October means that sloe season has officially arrived. Get in the mood with these four classic sloe gin cocktail recipes.
Scarlet of hue and perfumed with rich berry flavours, sloe gin is delicious enough to sip neat (or from a hip flask during your autumnal rambles).
But it’s also a staple in a number of classic cocktails. When you next feel like shaking yourself a seasonally appropriate sip, turn to these four classic sloe gin cocktail recipes. Whether frothy with fizz or sultry with Scottish whisky, they show off sloe gin’s wonderful breadth and complexity.
SLOE ROYALE
This serve couldn’t be simpler—or more celebratory.
- 15ml Sipsmith Sloe Gin
- 100ml Champagne
- Lemon twist, to garnish
Add the sloe gin to a chilled flute and top up—liberally—with Champagne. Garnish with a lemon twist.
THE BLACKTHORN
Cocktail scholars should note that there are multiple iterations of the Blackthorn in existence today—including a version which eschews gin for Irish whiskey and absinthe—but our favoured take on the classic goes heavy on the sloe gin.
- 45ml Sipsmith Sloe Gin
- 30ml Sipsmith London Dry Gin
- 20ml sweet vermouth
- 3 dashes Angostura bitters
- Orange twist, to garnish
Add the first four ingredients to a cocktail shaker full of wet ice and shake well. Strain into a chilled coupette or Martini glass, and garnish with an orange twist.
THE CHARLIE CHAPLIN
Indulge in some old Hollywood glamour, courtesy of this 1920s serve.
First created in New York’s Waldorf-Astoria around 1920, and named in honour of the silent movie star, The Charlie Chaplin is a classic sloe gin cocktail recipe that’s a perfect fit for the season.
- 35ml Sipsmith Sloe Gin
- 25ml freshly squeezed lime juice
- 15ml apricot brandy
- 5ml sugar syrup
- Orange twist, to garnish
Add all ingredients to an ice-filled cocktail shaker, and shake well. Strain into a chilled coupette, and garnish with an orange twist.
THE MODERN COCKTAIL
Legendary cocktail scholar Dave Wondrich can be credited with rediscovering The Modern Cocktail, which was first created in 1905. Not only does he describe it as “spectacularly good” but also “enough to restore your faith in the cocktail.” In other words, a convincing case for picking up a bottle of sloe gin and getting to it.
- 8ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 tsp sugar
- 30ml peaty Scottish whisky
- 30ml Sipsmith Sloe Gin
- 1 dash absinthe
- 1 dash orange bitters
- Brandied cherry, to garnish
Add the lemon juice and sugar to a cocktail shaker and stir to combine. Add the whisky, sloe gin, absinthe and orange bitters, and fill the cocktail shaker with very cold ice. Shake well and strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and garnish with a brandied cherry.
Seeking more sloe ginspiration? Berry-rich tweaks on other classic cocktails—including a Sloe Gin and Lemon Tonic, a Sloe Gin Negroni, and Aurogra offer further ways to celebrate the season.