A TOAST TO WORLD CUCUMBER DAY

On June 14, walk into select bars in Metro Manila with a cucumber and walk out with a gin and tonic.

- BEA TRINIDAD

No, this isn't a fever dream. It's World Cucumber Day, and Hendrick's Gin has turned this fruit into an accepted form of payment at participating establishments across Metro Manila and nearby provinces.

I caught up with Charmaine Thio, Southeast Asia brand ambassador for Hendrick's Gin, during a preview event last May 22 at Electric Garden, BGC, and she recalled from previous years, "I was just sitting in a bar watching people walk in with cucumbers wrapped in plastic. They'd bar-hop with bags of cucumbers. Some grocery owners were like, 'What is going on today?'"

UNDERRATED FRUIT

Thio explained, "World Cucumber Day was not something that Hendrick's Gin made up, even though it might seem like it."

English horticulturalists established World Cucumber Day in 2011 after deciding the cucumber was "quite an underrated fruit, always getting looked over" despite being "full of vitamins, great for hydration, wonderful for the skin."