A ship in a bottle? No problem. A cucumber? And gin? That takes a little bit of genius...
If you’re not warbling Christina Aguilera’s hit, Genie in a Bottle, by the time this sentence is over, you’re a stronger soul than I. It’s an ear worm I cannot banish – mainly because a genie in a bottle makes almost more sense than a fully grown cucumber, wider than the bottle neck, sitting gifting its essence to 70cl of 40% ABV gin, and proving quite the talking point. And a talking point is where it might remain, if the gin wasn’t so very delicious.
The idea is the result of two curious minds, who when presented with a 40-year-old bottle of pear schnapps, with a fully grown pear somehow inside, wondered how they might achieve something similar themselves, with Cheshire’s favourite tipple, gin.
Macclesfield resident Phil Cardwell, co-founder of Genie Gin with Ed Hope, says: “Ed and I were introduced through family, and were with the family one evening when my step-father brought out a bottle of schnapps he’d had for decades. Inside the bottle, wider than the neck, was a full-grown pear. We were fascinated with this, and decided to set about making our own version, but with gin.’
This was in the spring of 2019, and the two friends started experimenting with growing different fruits into bottles, with a view to later adding gin, into which the chosen fruit would infuse.
Ed , who lives in Prestbury, adds: “We tried with lots of different bottles and numerous fruits – we even found ourselves up a tree trying to make it work with pears. We were curious to learn how far we could take it – how scalable it could be. We found our fruits in our own back gardens, and the gardens of friends and relatives, all over Cheshire. We tried damsons, pears, apples, grapes, and the thing that worked best was a cucumber, which was one we had tried just on a whim.”
Having decided to pursue their idea with cucumber as the fruit, they built a polytunnel in Phil’s back garden, which lasted no time at all, due to the unexpected arrival of a hurricane.
“It disappeared, literally,” Phil says. “Admittedly much to my partner Sarah’s relief.”
Unfortunately for Sarah, Phil went on to construct a more permanent structure, just as we entered the first lockdown of 2020.
“It was great for a while,” he says, “but we soon realised we needed more space. We looked everywhere, and eventually found an old, unused greenhouse on a site in Marton. Friends and family helped us clear it out, scraping years of paint from windows and frames, and then we started to figure out how to scale up the concept to be able to, hopefully, produce enough bottles to sell.”
Cucumbers are vertical climbers and on gardening shows you will see them planted against bamboo poles, with string around which to send their tendrils. They are also happy to scramble along the ground, and it is this that Phil and Ed utilised in their planning.
“Our plan was to grow the plant up through netting, along which it would then scramble, and the fruits could be fed through the netting into a bottle, while they were still small enough to fit through the neck. We planted our cucumbers, sourced 10,000 bottles, and then it all went a bit pear-shaped. It’s fair to say, in hindsight, we were a bit gung ho.”
The bottles were the wrong shape – too long a neck didn’t allow for the fairly short stalk attaching the fruit to the vine – and the cucumbers were the wrong type, too.
“The one we chose was just too long and thin,” Phil says. “We gave away a LOT of cucumbers that summer! We had to start again, from scratch. We sourced new bottles, and a different type of cucumber, La Diva F1.
“Then we discovered that growing in soil wasn’t the best approach. We would go in once a day to water them, and they could go from tiny to too big within hours. We also learned that if you pop the baby cucumber into the bottle too soon, it gets too hot and dies. Leave it too late and it won’t fit.”
Moving to hydroponics has been the answer – a steady trickle reduces the cucumber’s tendency for a sudden growth spurt, and means a reduction in the number of daily visits required – most important for two men with full-time ‘proper jobs’.
“It takes three to five days from the moment the cucumber is pushed through the neck of the bottle for it to reach the optimum size,” Ed says. “I then pick it, sterilise the bottle and fruit with a special food-safe sterilising liquid, and then add precisely 70cl of gin, before capping and wrapping the bottle.
“Cucumber plants produce multiple fruits, but concentrate on one at a time, waiting till that is picked before sending its energy into the next one. They’re very clever. This really helps us with numbers and planning.
“At the moment this is a passion project – we produced 500 bottles this year – but we could scale it up to 10,000 bottles a year.”
A passion project it may be, but the results could quite easily catch on. Yes, it’s really quite outstanding. Offered a tasting session (and who could say no?) I first tried their signature serve – Genie Gin, a squeeze of lime and Fever-Tree Elderflower tonic. It’s summer in a coupe – light and refreshing, an instant hit of cucumber freshness, with a smooth, clear finish of gin. We next mixed it up a bit, as we’re heading into midwinter, with ginger ale instead of tonic – and this is something I shall be aiming to make my signature serve of AW22; warm and just a little spicy, smoothed by the cucumber and carried long by the gin - absolutely delicious.
“We worked with a distiller in Yorkshire for our gin,” Phil says. “We were quite clear on what we wanted. Next year however we shall we switching to a Cheshire-based distiller and are in talks now about that. It will be great to have the whole thing made in Cheshire.”
At this time you can find Genie Gin behind the bar at the Foxhole, in Prestbury village, or buy it online. They have also taken a stall at the Prestbury Christmas Market, on 11 December, and at the Macclesfield Treacle Market, where I predict a riot. A very sophisticated, British, cucumber sandwiches and scones type of riot, of course.
