My first and last experience with sloe gin occurred in 1972. I had recently relocated and met up with a crowd who were enthusiasts at the time. I drank too much too easily and got really puke-ass sick. Never again!

It was standard-issue storebought sloe gin, and I believe we were drinking it straight-up, not in mixed-drink form (e.g., "slow gin fizz"). I was not aware that people made their own; is that a UK practive/tradition that never made it across the pond?

Just a few months after the sloe-gin-regurgitation episode (and many miles away, on the opposite US coast), I encountered a young lady whose mother regularly provided her with an ongoing supply of homemade Kahlua. I believe the procedure was to soak/marinate coffee beans in vodka (which is why the discussion of sloe gin production reminded me of it). Now, THAT stuff was very good!