From Cacao to Cocktails

With the recipe established, Pieter went to a jazz club and met Nicolas Chornet-Barcelo, a Mallorcan with a long family history on the island. The two got talking about making gin and started discussing Pieter’s idea of a Mallorca spritz together.

It was then that Pieter and Nico approached Meg Gage Williams, founder of Stick No Bills, a vintage poster art company specialising in restoring and producing high-quality Art Deco travel posters.

“When I had the recipe I went to Meg to do the branding because she has all these beautiful vintage posters from Mallorca and she said, ‘I like the idea, let's do this.”

The three knew they had to get the label right and Meg proposed a poster that No Stick Bills had depicting a girl holding a drink.

“When I arrived on the island in 2018 I had seen the same postcard (that Meg was proposing for the labels) with the girl holding a drink because she looks a little bit like my girlfriend. I actually bought the postcard and it was in our apartment and now Meg suggested we use it for our labels. It’s perfect for the drink because there's already a story behind it and it was incredible to see it now on our bottle.”

Nico then introduced Pieter to Lucinda Sanderson, the owner of the organic orange farm in Lloret that Pieter and I are chatting in.

Lucinda’s incredibly likeable. She is warm and welcoming, her long red hair flows as she carries a basket and pruning shears, escorting us around her farm, pointing out the different varietals of citrus fruit.

Lucinda explains, “When I bought this place there was almost no house. It was just a glorified shed. Nobody lived here, but I just saw these orange trees and I thought my god, to have orange trees growing in your garden is extraordinary. And then the view! I thought okay, I don't care about the house. I'll just live in the garden.”

Lucinda moved in and commuted to her job in London and Paris before Covid changed her life. “I didn't have to work so I was more and more in the garden. I had some neighbours who were really good horticulturists and they were helping me, giving me ideas and I moved into Permaculture and even the biodynamic calendar. It's just been a very natural organic path that's unfolded and so now I'm dedicating all my time. I mean, even all my time is nearly not enough to looking after the fruit trees and planting more. With the organic system you don't just fertilise, you grow peas and beans to add nitrogen. It’s an idyllic life.” “I used to work in the wine business and then I moved into the flower business, so from one bouquet to another, and now it’s bouquets of oranges.”

Lucinda pours me a glass of fresh orange juice and it’s unlike anything I’ve tasted before. 

“The flavour of my oranges is so intense because they were planted in the 70’s and never watered, intentionally. The clay that we have here in Lloret is very white and it really holds onto the humidity. Whereas in Sóller, where they have that beautiful red brown soil, it doesn't contain the same water so I think you'll find most people in Sóller have to water their oranges in the summer and I never have done. My oranges don't look as perfect as a non-organic product in the store obviously, but when you taste them, I think that says it all because it’s not diluted.”

“Also, because they're organic you can actually eat the whole orange with the skin, just bite it like an apple. The zest has qualities, now they sell powdered dried zest as a sort of happy potion in the herb stores, which is why I think I feel so happy all the time.”