THE DISH: Free gin and tonic on World Cucumber Day

A delicious line of gin on a most unusual night. PHOTO | ABIGAIL ARUNGA

What you need to know:

  • This whole week, up until June 14, is a celebration of World Cucumber Day.
  • Once a year, Hendricks declares the celebrations, by officially allowing patrons in selected bars to use cucumbers as tender – i.e. trade a cucumber for a drink.

I went to such an exciting event last week. And the irony is, that I had heard of this event before, but I didn't bother attending it last year, for reasons unknown to myself...which have been remedied this year.

The logo for World Cucumber Day. PHOTO | COURTESY

So, the event. Did you know that there is such a thing as World Cucumber Day? It was invented entirely by Hendricks Gin, which captions itself as 'A Most Unusual Gin' – and strives to be so. Not only do they strive to be so, they succeed. They're into that whimsical roses and feathers type aesthetic, with Victorian vintage dress codes and things like – well, things like World Cucumber Day.

This whole week, up until June 14, is a celebration of World Cucumber Day. Once a year, Hendricks declares the celebrations, by officially allowing patrons in selected bars to use cucumbers as tender – i.e. trade a cucumber for a drink. Yes, that's what I said.

Of course, there are rules to this exchange – you can only exchange one cucumber, and it has to be a fresh one, not the ones that have been in the back of your store for three years. So don't go with a crate of 50 cucumbers expecting 50 drinks. It has to be a healthy looking, whole, fresh cucumber too, not the mildly deformed type.

Your welcome committee at Lord Errol restaurant in Runda, Nairobi, checks the quality of your cucumber at the door. PHOTO | ABIGAIL ARUNGA

There WILL be a cucumber bouncer to check the quality of your cucumber at the door of whatever establishment you decide to go to. The drink that you get will be a well-mixed gin and tonic. And as someone who attended the event, I can guarantee that it will taste good. Now all I need to do is go buy a few more cucumbers for each day of the week.

The reason for this event, other than to call attention to this most unusual gin and its special botanicals (English Cucumber and Bulgarian Red Rose), is also to outline the commonality between gin lovers – that everyone who drinks gin probably has had a gin and tonic. It's a unifying drink – and it's a fantastic one. Okay, the one I had was, hehe.

The whimsical bottle design of Hendricks gin and a line of gin served for for guests. PHOTO | ABIGAIL ARUNGA

I'm sure you're wondering which bars are offering this deal – Lord Errol, Muthaiga Country Club, Villa Rosa Kempinski, The Collective (the one in town), Ankole, Tapas at Westgate, Karen Country Club, Hemingways, and Que Pasa. During Happy Hour. While stocks last…There's always a catch!