Slowly getting blitzed!

Lu Brown is truly a treasure here in the Crescent City! Lu is the bar chef at Cafe Adelaide & the Swizzle Stick Bar. Lu can create cocktails that not only look and taste delicious but they also have stories behind them.

The cocktail below, "The Hansen's Sloe Blitz" was inspired by Ashley Hansen and her family's Sno Ball Stand-Hansen's. Lu started the cocktail with a ribbon of peel from a whole Lemon, dry Gin and Club Soda. She topped the cocktail with a "sno-cone" of crushed ice, a bouquet of mint for fragrance and a generous topping of sloe gin syrup that she reduced herself.

There really is no other way to describe this cocktail other than it is one of the most delicious libations that I have ever enjoyed! Truly...the Sloe Gin syrup slowly trickled through the cone of ice and sweetened my Lemon Gin Soda while the Mint made the whole experience as fragrant as it was flavorful!

Sloe gin is a red coloured liqueur flavored with sloe berries, the fruit of the blackthorn bush which is related to the plum. The blackthorn bush, a thorny tall-growing shrub which is commonly used as a security or privacy fence, is found throughout the the British Isles and flowers from March to May, with fruit ready for harvest in September through October. Sloe Gin is traditionally made with Gin, Sugar and Sloe Berries and allowing it to sit until sufficiently infused. Sloe Berries are much to bitter to enjoy raw, and since they are not commercially cultivated in the US you really won't have the chance.


I have done my best to try and source the Blackthorn Bush online, but no luck. If you can find one in the US please let me know.

In my opinion I will just leave myself in the capable care of Ms. Lu and her sloe gin syrup!