Take two friends, mix with enthusiasm for a challenge, add a smattering of knowledge about how to make gin, and hey presto, a new distillery is born!

It began in Wales in 1993: Two fresh-faced science students became the best of friends and learnt how to measure and mix all manner of things in a lab. One went on to become a marine biologist and writer, the other began a career as a data analyst and cancer researcher. They moved to New Zealand. They both became mothers.

They remain nerdy, fun-loving and just a little bit eccentric. They love chocolate, cats, the sea, and music that was recorded before the year 2000, but above all things (except their kids), they love great gin.

And during a giddy moment in 2021, they made a decision (which often felt foolish, in the months that followed) to try distilling their own gin. They bought Patsy, a tiny but mighty copper pot still, and, after much trialing, erroring, experimenting and throwing down the sink, they began to make progress. They started to think that perhaps they weren’t so foolish after all, and that they might have a knack for distilling. They knew they’d found something they loved doing together. Making gin made them happy.

They trialed some more, they erred some more, and eventually they learnt how to get the best from their botanicals. They measured stuff, diluted stuff, they crushed and weighed stuff. They sniffed, they tasted, they learnt about heads, hearts and tails. They vapour-infused, they macerated, they steeped, and then they steeped some more. They played with colours and colour-changing botanicals, and somewhere along the way they found they had created four busty, bold and delicious gins.

Lordy Lord! They were excited.

They were biased, they were fool-hardy, and they were woefully ill-prepared for a lot of what followed, but they hung in there and listened and learned from some good people who were happy to help them. Soon, they knew they wanted to share their creations with the world, so they saved for Veronica, a much bigger still. And with that (and a LOT of forms later), Mothers Ruined was born.