Christina Mae Padilla is a California bartender and ambassador for brands including Tequila Fortaleza. 

Use Less Napkins By Moving Them Further Away from Customers 

We also removed accessibility of cocktail napkins as people would grab a handful to spit out a piece of gum or 20 napkins to clean up 3 droplets of spill. Napkins were behind the bar and available upon request or if we saw a need.

Citrus Husks as a Tea to Flavor Gin & Tonics

• After peeling and then juicing citrus, I would take spent lemon, lime, orange, and grapefruit husks and slice them down to sliced like a thick fat spaghetti or like thick Big League Chew size.
• Then dehydrate in dehydrator, at low heat to maintain color vibrancy if this is important to the project. Once completed, place all dehydrated bits into a large receptacle and give it a quick smashing to kind of break up and integrate the bits.
• Depending on the tea bag size, place a couple/few ounces of the mixture into the tea bag accompanied by 2-3 cardamom pods, and 4-5 coriander seeds. Or whatever botanicals you see fit to highlight or enhance depending on the gin selection. You can purchase a package of 300 empty tea bags online for $7-$10. (Ive been told these can be cleaned in a light bleach solution for reuse—I do not know if this is true or legal).
• To use, place bag in glass, add 1.5-2 oz of gin and top with tonic (or .5 oz house made tonic syrup hit with soda). Give tea bag a few drags/tugs up and down the glass and BOOM you get a choose your own adventure gin and tonic as the more you fiddle the more possibility for garnish intensity.

Lemon and Lime Soda with Citrus Husks

I took the juiced lemon and lime husks and basically did a Cambro oleo saccharum to taste.

We would then transfer to a pot and go the citrus stock route, reducing it down a bit, ending with a concentrate so that about 1/2 oz was sufficient when hit with soda water, w/ or without base spirit.

Infuse Fruit into Alcohol, then Use Both the Fruit and the Alcohol in Drinks 

My first favorite was a PiñAperol Spritz. The kitchen had pineapple so I made PiñAperol by letting the two marry and soak for a few days, strain, make spritz. 

From this I came up with the AppleRol Spritz at another project. For this we sliced apples thin, placed in cambro and covered with Aperol. After 3-4 days, strain and bottle batch.

Take the inebriated apples and place them in a dehydrator to dehydrate to apple chip status. Use as garnish for said AppleRol Spritz or any drink you’d see fit.

I have yet to make my last idea, the APearol Spritz. Basically I was making a list of seasonal fruit Aperol spritzes.