Liquor · Eco-Chick

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

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

Eco-Chic Decor from Bacchus-Inspired Aesthetics

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by Starre Vartan · 09/13/09

Guest post by Shireen Quodosi

What comes more easily in this economy than an assortment of empty wine bottles after you’ve just thrown a smashing get-together? With the preference being on sourcing cheap entertaining ideas, most people now see staying at home with a good meal and great wine as a viable alternative to spending money on restaurants and clubs.

Wine Bottle Ideas:

There are a number of ways to reuse wine bottles. Among the more common ideas are reusing them as water pitchers, votive vases, torches, and flower bed liners. However, there are dozens of other smart options that are rarely explored.

Rewined Recycled Glassware – Get uniquely hued wine bottle glassware made from orphaned bottles left behind at local restaurants and bars.

Water Feeders – On a very hot day or when you’re away, fill the bottles of water and stick them into the pot or soil near your plant. The water will slowly percolate from the bottle and into the soil.

Wine Bottle Chandeliers – In addition to the popular row lighting and pendant lighting, Pottery Barn put together an interesting chandelier with wine bottles strung around it. Even though four dozen other people will likely have the same statement piece, at least you know it’s a unique sustainable element in your home. Plus it catches the light beautifully during the day and especially at sunset.

cape, car, cocktails, decor, design, farm, Hollywood, Home, Lighting, liquor, local, Lush, oil, Organic, recycle, recycled, reference, restaurant, reuse, style, sustainability, sustainable, Tea, water, Water Bottle, Wine, wood

Organic Booze?

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by Melissa Goldberg · 05/22/08

My husband and I are not big drinkers but recently we both wanted a beer. In trying to make our home and lives greener, we decided to try an organic beer. On a recommendation from a Whole Foods employee, we bought Peaks Organic Amber Ale. The beer was tasty and a great alternative to our favorite non-organic beer Sam Adams.

It got me thinking about spirits such as vodka and gin, which we only have in the house for guests. The first thing that always comes to mind when I think about how vodka is potatoes. Now I do not think that much of today’s vodka is make out of potatoes anymore but “hard” liquor is made out of some type of crop, a crop that is most likely over-farmed and covered with tons of pesticides degrading land and water.

Well in Wall Street Journal on May 15th, Joseph De Vila wrote an article entitled “Organic Liquor.” De Vila did a taste test of 3 organic vodkas and 1 organic gin. More important than his taste test is what Melkon Khosrovian, co-founder of distiller Modern Spirits, said in the piece about what is the point of drinking organic spirits. “It’s about sustainable farming,” he says, arguing that traditional farming involves pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, which can be harmful to farmers who come in contact with it and the ground used to grow the ingredients. “We would like to support farmers to move away from those processes,” Mr. Khosrovian says.

Both Smirdoff and Absolut vodkas are made from grain, but grain from industrial farms. Modern Spirits new TRU, certified organic vodka, is made from organic wheat. In addition, TRU comes in 100% recycled, recyclable or biodegradable packaging. And for every bottle sold, Modern Spirits plants new trees in tropical zones (where they are cut down in the greatest numbers) to pass on a better planet to the next generation of vodka drinkers.Now since I have not have the opportunity to taste any of Modern Spirits organic vodkas or the other brands mentioned by De Vila (Orange V Vodka, Rain Vodka, and Juniper Green Organic London Dry Gin), I cannot attest to the taste. But De Vila seemed to like them all. I hope to try them in the future.

Have any of you tasted them? I would love to hear what you think of organic beers and liquors.

