Eco-Chick · The modern girl's guide to living green & fabulous.

Be a Green Lush: Eco-Chic Fall and Holiday Cocktails!

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by Stephanie Rogers · 10/28/09

It’s a great time to be an eco-conscious drinker. There’s never been a bigger or tastier selection of organic, fair trade and otherwise earth-friendly liquor and mixers on the market, and the possibilities for seasonal cocktails are practically endless, from spiked cider to pomegranate cosmopolitans.

Fair Vodka is the world’s first fair-trade certified vodka, and is made with quinoa from the South American Andes. TRU vodka and gin is actually carbon negative, made with organic ingredients that are responsibly farmed and bottled in lightweight recycled glass. Organic Nation gin is made at Oregon’s first organic distillery, using locally grown organic botanicals.

Mixers, recipes and more after the jump!
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alcohol, fall, liquor, parties

Get Palmhugging with Malibu (and Do Some Good While You're At It!)

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by Starre Vartan · 08/06/09

Malibu rum (yes, the one that tastes like coconuts!) is partnering with Reef Check, a non-profit dedicated to monitoring, protecting and rehabilitating coral reefs, to offer 10 budding environmentalists a chance to get a PhD in SPF by monitoring coral reef health in Thailand, the Maldives or the Philippines.

Starting July 1, passionate individuals of legal drinking age may apply by visiting http://malibu-rum.com/reefcheck. Beach interns will be sent on an all-expenses paid, 10-day internship, where they will learn about the local coral reef eco-system, monitor the reefs, snorkel, scuba dive and gain their certification all while getting their island on in a beautiful location. It’s the internship that guarantees bragging rights, beach time and that feel-good satisfaction of knowing that you’re helping to conserve reefs around the world.

I’m sorry, but that’s a pretty damn cool internship. Also, Malibu is yummy (too bad it’s not organic, hint hint!)

alcohol, internship, rum

Sazerac: An Excerpt from Libation: A Bitter Alchemy

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by Starre Vartan · 07/29/09

The following is an excerpt from Libation: A Bitter Alchemy by Deirdre Heekin. It has been adapted for the Web.

recipe for Sazerac

The key to a true Sazerac is in the provenance of the ingredients: the rye, the anise, and the bitters. While many substitutes are available, an authentic drink is made with Old Overholt rye whiskey distilled in Clermont, Kentucky; Herbsaint anise liqueur; and Peychaud’s bitters, the last two ingredients hailing from New Orleans. This recipe is adapted from the dry and spicy version prepared for us at Arnaud’s in the Crescent City.

* 1 teaspoon simple syrup
* 2 ounces Old Overholt rye whiskey
* 3–4 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
* 1/4 teaspoon Herbsaint anise liqueur
* Strip of lemon peel

Pack an old-fashioned glass with ice, or chill it in the freezer. In a cocktail shaker, add the simple syrup, whiskey, and bitters. Put a few ice cubes in the shaker, and stir to chill. Discard the ice from the first glass, or take it out of the freezer, and coat the entire inside of this glass with the Herbsaint by rolling the liquid around in the glass. Discard the excess.

Strain the whiskey concoction into the Herbsaint-coated glass. Twist the lemon peel over the drink so it catches the citrus oils, then rub the peel around the rim of the glass. Some purists advise you to refrain from dropping the peel in the glass. Others say to add it at the end. I like the way they serve it at Arnaud’s, with the peel.

variation
(adapted from Gourmet’s Guide to New Orleans circa 1960)

In a cocktail tumbler or old-fashioned glass, moisten one or two lumps of sugar according to taste and crush with a wooden pestle. Add a dash of Angostura bitters and two dashes of Peychaud’s bitter and a jigger and a half of rye whiskey. Add two or three lumps of ice and stir with a spoon until chilled. In another tumbler that has been chilled with ice, put one dash of absinthe, twirl the glass, and throw out the excess absinthe.

