The party at the end of the World: Innovative Sustainable drinks for Summer. PHOTOS_ Aaron Tilley, SET_ Elena Horn, DRINKS_ Josh McIntyre, STYLE AND WORDS_ Iain Graham
Toast Ales delicious American Pale Ale
Aaron Tilley, Elena Horn and Josh McIntyre take a look at the most innovative and delicious sustainable drinks for this Summer.
Toast Ale is an incredible concept, the brewers use up surplus bread to replace the barley that would otherwise be grown and used in the fermentation process.
That means that 30% of the usual quantity of ingredients is recycled or wasted bread!
This saves not only time, but demand for land, water, energy and emissions to produce the replaced barley… And the company even donates all it’s profits to charity.
Toast are launching a campaign called Rise Up, raising awareness about the impact of our food system on the environment. They are teaming up with several B corps, (Certified B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose) initially Divine Chocolate to create a chocolate stout with all profits being donated to the charity ‘Feedback’!
The Cooper King distillery in Yorkshire have provided us with our gin focus. They shine in a market saturated by gins and flavoured gins. They source their spirit from a neighbouring producer who grows his grains next to the distillery. They use a revolutionary cold vacuum distillery. The vacuum in the still drops the pressure and reduces the boiling point of the spirit, meaning that the distilling process can take place at much lower temperatures. This reduces energy consumption dramatically and meaning that the evaporation takes place faster, reducing waste at the same time. The flavour is cleaner and by using the cold distillation process they are able to use a more varied selection of Botanicals and to better effect.
Usually the Gin distillation process is divided into three parts, the Nose, Heart and Tail. Typicaly, Nose and Tail are discarded, in fact famously in London at the height of gin production in the 1800s it was poured into the drains. Lucky Rats! Their distilling process is a closed loop system, which means by reusing their coolant water again and again they save 26 tonnes of fresh water per year for their two gin stills. There’s more! NO plastic packaging, a lightweight bottle saving on glass, losing the vanity of a weighty bottle and focussing on the product, they even have a Gin Refill scheme, the first of its kind in the country. They send used botanicals to a local bakery to use and compost the rest.
Incredible.
A classic Cooper King G and T
50ml Cooper King Dry Gin
100ml Fever-Tree Indian tonic water
Fresh rosemary sprig, to garnish
Sustainable Wine of Great Britain Accredited, Nyetimber Classic Cuvee over ice
Founded by Manager of Plumpton College wine division, Chris Foss, The Sustainable Wines of Great Britain was born in January 2019 a direct result of seeing other wine producing countries and regions developing their own sustainability standards and the realisation that the UK had none.
They created a series of objectives, for both winemaking and vine growing identifying 11 key objectives, most notably, maintaining and improving soil health, reducing pesticide inputs, reducing the carbon footprint per hectare and reducing the amount of water used per bottle of wine.
With the financial backing of various organisations such as FERA, Marks and Spencer, Waitrose and Partners, Simonit and Sirch, Vidacycle and Vinescapes the SWGB is looking to make sustainable and ethical wine production in the UK become a bench mark!
The SWGB had the main goal of rigorous certification. As with Soil association or DOP certification, the SWBG wanted a mark, that members could aspire to, achieve and then display on their website and promotional material.
To achieve a credible as well as rigorous audit they enlisted the specialist company Ricardo, who audit each vineyard and producer every 3 years. 29 producers applied to join the scheme which was more than the SWGB could have hoped for in the initial uptake!
“Our vision is to create a strong and vibrant community within the English and Welsh wine industry that actively promotes sustainability through information sharing and a certification scheme that is inclusive, effective and well-respected by our customers.”
Of these initial 29 members we feature here the wines of Camel Valley, who has two accreditations from the SWGB and has countless taste awards and Nyetimber, one of the more celebrated British Sparkling wine producers.
Camel Valley are based in Cornwall, the vineyard was started in 1989 with around 8 thousand vines! The vineyard has gone from strength to strength, beating even the finest champagne houses of Louis Roederer and Bollinger to the title of ‘Best International Traditional Method Sparkling Wine’.
Nc’Nean’s first Single malt features in Josh McIntyre’s take on an Old fashioned
This Old fashioned is a beauty, using the first year of Nc’Nean Single malt Whiskey. We featured Nc’Nean previously, but this is their long awaited first Single Malt Whiskey. Made in a distillery powered from 100% renewable energy and packaged in a 100% recycled glass bottle Nc’Nean are revisiting Whiskey production methods, their process and their product with fresh eyes, not bucking tradition but refining it!
Ingredients:
50ml blended NcNean Single Malt whisky
25ml Sweet vermouth (Preferably Cocchi Torino)
2 dashes cocktail bitters
Directions:
In a Bulb glass combine liquid ingredients and fill with cubed ice.
Stir until a fine film of frost appears on the outside of the glass (12-15 Seconds)
“Get your Oats” White Russian, vegan style
Another beauty from our drinks Master Josh McIntyre using Oatley and Sapling Vodka or if you can get hold of it Air Co vodka
Oatley are passionate about many things, their oats, their method and above all their sustainability. One of the few companies who puts the carbon footprint of their products, on their products. It’s a great vegan alternative, and whilst using it in a drink is not carbon neutral, there are many benefits or not using dairy, for the environment.
We picked out two vodkas for this drink, both doing great things to fight CO2 emissions. Sapling Vodka, is UK based Vodka producer, they plant trees for each bottle of vodka produced. Each tree planted is tagged and then linked to a bottle on the production line. Once your bottle is purchased you can then track it down and follow its progress. The company work with planters in urban settings planting fruit trees in London and oaks in Bristol, as well as working with the High Atlas foundation, focussed on bringing people of Morocco out of poverty.
Air Co has a very different method of being Carbon neutral, rather than off setting their imprint, their Vodka, actually absorbs carbon from the air.
In making “the world’s cleanest, highest quality and most sustainable spirit” they use a process not unlike Photosynthesis. Their three ingredients, sun, air and water are all they need to convert CO2 in the air, into a pure spirit, rather than the traditional method of farming and fermenting grains or potatoes. Its a revolution and not one they are restricting to drink either, with plans to revolutionise fragrance, sanitisers and even fuel this is definitely one to watch…
Ingredients:
25ml Sustainably produced Vodka either Sapling or Air Co
50ml Home-made Coffee Liqueur (Or sho
50ml Oatly Oat Milk
50ml Oatly Creamy Oat
Directions:
Combine Oat Milk, oat cream and vodka in a shaker/jam jar/jug etc and give it a quick mix to combine thoroughly.
Fill a rocks glass with cubed ice and pour over the oaty vodka goodness
Pour coffee liqueur over top – this will marble through the off-white oat mix
It’s amazing what can be done with thought, time and a purpose, all these producers are doing the right thing and succeeding. But their success comes from us! Let’s support these amazing initiatives and producers and see what long lasting change we can support.