HOW IT ALL BEGAN
After Ryan visited a local distillery and the two couples decided they wanted to make their own gin they bought a still from Amazon. The instructions were in German so there was a bit of translating involved. They then hunted for ingredients in the garden; hint, starting to develop the name here! The recipe started with lavender, blackberries and dandelion root and they built it from there, now using 13 botanicals in their recipe. Maxine says, “It took about 4-6 months to get a decent recipe, I mean we made some horrendous ones as it was a little harder than we thought.” Success also didn’t come without any mishaps; during one of the first times distilling Ryan and Ruaridh were in the kitchen and after a mishap with some Paraffin oil the whole kitchen was in a cloud of black smoke. Maxine says, “Everything was covered in black soot. I said to them ‘You’re not doing that in my house anymore, you’re doing that in the garden.’ Hence the name.” Eventually, the magic happened, and on December 20th, 2017 they distilled and launched their first gin, with their perfected recipe.
Bumblebee Conservation Trust
Another portion of their profits goes to Trees4Scotland. They plant one tree for every 6 bottles they sell to try and offset carbon emissions. That’s where their slogans, “Planting trees and saving bees” and “Trying to save the planet one drink at a time” come from. Make sure that we’re having fun. They didn’t want it to be corporate. They wanted a laid-back approach. Maxine explained that they never really expected it was going to be as big a success as it has become and how it started out as a bit of fun! The original idea, and the reason behind the name, was that they wanted to convert their shed into a mini distillery, but with alcohol regulations etc that just wasn’t possible so they distilled at Eden Mill. They launched their gin for the first time at a Glasgow Warriors and partners night out, the team both Ryan and Ruaridh were playing for at the time, and they used their rugby connections to promote the company. With the help of other rugby greats, and the power of social media the launch night was a huge success and in two weeks they had sold out their first batch. They decided they needed to do another batch and doubled it this time, this was a huge risk considering they were using their personal assets, but the risk is surely but slowly taking off!