Dressing Up the Bottle...

About a month ago I worked on a special project for a friend of mine's birthday gift, something that would be unique and keep the creative juices flowing, as it were.

My friend really loves Hendrick's Gin from Scotland, and I can see why. The small batch gin is infused with rose petals and cucumber, which makes for quite a unique flavor. I've never been that much of a gin fan, after a bad experience with a dirty gin martini a few years back, but thanks to Hendrick's my opinions on gin have changed substantially.

Instead of simply giving my friend a bottle of gin for her birthday I decided to go a couple of steps further to make it uniquely special. First, after purchasing a bottle of Hendrick's I tracked down a simple recipe to infuse additional cucumber into the gin, even though there is subtle hints of cucumber already. This recipe called for a dramatic increase in cucumber awesomeness. After four days of infusing the gin in a cool, dark room, I re-bottled the gin into its original bottle. Luckily, there was just a little gin left over to sample, and wow...was it delish. (Frankly, my friend almost didn't receive her birthday gift it tasted that good!)

Lastly, I removed the standard tag that came with the bottle in lieu of my own; a hand screen printed tag in black ink on French Speckletone cover stock (some of my absolute favorite paper.) The front of the tag was personalized with my friend's name while the back indicates the date of infusion and bottling. Of course, I added a nice little hand written note on the inside of the tag, as well. To finish up the tag and round out the rest of the gift I punched a small hole in the corner of the tag and used some twine to affix it to the neck. The complete package, I think, came together very nicely, and thankfully my friend really enjoyed her gift. In fact, the special infusion can be enjoyed for up to six months, so I'm sure she is still enjoying it as I write this.


After working on this project I now have the hankering to further experiment infusing alcohols with other fruits and savory flavors. Having the chance to work on some label/packaging design just makes the idea of doing more projects like this that much more appealing.

Should you want to try making your own cucumber infused gin, check out this recipe here. It really does make a fun and unique gift.