This will give a bouquet to the drink without actually flavoring it. Pour into this glass the mixed drink. Squeeze in a bit of lemon peel about the size of a nickel and put it in the drink, then rub the edge of the glass with a bit of lemon peel and serve. Do not shake or serve any ice in the drink.

Origin Story

My personal New Orleans has for a long time been one of mythology and imagination. My family once lived in New Orleans, and the childhood stories told to me over dishes of red beans and rice, one of my mother’s better recipes, or the King Cakes sent by an old neighbor at Mardi Gras, provided mystery and atmosphere to what I thought at that time was a fairly mundane, quotidian existence. There were foreign spices and Voodoo spells, Catholic mysticism and masked balls, storybook witches and minor tragedies, happiness and brightly colored beads. There were fancy dresses with white gloves and exotic flowers.

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alcohol, book excerpt, New Orleans

Tsi~La Organics

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by Kimberly Jordan Allen · 05/20/08

Tsi~la Organics is a line of body products and fragrances that use no preservatives, alcohol, additives, coloring, or other nasty synthetic chemicals that many other perfumes contain. Pronounced “chee-la,” the name is Cherokee for ‘flower.’ The Tsi~La fragrances seek to combine exotic notes of ylang ylang, citrus, bergamot, lavender, vanilla, lime, amber and various spices to generate unique scents that transcend the traditional “natural” or organic perfumes that can tend to be simplistic or unoriginal.

There are a number of different formulations that Annie Morton, former model, and her sister-in-law, Natalie Szapowalo, have combined. All of the fragrances are very wearable.

My favorites are Saqui: a very clean, warm scent of ginger, clove, nutmeg mingling with tangy citrus; Kesu: warm woods and slightly smoky incense mixed with lime create a unisex blend; Fleur Savage: jasmine and neroli are tempered with notes of tuberose; Kizes: reminds me of biting into a kumkwat – very fresh and tart. They are all lovely. If I had to choose just one, it’d be Saqui. The scent is warm and hearty but crisp. Tsi~La wears well for hours, mingling with your own body’s chemistry. Because they come in small, roll-on bottles, you can control the quantity of perfume you wish to wear, without being inundated with a cloud of chemical haze, as is so common in today’s factory-generated commercial fragrances that come in spray bottles.

alcohol, crisp, farm, formula, Lavender, model, Organic, Outdoors, scents, wood

Ultimate MidWinter Cocktail

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by Starre Vartan · 03/04/08

Acai berries and wheat in their native habitats

As much as I adore the four seasons, I am getting a little tired of grey skies and damp weather. Since I can’t take a Spring Break this year due to being totally overworked there’s nothing to do but chase the winter blues away with good old fashioned alcohol.

Just kidding! But for real, I recently discovered two great new organic liquors and decided to make a coconutty cocktail with them.

VeeV is the new liquor that’s made from organic acai berries. Besides it’s organicness, it’s carbon neutral as certified by Climate Clean. Antioxidant-rich acai is wild harvested (which means it’s picked from the rainforest in a sustainable way while still preserving the surrounding ecosystem). On top of all that, the distillery that makes VeeV uses wind power. And goodness me, this stuff is yummy- mildly sweet and berry-like, but with a kick, it’s great over rocks or mixed into drinks like the one below.

At the Greener Gadgets conference cocktail party, I tried Purus vodka, which is the latest organic vodka (made from 100% organic Italian wheat) to hit the market. It’s nice and smooth and makes a perfect mixer. So I did!

Cocoberry Winter Cocktail

1 shot of VeeV
1 shot Purus vodka
1/2 cup organic coconut sorbet (softened, but not melted)
juice of two blood oranges (I found organic at Trader Joe’s)

Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with 2-3 cubes of ice. Shake vigorously and pour into chilled martini glasses. Garnish with orange slices. Drink immediately!

Makes two stiff drinks.

The combination of the mild, sweet flavor of the acai berry, the bite of the vodka, the sweet-tart of the blood orange juice and the rich, creaminess of the coconut made this a winner- an uber creamy martini that avoids the unhealthy fats in milk products.

If you try this, let me know what you think!

alcohol, cocktails, liquor, Organic