About our Gourd Cocktail Infusion Kit
How is the Gourd Cocktail Infusion Kit born?
My Story with Gourd
Hi, I’m Haoying. I’m a designer trained at RISD, born and raised in China, and the founder of Gourd Revival. Growing up, gourds were always around me, yet I never truly noticed them until a trip to Mexico, where I encountered gourds carved, filled with drinks, and woven into daily rituals in ways completely unfamiliar to my upbringing. That experience led me to discover that nearly every culture has its own relationship with gourds. Since then, our mission has focused on transforming gourds into meaningful contemporary objects not as decoration, but as living tools and mediums for connection. This infusion kit is the result of hundreds of rounds of research, experimentation, and collaboration.
What are gourds? Why Gourds?
If you don’t know what a gourd is, it’s a fruit from the same family as pumpkins and cucumbers. When dried, however, it hardens into a lightweight yet durable, woody shell. This unique property has led many anthropologists to believe that gourds were among humanity’s earliest vessels—for carrying water, storing food, and fermenting drinks.
Through our research into the use of gourds across continents, we’ve come to believe that they have long been intertwined with the flavors of our drinks and the rituals surrounding them—until recent centuries.
From China to Africa, from South America to Southeast Asia, gourds shaped how people drank, gathered, and celebrated.
Gourds have been used in the making and serving of baijiu in China, sake in Japan, and pulque in the modern-day Oaxaca region. After learning about the flavor influence gourds impart to these traditional beverages, I began pouring my own tequila and sake into gourds. During a potluck at my home, friends from Peru and South Asia noticed my home bar setup and asked about the experiment. Unsurprisingly, they shared that gourds had also played a significant role in their local drinking traditions.
That moment sparked a deeper exploration of culturally inspired recipes, giving rise to the five cocktail cards included in our kit with many more still to come.
Why do I want to make create this kit?
While gourds are often described as ancient containers, they have never been just that to the people who use them. My true motivation for sharing this kit comes from the changes gourds have brought into my own life. After a potluck with friends, gourds became a bridge, helping me form new connections and deepen existing ones. Serving gourd-infused beverages at dinners and gatherings sparked conversations about childhoods, travels, and cultural memories that might otherwise never surface. I’ve felt this same sense of connection during in-person events, where gourds consistently break through linguistic and cultural barriers.
Gourds also brought my team together. Palm comes from Thailand, where some of the earliest gourd artifacts were found, and Sumair from South Asia, where gourds have been shaped into intricately crafted musical instruments for centuries. Together, they form the core of this project with me. For all three of us, gourds shifted from a forgotten idea to something deeply meaningful when seen through our lived, contemporary experiences.
We invite you to join our VIP sign up list today to get early access to our launch and the other benefits for our VIPs.
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