Our Inventions

From gin baubles to quirky vehicles, whats drives Pickering's is a love of making things. If those things make people smile, all the better.

The Tip Top Tippling Trunk


Essential kit for the botanical-engineer-come-gin-salesman is, of course, a vintage-suitcase-come-gin-tasting-station. We found the old trunk languishing in a flea shop. Now it tours the world adorned with stickers from our travels. The lid opens to lights, music and all the paraphernalia of a good gin tasting – including 3 bottles of Pickering’s Gin.

Marvellously Mixed Musical Martini Maker Mark II


The original version of this ingenious invention was made with a wind-up gramophone from India, a 1940s American lamp, 1960s chemistry equipment and a coffee cafetière from a local charity shop. The globetrotting first edition now lives pride of place in our bar in Beijing mixing drinks at 78rpm. The latest model has been fitted with lights and a catalogue of over 1000 records to keep the great British public entertained one marvellous musical martini at a time.

The Engine 47


It’s the stuff of dreams for any 650CC, 4WD Daihatsu Hi-Jet Japanese Airport fire engine… to be retired, exported and re-engineered in Edinburgh as a bright red Thirst Extinguisher dispensing gin through its hoses! We bought this little beauty on Ebay in 2018, and refurbished her with the help of our friends at Blakes Engineering in Edinburgh and Sail Doctor in Port Edgar. Engine 47 can now dispense 6 different cocktails from the pressurised canisters on the sides, through the red hoses, straight into the glass.

Mabel the labeller


We love our chunky bottles. Heavy in the hand, square with curved edges, gently tapered. And a bugger to wrap a label round. Change the bottle? Not a bit of it. We invented our own machine to affix the labels perfectly every time. She was only meant to label batch one. She managed 100,000 bottles of Pickering’s Gin before we retired her in 2016.

Monkeybike – the smallest mobile gin bar in the world?


We bought this bike from our neighbours at Summerhall. Price: 2 bottles of gin. We stripped her down, restored each part and painted her up. Then we assembled an old leather box, bits of an old coffee table, plumbing kit, lab equipment and ta-daa! The smallest mobile gin bar in the world (possibly). 
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