You can read some of my past post by clicking here.

farm, farming, farms, Food, Home, liquor, London, Organic, Plants, recycle, recycled, style, sustainable, trees, water

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

Green Gifts for All the Lovable Weirdoes in Your Life

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by Starre Vartan · 12/07/07

You know those lists of gifts everyone has now? They’re killing me. So I had to make my own because my friends and family are a motley bunch, and the usual stuff (even the usual green stuff) isn’t going to cut it. Plus, they have high expectations because I am an Eco Chick! Sheesh! Well here goes what I’m going to give some of my favorite folks (yes, all of these are actual people in my life!) this year:
For The Discerning Partyer

Who doesn’t love vodka? There are some great ones out there that are organic and/or sustainable. Check out my reviews of 360 vodka and Reyka, which are both good bets. I’ve also enjoyed Square One at more than a couple of green events I’ve attended in the last year. It’s delicious and made from 100% organic rye. If your local liquor store doesn’t carry it, ask them to stock it, or check here.

For the Obsessive-Compulsive Worried Mom’s Kids

Oompa toys are classy and so very adorable so they will fit in with “grown-up” decor from modern to antique. Blocks and playsets are made from wood, not plastic, a healthier, more eco-friendly (and less tacky) choice. Besides the wooden toys, there are super-mod sustainable easels and organic stuffed animals. So cute I kinda want some of these playthings!

For the Essentialist Dad

My Dad’s been a minimalist for years, eschewing anything that isn’t utilitarian; you know, he’s one of those people who’s living room looks a bit like an art gallery with barely a chotchke in sight. He’s also a surfer and loves the ocean as much as I love the mountains, so this year I’m going to give him a Starfish from Oceana, which is an organization that works to protect marine ecosystems. Of course I’m not buying a real starfish, but a symbolic one, which comes with a cute cookie cutter in the shape of a starfish (there are 15 other animals you can buy, each with it’s own cutter). A sugar cookie recipe is included from celebrity chef Warren Brown of eco-friendly bakery CakeLove in DC.

For the Ex Who’s Still a Good Friend

A laptop case from Act2Greensmart is a great gift for someone that deserves a something they can really use. This one is the only one I’ve found that’s 100% recycled as its made from recycled plastic bottles.

For the Vegan Chef

They’ll love you forever if you show up with some vegan marshmellow (technically ricemellow) or hot chocolate mix, both of which are hard-to-find items when you’re totally a totally animal-free eater.

For the Back-to-the-Lander

The Self-Sufficiency Handbook is a comprehensive, illustrated, and detailed new book that gets into the nitty gritty details of how to live an off-the-grid lifestyle. Topics include water collection and storage, soil care, sections on geothermal, wind and solar power, toilet systems, stoves, chicken- and beekeeping and more. Fun reading even if your idea of getting back to nature is sipping a soy latte at the corner cafe al fresco.

For the Design Whore

The Green Glass Company makes this gorgeous, gorgeous glassware, all by recycling wine bottles!

With the machinery Bobby and Kobus custom engineered and built (only one of its kind in the world), The Green Glass Company added a ‘twist’ to its original goblet design. Producing two separate drinking glasses from one bottle without any waste glass was the challenge. The result was separating the bottle into two pieces, creating a tumbler from the bottom portion of the bottle and a goblet from the top portion of the bottle.

For the Green Tech-head

The Hymini is just so damn cool. This little device (it’s about the size of my hand) converts either solar power or wind power into stored charge that you can then connect to your iPod or cell phone for instant energy. Use the wind-converter while you’re riding your bike, on a boat, or just out the window on a breezy day. Use the little solar panel when it’s….sunny! Either way, in about an hour you’ll get enough for two hours of playback on a device. The energy can be stored for about two weeks, so you can collect free energy now and use it whenever. You can also stick it into the wall to grab a charge from conventional power sources. The Hymini has a cool little LED light and it’s cute too!

For the Spa Junkie

There’s a lot of great eco-friendly bath stuff out there. I should know as it’s one of my jobs to keep up on this stuff. But when you’re talking luxury, and you also want some seriously sustainable suds, Maile Kauai makes quite the impressive combo. Most ingredients are organic, and essential oils are wild harvested (meaning they are culled from uncultivated lands without overharvesting). In a handmade box you’ll get (to give) a whole home-spa set including a soy candle, Body Lather, Mango Butter Bun and Body Cream. Choose your Hawaiian-inspired aromatherapy with options of Pikake, Plumeria, Gardenia or Coconut Vanilla.