I love the taste of sloe gin, but I find it too sweet when made as a liqueur. So I decided to experiment at making it without any sugar, with the intention of drinking it as you would a gin and tonic. It was a huge success.

Harvest your sloe berries from the wild - you'll find the thorny blackthorn bushes growing in hedgerows. The time to do this is during October, after the first frost. You can tell if they are ripe by giving them a squeeze between finger and thumb to see if they pop. The round berries are a little bigger than a blueberry, with a deep blue-black colour and a bluish coating called a 'bloom'.

If eaten straight off the bush, a sloe berry is unbearably tart and astringent. But, surprisingly, the process of steeping the sloes in gin takes away this unpleasantness, leaving a great flavour.

Serve in the same way as a classic gin and tonic. It creates a wonderful drink with a fabulous reddish purple colour. You rely on the tonic water for the sweetness.

Garnish your drink with some dried juniper berries, a sprig of rosemary, and a slice of lime.

It also works well served with Prosecco instead of tonic.

STAGE 1

1. Wash the sloes and remove any stems. Allow them to drain or tip them out onto a tea towel and pat dry.
2. Place the berries in a large zip-seal bag and gently crush with a rolling pin. No need to bash them hard, you just want the skins to burst so the flavour can escape. Do it in stages if easier. Some recipes say to put the sloes in a freezer to burst the skins, but I've never found this successful, particularly if they're not overly ripe. If you love to spend hours and hours in the kitchen, you can also prick each individual sloe with a fork, or slit their skins with a knife! WARNING - they will stain your fingers purple.
3. Tip the sloes into a large 2 litre Kilner jar - or divide between smaller ones - and pour over the gin.
4. Set aside for 2 - 3 months but give the jar a good shake every few days.

STAGE 2

1. Once the sloes are fully steeped, pour everything through a muslin cloth held over a large bowl. WARNING - it will stain the cloth purple.
2. You will need to repeat this process a number of times, until the sloe gin runs clear. The finer the cloth, the better the result. I've also had success using paper coffee filter cones.
3. When you are happy that the sloe gin is clear, decant it into clean bottles. You should be left with about 70cl of sloe gin. I tend to purchase two 70cl bottles of gin, and keep one of the empties aside for 3 months to then decant the sloe gin into.
4. The sloe gin is now ready to drink but it will continue to improve and mature over time – so, if possible, make it one year to drink the next. It has an excellent shelf life although it can begin to lose its purple hue after a year. But we've normally drunk it well before then!

TIP: if you don't want to waste the sloes, have a go at making Sloe Gin Chocolate. You will need to remove all the stones - fiddly but worth the effort. Melt bars of dark or milk chocolate in a glass Pyrex bowl over a saucepan of boiling water, and stir in the sloes. Tip the chocolate loveliness into a baking tray lined with clingfilm or greaseproof paper. Allow to fully set before breaking into pieces. Not one for children!