the library

Sloe gin

Spirits & brews· spirit

What it is

Sloe gin is a liqueur made by macerating whole sloes, including their skins and stones, in gin with added sugar.

What it tastes like

On the nose: pear, fruity, woody, fatty. Among its measured molecules: hexan-2-one, butanal, 2-butanone, 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one, hexyl acetate.

Every one of its 14 compounds carries a paper the library can cite.

• benzaldehydearomaaldehydereads as burning aromatic taste (PubChem)Measured in 57 of 341 ingredients.cite

  3.59 ± 0.23 µg/kg in the untreated control blackthorn vinegar, falling to 2.56 µg/kg after pasteurisation — Barut Gök et al. 2024, ACS Omega (Table 4, row 'benzaldehyde' (RI 1541), C-BV column)
• butanalaromaaldehydereads as pungent, aldehyde (PubChem)Measured in 9 of 341 ingredients.cite

  0.81 ± 0.08 µg/kg in the untreated control blackthorn vinegar — Barut Gök et al. 2024, ACS Omega (Table 4, row 'butanal' (RI 830), C-BV column)
• hexanalaromaaldehydereads as sharp, aldehyde (PubChem)Measured in 87 of 341 ingredients.cite

  5.62 ± 0.25 µg/kg in the untreated control blackthorn vinegar — the largest single volatile measured in it; every processing treatment (pasteurisation, ultrasonication, UV-C) significantly reduced it, to 3.67-4.32 µg/kg — Barut Gök et al. 2024, ACS Omega (Table 4 (VOC Profiles of the BV Samples), row 'hexanal' (RI 1081), C-BV column)
• linaloolaromaalcoholreads as spicy, citrus taste (PubChem)Measured in 91 of 341 ingredients.cite

  0.58 ± 0.08 µg/kg in the untreated control blackthorn vinegar, and the ONE compound in the table that every treatment RAISED rather than lowered (up to 1.26 µg/kg after 10 min ultrasonication); the paper's class totals show it counted as an alcohol, not a terpene — Barut Gök et al. 2024, ACS Omega (Table 4, row 'linalool' (RI 1548), C-BV column)
• 2-butanonearomaketonereads as sweet, pungent (PubChem)Measured in 9 of 341 ingredients.cite

  0.52 ± 0.11 µg/kg in the untreated control blackthorn vinegar, with no significant difference across any treatment. A common fermentation ketone as well as a fruit volatile; origin not claimed — Barut Gök et al. 2024, ACS Omega (Table 4, row '2-butanone' (RI 904), C-BV column)
• p-cymenearomaterpenoidMeasured in 42 of 341 ingredients.cite

  3.49 ± 0.27 µg/kg in the untreated control blackthorn vinegar; one of only two compounds the paper classes as terpenes, the two together totalling 5.01 in that column — Barut Gök et al. 2024, ACS Omega (Table 4, row 'para-cymene' (RI 1278), C-BV column)
• 2-heptanonearomaketonereads as pear flavor (PubChem)Measured in 24 of 341 ingredients.cite

  0.69 ± 0.10 µg/kg in the untreated control blackthorn vinegar. Methyl ketones of this chain length are as readily microbial as they are fruit-derived, so this one is not claimed to come from the sloe — Barut Gök et al. 2024, ACS Omega (Table 4, row '2-heptanone' (RI 1186), C-BV column)
• heptanalaromaaldehydereads as fatty taste (PubChem)Measured in 34 of 341 ingredients.cite

  1.96 ± 0.09 µg/kg in the untreated control blackthorn vinegar — Barut Gök et al. 2024, ACS Omega (Table 4, row 'heptanal' (RI 1190), C-BV column)
• hexyl acetatearomaesterreads as sweet ester (PubChem)Measured in 17 of 341 ingredients.cite

  0.68 ± 0.06 µg/kg in the untreated control blackthorn vinegar. An acetate ester in an acetic-fermented product: it survives the selection rule because it is not one of the four defining acetic markers, but esterification during the vinegar fermentation is a live alternative origin — Barut Gök et al. 2024, ACS Omega (Table 4, row 'hexyl acetate' (RI 1274), C-BV column)
• 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-onearomaketonereads as fruity taste (PubChem)Measured in 16 of 341 ingredients.cite

  1.22 ± 0.18 µg/kg in the untreated control blackthorn vinegar — Barut Gök et al. 2024, ACS Omega (Table 4, row '6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one' (RI 1346), C-BV column)
• hexan-2-onearomaketoneMeasured in 4 of 341 ingredients.cite

  3.92 ± 0.23 µg/kg in the untreated control blackthorn vinegar. The paper's own spelling is kept: at RI 1224 the compound is almost certainly (E)-2-hexenal, but renaming it here would substitute our judgement for the paper's record — Barut Gök et al. 2024, ACS Omega (Table 4, row '2-hexanal' (RI 1224), C-BV column)
• limonenearomaterpenoidreads as lemon (PubChem)Measured in 92 of 341 ingredients.cite

  1.52 ± 0.13 µg/kg in the untreated control blackthorn vinegar; the only compound in the table showing no significant difference across any treatment, all eight samples sharing the letter 'a' — Barut Gök et al. 2024, ACS Omega (Table 4, row 'limonene' (RI 1198), C-BV column)
• nonanalaromaaldehydereads as orange-rose (PubChem)Measured in 62 of 341 ingredients.cite

  5.29 ± 0.28 µg/kg in the untreated control blackthorn vinegar; significantly reduced by every treatment except one UV-C dose — Barut Gök et al. 2024, ACS Omega (Table 4, row 'nonanal' (RI 1398), C-BV column)
• trans-β-iononearomaterpenoidreads as warm woody, dry, and fruity (PubChem)Measured in 19 of 341 ingredients.cite

  3.38 ± 0.20 µg/kg in the untreated control blackthorn vinegar — a carotenoid degradation product, and the largest of the four compounds the paper classes as ketones — Barut Gök et al. 2024, ACS Omega (Table 4, row 'β-ionone' (RI 1968), C-BV column)