era Savoy Tango has a crisp, fruity
exuberance, while the Modern #2 uses the sloe
gins tanginess to brighten a mix of Scotch
whisky, grenadine and absinthe.
At Michael Minas Clock Bar in San Francisco, head
bartender Marcovaldo Dionysos mixes sloe gin in a
modern classic called the Wibble, created by
legendary London barman Dick Bradsell. Dionysos says
that with the older sloe gins on the market, he
couldnt have imagined tackling the drink.
Before the Plymouth product came along, sloe gin
had fallen into irrelevance, he says. It had
always been kind of a sticky, red, sweet liqueur.
There just wasnt a quality [sloe gin] on the
market.
With supplies of the Plymouth Sloe Gin running low,
most bartenders are holding back on their sloe gin
cocktails until the second shipment arrives. But
when it does, more bartenders and enthusiasts will
likely share the experience Los Angeles cocktail
consultant Marcos Tello had with his first quality
Charlie Chaplin, which matches sloe gin with fresh
lime juice and apricot brandy. I never liked the
drink until I got a bottle of the Plymouth
product, Tello says. I mixed them together and
thought, Oh, this is what theyre talking
about.
Recipe:
Sloe
Gin Fizz
For
more recipes using sloe gin, check out the November/December
2008 issue.
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