Tasted our First Frost Sloe Gin

Last year we picked some sloes after the first frosts for the first time I think I've covered the theory behind this before, but I'll precis it for newer readers anyway.

Popular wisdom says that frost make the sloes sweeter or it breaks down their skin a little, allowing the juices to flow out more easily, either way, the upshot is supposed to be sloe gin with a rather more mellow and complex flavour.

When we first started making sloe gin I had trouble picking post frost sloes as, by the time the frosts came, the sloes had withered on the vine (so to speak) I put this down to global warming and the frosts getting later. But, as we all know, the last couple of winters have seen an altered gulf stream and a preponderance of ice and snow. As a result, 2010 presented us with our first opportunity to grab some frosted sloes before they shrivelled.

It's spent 3 months macerating in the demi-jon and a further 4 months maturing in the bottle so it was with a flourish that we finally opened it.

I don't know what other sloe gin aficionados find, but I think the taste of sloe gin can vary batch to batch anyway, the amount of ginny tang and tannins can change considerably and there are so many variables (how long the gin is left to macerate/mature, how the sloes were pricked, differences between locations of the trees they grew on, whether bullaces have crept in etc etc) it hard to pinpoint which one is responsible.

However, this batch is definitely one of the best we've produced, noticeably thicker and mellower than the non frost batch. Whether that's down to the frosting alone is impossible to tell but I think we'll carry on making it when we get the opportunity, just to be sure!

Talking of bullace - has anyone heard of Essex Bullace? A friend of Adam's reckons he's picked some but when we Googled it we only found references to them on American sites along with Royal Bullace and White Bullace, none of which I've ever heard of, can anyone shed any light?

Spot the Difference?

Pop Quiz - what have I picked?? On the left are some damsons I picked a few days ago, they're very ripe and sweet and a deep purple colour. At the bottom are a few purple bullace I picked. They look almost identical but the taste couldn't be more different. It's beyond sharp, I would defy anyone to taste these without a major physical reaction including face scrunching, foot stamping and immediate demands for water as they seem to leech every drop of moisture from your mouth.

The fruit on the top right now look the same as the others but when I saw them on the hedge they were bright blue, covered in a pale blue bloom which makes them look like giant sloes. When tasted they were sharper than the first damsons I picked but not in the same league as the bullace so they're obviously just slightly less ripe than the first batch.

Now, shall I throw sloes into the confusion? Some purple bullace are quite small and very easily confused with sloes (see the excellent sloe.biz site for a more detailed discussion) but there is a foolproof way to tell the difference. Sloes grow on the Blackthorn tree, the clue's in the name, if you can pick them without getting scratched they're bullace, if your flesh is ripped to shreds on vicious thorns, they're sloes.

It can be really tricky to identify wild plums as many of them are inter-related. According to Richard Mabey's seminal work 'Food for Free' damsons were bred from bullace so the two fruits can be indistinguishable. While I'm on the subject of Richard Mabey, he lives near Diss, I saw him in our Morrisons once. Felt inexplicably cheated, shouldn't he be out foraging ducks off the Waveney or something? His book also ignores Cherry plums and yellow bullace (far sweeter than the purple kind) and I really don't know why.

To muddy the waters further, there are cultivated varieties of plums which escape from gardens. I know where a wild plum tree grows whose fruit is delicious but I haven't got a clue what type they are. They're larger than damsons but don't have their characteristic blue bloom and aren't as large as something like a Victoria plum so goodness knows what they are.

Which begs the ultimate question - if they taste good, does it matter?

Edit - I'm just updating this post with a couple of extra pointers in distinguishing sloes and purples bullace. I'm noticing bullace are ripening much earlier than sloes, I'm writing this edit at the beginning of September and bullace are dropping from the trees and even beginning to wither already. Sloes traditionally aren't ripe til after the first frost.

Also, I've noticed insects burrowing into bullace whereas this doesn't really happen with sloes as they're not sweet enough. Tell tale signs of maggots include crystalised drops of juice (if you look closely enough you'll see it comes from a tiny hole) and little piles of tiny brown grains (maggot poo - ugh) on the outside of the fruit.