The spirits industry is keen to position itself as sustainable. But a听bottle of alcohol听made via a solar-powered distillation process doesn鈥檛 undo the fact that all the raw materials for that drink were grown, harvested, and trucked to the distillery, turned into liquor, and then, finally, hauled away to the store. That鈥檚 a lot of energy for something auxiliary to survival.
At the same time,听expecting everyone to swear off booze to fight climate change (as fossil-fuel companies continue refining oil and global capitalist leaders fly all over the world in private jets) seems unlikely. It also feels a bit cruel. If we must watch our world burn, can we at least have a cocktail听to take the edge off?听听
Here鈥檚 one solution: let鈥檚 drink more spirits made from salvaged ingredients. This is not a new idea. 鈥淩um goes back to sugar-refining plantations in the Caribbean,鈥� says Henry Tarmy, one of the cofounders of the听听in California. Molasses was a by-product of the sugar-refining process, and the refineries had more of it than they knew what to do with, he says. Someone discovered that you could ferment and distill the stuff, and thus, a bar star was born. God bless human ingenuity.听
Here are four spirits made from salvaged ingredients worth adding to your liquor cabinet.
Caledonia Spirits听Gobo
Not too far from 鈥櫶齢eadquarters in Vermont, a local farmer grows burdock, a root used in Japanese cuisine. The farmer has no trouble selling the beautiful roots, but he approached Ryan Christiansen, the company鈥檚 head distiller,听and asked if he鈥檇 be interested in the gnarly ones. 鈥淚 laughed out loud and said, 鈥楾hat sounds like a terrible idea, but let鈥檚 try it,鈥欌€� he remembers. Because Christiansen thought its earthy flavor wouldn鈥檛 work in a spirit, the original plan was to distill the fermented burdock to neutral. But just for kicks, they stopped and gave it a taste halfway through. 鈥淭he flavor blew us away. It produced this spirit that shocked us.听It鈥檚 almost like a tequila or a mezcal.鈥澨�
Misadventure Vodka听听
Have you ever looked at packaged bread or the听baked-goods aisle at your local grocery store and wondered what happens to all the stuff that doesn鈥檛 get sold? For corporations working on a massive scale, water, salt, flour, and yeast are so cheap that it鈥檚 more lucrative to bake too much than miss a sale because a shelf is empty, says Sam Chereskin, one of the founders of听. Which means a ton of bread and doughnuts get sent to food banks.听And听since food banks try to offer听people听the most nutritious food possible,听white bread, cookies, and cakes usually听do not work for them, says Whit Rigali, Misadventure鈥檚 other founder. Much of that starch ends up in landfills, creating a ton of methane as it decomposes.听
So Misadventure, located in greater听San Diego, is doing that water-to-wine thing but with trash-bound cookies. It鈥檚 taken听100,000 pounds of unwanted carbs and turned them into bottles of听vodka. The only problem the company has听run into with the听method is all the plastic packaging鈥攊t takes a tremendous amount of time to pull the baked goods out of their wrappers. Misadventure听runs 2,000-pound batches of bread, cookies, and bagels, each of which results in a full 200 pounds of plastic waste. In the company鈥檚 defense, it鈥檚听not creating this waste (it was landfill-bound anyway), but it鈥檚 still a nightmare to see it in those quantities, Chereskin and听Rigali say.
The bread is turned into 鈥渂read soup,鈥澨齪asteurized (in case any of it is听moldy),听fermented,听and then distilled. Because it鈥檚 vodka, doesn鈥檛 taste at all like onion bagels or cinnamon toast鈥攊ts distilled until it鈥檚 smooth and completely neutral.听
Ventura Spirits Company Strawberry Brandy
Strawberries may be delicious, but tons of them never make it to market. Maybe they ripen too late in the field, or they鈥檙e too small or ugly. Sometimes they鈥檙e frozen for smoothies, but then the smoothie company discontinues the flavor. Or maybe they get听frozen听but the freezer malfunctions just long enough to make them unsafe to sell. That鈥檚 when the Ventura Spirits Company swoops in. Since 2014, the craft distillery has been creating spirits using ingredients found along California鈥檚 central coast. 鈥淲e asked ourselves, What would we be drinking if distilling had been developed here in our part of the world?鈥� says Henry Tarmy. The answer is strawberry brandy, of course.听
Tarmy wants to stress one thing: this is a true brandy, a strong spirit that鈥檚 more like whiskey than a fruit liqueur. 鈥淲e ferment strawberries into wine and then distill that,鈥� he explains. However, they don鈥檛 take the distillation process so far that it goes neutral, so听there are clear strawberry notes in the final product. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like vanilla notes on a whiskey,鈥� not sweet, but definitely noticeable, he says. Finally, they age the spirit for four years in either French oak wine casks or recoopered barrels. is something that makes a truly unique old-fashioned.听
Desert Door听Texas Sotol
In arid West Texas, few things grow well. But Sotol, a distant cousin of agave,听thrives there. The spiky plant is found everywhere on ranches, but there鈥檚 little farmers can do with it, says Courtney Hickey, marketing manager for听, an Austin-based distillery.
Sotol contains carbs, and cutting the plant back doesn鈥檛 harm it听at all. If you leave the roots intact, they听regenerate, says Hickey. This is different听from agave, which dies after harvest and which farmers often grow in giant monocultures. And Desert Door doesn鈥檛 farm sotol; it鈥檚 all wild-harvested off existing ranches.听
The idea to turn these wild plants into booze came from family lore. One of the company鈥檚 founders remembered an uncle rambling on about moonshining sotol plants during Prohibition. So听they tried it, and it worked. The final product is like a mix between a desert-inspired gin and tequila, says Hickey. The company also has an oak-aged option, which adds some spice and oak notes. The original version is perfect in a margarita or paloma. The oak-aged sotol makes a great hot toddy. Desert Door isn鈥檛 currently selling online, but you can find its sotol in Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, Colorado, and Nevada.听