Meet Ink Gin production leader (and professional orange peeler!), Jessy.

We sat down with our botanical superstar Jessy to chat about the botanical prep process she uses to make Ink Gin.

Why do you hand peel the orange peel that goes into the Ink Gin?

We hand peel 125kg of orange peel per batch of Ink Gin because using any sort of machine takes too much of the pith from the skin. The pith is bitter, so we want to avoid using it in the distillation.

After lots of trial and error using various different machines and mechanical peelers, we’ve concluded that the best way to remove the skin is to literally hand peel every single orange with a vegetable peeler. At any given time we have 3 people on hand peeling boxes of oranges. It’s a little tedious, but it’s worth it for the end flavour result.

What is the hardest botanical to prepare for the Ink Gin making process?

Definitely the juniper berry. When I first started at Husk, I would use an ordinary kitchen blender to grind all the juniper needed to make batch after batch of Ink Gin. When you blend or grind juniper, it goes really sticky. I’d have to scrape the ground juniper from the blender each time I did a batch. It was a long and messy process. We’ve now got much better equipment in place that makes my job a whole lot easier!

What is your favourite botanical and why?

Without a doubt, lemon myrtle leaf. It requires no work, I simply tip it out of a bag. Oh and it smells so good!

What is the record number of bottles of Ink bottled in a day?

3300 bottles washed, filled, capped, labelled and boxed by hand. We had a team of 8 and we were determined to hit a PB. We smashed it!

Why do you love working at Husk?

It is a fun environment filled with a good energy, a cracking spotify playlist and the casual bevy goes alright too!