Cocktail Recipe: Sloe Gin Fizz

The weather has been amazing lately so I’ve been spending more and more time in my garden planting crops and taking care of pests. After a few hours of hard work, I like to cool off and relax with a sweet and refreshing cocktail. Lately, this has been the Sloe Gin Fizz.

Sloe (not to be confused with “slow”) gin is made out of sloe berries (a relative of the plum) that are soaked in gin. Sugar is then added to help extract the juice from the berries. Sloe gin originates from Britain and is technically a gin-liquor but can legally be called a gin without the liquor suffix due to historical prevalence. Unfortunately, the Sloe Gin Fizz does not have an intriguing cocktail origin story. It’s simply a variation of the Gin Fizz and presumed that bartenders added sloe gin as a novelty.

Recipes slightly vary on the Sloe Gin Fizz with some committing fully to sloe gin while others using a combination of gin and sloe gin. I prefer the latter as I enjoy the additional botanical flavors a standard gin can bring. My favorite to use in this cocktail is St. George Terroir, which is filled with botanicals from California State parks like Douglas fir, coastal sage, and California bay laurel. Drinking Terroir makes me feel like I’m out hiking from the comfort of my own backyard.

Technically a fizz should be made with a strong stream of seltzer or carbonated water, but I tend to use whatever carbonated drink I have in my fridge. La Croix, Spindrift, and Topo Chicos all generally work for me. In this version, I used a lime Topo Chico, which was the only thing I had on hand. It worked well, but I would recommend trying to stick with a neutral flavor or at the least, matching the flavor of the drink to the ingredients in the cocktail (e.g. lemon carbonated drink with lemon juice).

Also, a fizz should be served in a fizz glass, which appears to be somewhere in between a Collins glass and a pint glass, but I just use a Collins because who are you, the fizz glass police?

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Sloe Gin Fizz

(Based on recipe from The Craft of the Cocktail, Dale Degroff, 2002)
Servings: 1

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 OZ sloe gin

• 1 OZ gin

• 3/4 OZ lemon juice

• 1 OZ simple syrup

• Soda Water (or any carbonated drink)

• Glass: Collins (or a “fizz glass” if you’re a fancy pants)

INSTRUCTIONS: 

1. If you don’t prefer the drink as sweet, switch the amounts of lemon juice and simple syrup

2. Add the first four ingredients to a shaker

3. Add ice and shake vigorously for 30 seconds

4. Strain into Collins glass with ice

5. Pour in soda water until you reach the top