Long Peddler / Sloe Peddler – Mixing Sloe Gin

The Sloe Peddler

Some readers may have caught our Tasting of 17 Sloe Gins, but, in the in the interests of thoroughness, we did not just try these sloe gins on their own: we also tried them mixed in Long Peddlers, thanks to some bottles kindly sent to us by Fevertree.

A Long Peddler Made with Fevertree Lemon Tonic (Bitter Lemon) and Gordon's Sloe Gin in a 2:1 ratio.

Background and history on the Long Peddler is very thin on the ground. The recipe is simple: a measure of sloe gin topped up with bitter lemon; a bit like a gin and tonic. My best guess is that it was created as a cooler for the summer months so that sloe gin could be enjoyed all year round and it certainly achieves this purpose.

I imagine the “long” came about because it makes a long drink, but the “peddler”? Your guess is as good as mine; maybe it’s a nice refreshing drink once you’ve finished a long cycle?? Recent research points to the fact that the Long Pedlar was original made using Hawker’s Pedlar Sloe Gin, it was a long way to drink the sloe gin.

Either way, it seems to be an established drink among sloe gin drinkers and, when I was speaking to Fevertree, they also suggested making it with their Lemonade (Sloe Peddler) as an alternative to bitter lemon.

Fevertree Lemonade is carbonated, but it’s a distant cousin to the likes of 7UP and Sprite, which nonetheless do still have their place. With Fevertree’s Lemonade you can really taste the lemon juice and it doesn’t have any artificial sweetness that you may find with others; it is still quite fizzy, but it doesn’t leave you with that cloying feeling in your mouth.

Fevertree’s Lemon Tonic (their version of Bitter lemon) is refreshing, but a little bitter; however, when you consider that it has quinine in it, it’s not so surprising. Once again, this is a departure from the sharp, sweet, and turquoise drink presented as bitter lemon by others and I believe it was renamed to take a step away from this image.

A Sloe Peddler made with Fevertree Lemonade

But the most important question is how did they mix with sloe gin? After various tests, we found that Gordon’s worked best with the Lemon Tonic and probably made the panel’s favourite Long Peddler of the evening.  SLOEMotion and Bramley & Gage Organic also mixed very well with the Lemon Tonic.

The Lemonade was rather more surprising, I had never tried it before and wondered how well it would work. It created a lovely drink when mixed with the Lyme Bay Sloe Gin (this drink was my personal favourite). In the pairing, once again Bramley & Gage worked very nicely in a Sloe Peddler.

In conclusion, I found that I enjoyed both the Lemonade and the Lemon Tonic, but I found that the Lemon Tonic went better with the bolder sloe gins and the Lemonade complemented the more subtle ones.

So if you ever want a refreshing drink and you have some sloe gin to hand, why not try a Long (or Sloe) Peddler?