Stay strong our kid: limited edition We Love MCR vigil gin selling out fast

It’s World Gin Day tomorrow so you’ll be hard-pressed to find a bar that isn’t packed to the rafters with gin aficionados. There’s something about the combination of botanicals that makes it all too enticing.

And now, thanks to one local distillery, there’s an opportunity for you to put your habit to good use.

Zymurgorium is the latest Manchester-based brand to get behind the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund established following last month’s terror attack.

The Irlam-based distillery has created its own limited edition We Love MCR gin with profits going to the charity. 

Brothers Aaron and Callum Darke felt compelled to get involved after watching the tragic events unfold.

“I was just driving back to the distillery thinking of all the times I’d visited the Arena and the memories I’ve had watching bands and silly stuff like Mighty Boosh, then thought how best to raise money for the victims,” said Aaron.

“My best skill is making spirits and I just thought, ‘why the hell not?!’ I realised that if I did nothing, me and my brother would be those people that look back and think ‘I could have done my part’.”

The gin has been distilled from an array of summer fruits including strawberries, raspberries, cherries, blackberries and currants. It also features wild juniper, coriander, orange blossom, lime blossom, freshly foraged Mancunian dog rose and, after distillation, macerated in Mancunian foraged elderflower.

“The recipe is actually one that we were meant to be designing about now ready for a exclusive for a large department store who have given us their gracious consent to release it. It felt so important to do because the original idea for this gin was meant to be about music and summer. It just felt right.

“Considering that the victims will never experience the blossoms and summer of this year it’s poignant for sure but gin literally brings people together and it’s just a little something to keep us going stronger. I suppose you could call it a bit of ‘Manc Courage’.”

Just 346 50l bottles priced at £40 have been produced. You can buy a bottle on the Zymurgorium website. But with just 23 bottles left in stock, you’d better get a move on..

For more information on how to donate, please visit welovemcrcharity.org.