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Forage Liqueurs
Our story starts from a humble beginning of a countryside walk in the Cotswolds. We couldn’t walk past hedges of blackthorn laden with fruit, so we decided to make five litres of sloe gin in the autumn of 2015. Let’s just make a demijohn of deliciousness for ourselves and friends and family. But we never got to drink much of our own sloe gin, because soon everyone was asking for more. Whoever tasted it, loved it, and told us that it was the best sloe gin they had ever tasted.
From this simple beginning we embarked, combining our love for nature, and foraging into our small artisan business – Forage Liqueurs. Our hearts fill with pleasure when we see a damson tree full of fruit or a hawthorn hedge just brimming with sloe berries.
We harvest old orchards, hedgerows and pick unwanted fruit from gardens, picking the fruits and berries that would otherwise go to waste. Eating a damson every now and then and wondering why this beautiful traditional fruit is no longer popular.
There are always bags in our pockets and backpacks on our backs. You will find that we have the biggest smile on our faces, when our packs are heavy with our foraged treasures.
Our liqueurs
We make all our liqueurs by traditional methods, not one part of our process is mechanised or big production.
Combining our passion for long walks, we pick all our fruit locally and take our time making our liqueurs. Our famous Sloe Gin is made with ripe sloe berries that we pick ourselves from September to November. Then we add sugar and gin and lots of love and attention and that’s it. No additives, artificial colours or preservatives.
Our production is small batch, we use five and eight litre bottles. We shake our bottles regularly to make sure we capture every ounce of flavour from our sloe berries. Finally we allow our liqueurs to mature for at least one year before bottling. We even stick our labels on by hand!
Why do we mature our sloe gin for so long?
If you have every found a bottle of sloe gin in the back of grandma’s cupboard and tasted it and thought “oh my goodness” then you will know exactly why we mature our liqueurs.
Liqueurs, like wine, have a distinct characteristic. As they mature, they develop a complex and distinguished taste. Younger liqueurs are lighter in colour and flavour, they’re more fruity and sharp. Older liqueurs start to build character, the sharpness mellows and the liqueur thickens to give you a more complex taste experience with a deeper fruit profile.
Enjoy our liqueurs as an aperitif, or after a meal. Our sloe gin is beautiful served with champagne or prosecco as a cocktail.
