Pacharán - Blog Posts
A masterful drink
November 12, 2020 — Wilmer Edson
Several weeks ago my wife and I decided to go collect Sloes to make homemade Pacharán. It is a tradition that I have been doing in recent years, it always makes me happy and I am excited.
What I usually do is go to the forests every week to see how the Sloes are maturing, but this year I could not do it since I had to resolve many issues and did not have the necessary time. But this time it was a bit late to find many Sloes, many of them were out of season. But thank God we were able to find enough to make a few bottles of Pacharán.
Yes, Pacharán with beer is one of my favorite alcoholic beverages. I love it because it has the perfect sweetness along with the necessary degree of alcohol, 28 degrees to be exact. If you live in Europe, it will be very easy to prepare this delicious drink, since this area of the world is where the sacred fruit of the Sloe is found.
For the preparation of Pacharan it is very important to find the largest sloes and this is done in late September or early October, it is very important to control where there are sloes in the forest and visit frequently when they are ready. To know that the sloes are ready, you have to try them, if they are sour you still need time, but if they are sweet they are ready for harvest. I emphasize that it is very important that they are the largest as they will provide more flavor and aroma to the Pacharán.
When we already have the Sloes we have to wash them to remove all the impurities they may have, we do not want it to influence the taste of the drink. Fill a glass bottle one third with Sloes, then add the Aniseed with 28 degrees of alcohol to fill the bottle and cover it with a cork. And basically that would be all to do Pacharán.
It is important to know that you are not ready to enjoy it yet, since the drink has to be red. What we will do next is to rotate the bottle very carefully once a week for 3 to 4 months but nothing happens if it is done for 5 or 6 months. Finally, when the necessary time has passed, the Sloes will have to be removed and it is from this point where you can enjoy the magnificent Pacharán.
Whenever I make this drink, I find it something magical, as if I went back to the principles when we had to prepare things from scratch, where you would have to be patient to get good results. We can still go back to those times and learn that things are not born done but that we have to work to obtain the result.
Navarre — Spain
SONY Alpha 5000
Instagram: wilmeredson