In Defense of the Super-Sweet Sloe Gin Fizz

Today, the cocktail establishment preaches balance to the point where seemingly no quirky, sweet-treat cocktail in our vast canon is safe from being retroactively “corrected.” But what about those drinks that were created explicitly for imbibers with a sweet tooth who don’t want to taste the burn of alcohol? That’s precisely for whom the sloe gin fizz is intended. 

This summery shaken drink is usually made from sloe gin, lemon juice, simple syrup and club soda. Of course, some tweaks are inevitable as drinkers’ tastes shift away from saccharine, booze-masking concoctions. Among them: mixing alcohols for the base, reducing its sweetness and adding egg white to the recipe. However, there’s a risk to this approach: At what point does a cocktail lose its identity?  

Danny Shapiro, owner of Scofflaw, the gin-centric bar in Chicago, is a sloe gin fizz evangelist. He describes the drink as “a delicious treat of a cocktail” along the lines of an amaretto sour. It’s one of the most popular drinks on his menu. Unsurprisingly, Shapiro doesn’t approve of the recent trend of substituting half the sloe gin base for gin—he says it’s like adding a bunch of high-proof whiskey to an amaretto sour—which makes a different cocktail altogether, for a different drinker.  

“The person who loves sloe gin fizzes loves them for being sweet and delicious,” Shapiro says. This isn’t what you’d reach for in a pensive, slow-consuming situation. Below, he shares the recipe he’s perfected.

What is Sloe Gin?

Before we get to the build, let’s unpack the English-born star of the cocktail. Despite its name, sloe gin is not a gin. It’s a liqueur with a base of vodka or, more often, gin infused with sloe berries, which grow wild in hedgerows all over England. These purplish, dime-sized berries taste horribly astringent when eaten raw, but they develop a tart, rich flavor akin to currants when cooked with sweeteners. They’re often made into preserves or incorporated into sweetened liquors, which distillers have done since the 1800s. Most sloe gins are low octane, clocking in at around 25% to 30% abv. 

Good-quality sloe gin is sweet with a bitter edge, like an unripe plum, and it is essential to making an enjoyable sloe gin fizz. Americans forgot what that spirit tasted like after the import market for this artisanal British liqueur dried up around the 1960s. When that happened, distillers filled the void with mass-produced facsimiles on par with “grenadine spiked with grain alcohol,” according to the iconic bartender and author Toby Cecchini.  

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Sloe gin began a resurgence in the late 2000s when the English producers of Plymouth Gin released a product based on an 1883 recipe for export to the U.S. Incidentally, this was around the time bartenders’ fascination with reviving (and correcting) old cocktails was exploding.  

When Shapiro took a spirits education trip to London in 2010, Plymouth was still the only quality sloe gin on the market. However, he only became a fan of the spirit after sampling another version that tastes the way it should, at the London dry-gin maker Sipsmith. After that trip, Shapiro and his partners opened Scofflaw, in 2012, with a formula for sloe gin fizz that they’ve scarcely changed since.   

The Anatomy of a Gin Fizz 

A cousin of the gin fizz and Tom Collins, the sloe gin fizz has a few distinguishing characteristics—depending on whom you ask. To Shapiro, what technically distinguishes a fizz from a Collins is the addition of ice to the latter. 

“Gin fizzes are well-shaken to foamy, while a Collins is often stirred and has minimal bubbles,” Shapiro says. Then again, certain interpretations do call for ice, like this otherwise traditional sloe gin fizz recipe. Bartenders are also split over the addition of egg white, which provides a magnetically frothy top and a silky texture. Egg white is a key element in a gin fizz and Shapiro adds the ingredient to his recipe mainly for appearance, though some say it detracts from the cocktail. Some bartenders will replace the drink’s club soda with sparkling wine—semantically, that would tip it into the “royale” category, though Shapiro is open to the notion as another way to tame sweetness. 

How to Make a Sloe Gin Fizz 

Shapiro’s sloe gin fizz recipe appeals to the modern palate, yet still honors the cocktail’s personality and flavor profile for the purists. He seasons 1.5 ounces of Plymouth Sloe Gin with 0.5 ounce of Broker’s gin in order to give the sipper a subtle citrusy edge. From there, things align mostly with tradition, save for the controversial egg white to guild the frothy lily. “To us, it’s about keeping it as close as possible to what it’s supposed to be,” Shapiro says.  

Published: April 17, 2024