Is it Sloe? Is it a Damson? No it’s a Bullace!

Today was a good day. We took the kids for a walk in the woods in what is likely to be one of the last days of the year recognisable as a summer’s day. Whilst the weather was sunny and warm, the woods were definitely turning Autumnal and the gentle breeze, birdsong and ambience all but drowned out the regular bickering of the children. Idyllic!

Despite being ravaged by squirrels there were still plenty of hazelnuts to be had and brambles were too numerous to count. Even the hawthorn berries had the smallest amount of sweetness that justified eating them. We found enough for a decent snack for all of us and, whilst rebuilding a shelter of sticks and ferns that had unbelievable survived for a year since we had last been there, we snacked to our hearts content.

I have always loved foraging and whilst today would hardly tax Bear Grylls in its originality or obscurity (I related the process of making acorns edible to my 8 year old to a frankly limited response) there was undeniably a reaction to the idea of food being freely available in the woods.

Whilst exploring the vicinity of our new base camp we hit upon some heavily fruited trees, the fruit looked like sloes but this was a tree rather than the spiky Blackthorne bush where we would expect to find them. The leaves were the same as Damsons but the fruit was smaller. We had found a cluster of Bullace trees; a wild plum and relative of both Sloe and Damson.

The good news is that these are just as suitable for flavouring Gin as both Damson and Sloes so, after a little bit of child labour employed to collect the berries we can let infusion fun commence.

I have never really understood the obsession with Sloe Gin, at least from a home liqueur creation perspective. For me, Gin as already been infused with anything from Juniper (the fruit that makes Gin…well…Gin) through Cardamon, Orris Root, Lemon Peel and a in the case of the Cambridge Gin company… Ants! To create the the flavour of a spirit that would otherwise be not dissimilar to Vodka. A berry like Bullace is so tart and sour that it is inedible in all but the rarest circumstances. The process of infusing it with sugar and spirit allows its flavour to be introduced into something that can be consumed and enjoyed. We do the same thing with Coffee, Tea, Hops, Cocoa all of which are pretty darn awful in their natural state and whilst in all of these are also embellished with other flavours there is a sense in which we want the process we apply to them to result in presenting them at their best, processed but untainted.

For this reason I prefer to use Vodka to create these liqueurs rather than Gin with the intention of bringing out the flavour of the Bullace (or Damsons, Sloes, Jelly Babies, Mars bars whatever). What the hell, why not leave Juniper and any of the spices mentioned above in Vodka for a while and make your own Gin.

Most of the recipes for Sloe Gin or its derivatives online work with a total of a litre quantity of product and this works well if you have a separate vessel for infusion to the finished article.

In my case however I wanted to avoid using the extra vessel was hoping to use a handful of attractive bottles that had once contained arty gins. My recipe therefore scales to around 75cl proportions. I opted to create a Bullace Vodka and a Bullace Gin using equivalent quantities of both sugar and fruit to test my beliefs on the purity of Vodka vs Gin. Given the Japanese love of Umeboshi, and a number of plum infused Sake’s available I also thought a version using Sake might be interesting. Sake is closer to wine than spirits in strength (typically around 15%) but unlike wine will keep once opened for a few weeks. I am hoping that this combined with the additional sugar content will be enough to keep the Sake fresh whilst being infused.

At least 3 months is required for your infused spirit to be ready this give the time for the flavours of the spirit, sugar and fruit to combing. Whilst there is value in leaving it longer the genuine results of aging come from significant aging, the skin, stalk and stone of the fruit all introduce tannin to the spirit and whilst tannin ultimately produces greater complexity in the shorter term it adds a dry bitterness. Tannin breakdown takes time so be prepared to wait a couple of years to experience the difference.

Given however that an infused gin is commonly either served combined with tonic to make a sloe gin fizz or is served after dinner the subtlety of the aging of the Gin is usually lost. In other words if you want to age it, make it in large enough quantities so that you can enjoy some earlier and some later.