I recently read this article on FoodPrint.org called "Searching for Ethical Sugar." It's a look into the source and sustainability of the sugars we use in drinks. There is a lot of good information in it, so I encourage you to read it. I've pasted some highlights below, but the short answer is that it's a good idea to buy Fairtrade and/or Organic sugar. Unlike these other crops, though, sugar — the stand-alone product as well as the ingredient — is lacking in traceability. Even sugar that claims it was made in the USA may not have been grown within... Read more →

St. Louis restaurant Bulrush features "Ozark cuisine" and an extremely low-waste ethos, including ingredients in the cocktail program. The press release states: From house-made cider plus vinegars/shrubs made with gathered local ingredients like pawpaws, spicebush and okra, unlikely spirit infusions like stinging nettle cordial, brown butter-washed rum and Chanterelle mushroom whiskey, as well as the savory incorporation of items like chicken stock for their "Chicken Soup for the Grown Up Soul” drink and more, the cocktails and spirit-free options at this local hot spot are worth taking a closer look at. The most interesting aspect perhaps is that nothing on... Read more →

Charlie Parker's is a cocktail bar downstairs from restaurant Fred's in Sydney, Australia. Above both of them is a rooftop garden where they have a 20,000-resident beehive, lots of edible produce, and composting. Our compost bins take care of 90% of all bar waste and our top to tail plastic free approach has seen major success from exclusively using grain straws (or no straws), to all drink prep being stored in food safe mason jars that double as epic sous vide vessels. Our garnishes are made out of the by products from our preps and, our citrus soda is the... Read more →

The bar Stilllife in Montreal uses no fresh citrus juice on their menu. The citrus products they do use are waste created by their other bar, The Cloakroom. Bar owner Andrew Whibley emailed with some information and recipes from the bar. He made sure to credit the other members of his team for these recipes as well: Andrew Whibley- Owner Stillife/Cloakroom Bar Jonas Kempeners - Manager Cloakroom Jay Lawson- Prep manager Stillife Anna Levy- Prep manager Cloakroom Quick Links Citrus Oil Sprays instead of using fresh peels Fermented leftover citrus juice and a drink recipe that uses it Acid-adjusted fruit... Read more →

Luuk Gerritsen lives on Curacao and is the general manager of Kome. Some of the ideas below were developed at previous venues where Gerritsen worked, and he would also like to acknowledge Bar Manager Wesley Quinlan as partner in many of these recipes and procedures. Citrus Gerritsen says, "All our fresh juice will be frozen at the end of the night and agar-clarified the day after. [Agar clarification turns the juice clear and helps it last much longer.] We clarify and acidify citrus for bottled drinks. Also, blending it with a little zest can bring back the aroma." They freeze... Read more →

Jared Hirsch of Sidebar and Nickel Dime Syrups shared his recipe for lime cordial that requires no zesting of limes. Lime Cordial From Jared Hirsch of Sidebar 4 cups lime juice (reserve lime shells) 3 cups cane sugar 4oz vodka Using a cleaned jar saved from our olives, we pour the ingredients over the juiced lime shells (unpeeled) and refrigerate for 2 days before straining out the liquid, re-juicing the limes to extract as much cordial as possible. I've tried both just lime peels and whole spent limes and found very little difference, preferring the unpeeled limes the best, which... Read more →

The following missive comes from Nicholas Box of The Acorn restaurant in Vancouver. This post has tons of information in it, so if you followed a link here you might have to scroll a bit to find the particular section where it's mentioned. "I run the bar at The Acorn restaurant in Vancouver - that is up until the great closure of many many businesses. We are a 44-seat vegetarian restaurant focused on local ingredients. Now citrus isn't very local, but at least we can still order in organic. I'm a believer in getting organic when possible, especially if the... Read more →

Falernum is a traditional syrup or liqueur from Barbados flavored with lime, almond, ginger, and clove. It is used in cocktails including the Corn 'n' Oil, Three Dots and a Dash, Chartreuse Swizzle, and more. It's also a recipe that uses lime zest that can be made from limes before juicing them. At Queen's Park, they use their homemade orgeat in their homemade Falernum. Background Info and Cocktail Recipes that Use Falernum Tiki’s Essential Secret Ingredient: DIY Falernum [PUNCH] Our Favorite Falernum Cocktails [Imbibe] Falernum Moves Beyond the Tiki Realm [PUNCH] Falernum Recipe From Laura Newman of Queens Park in... Read more →

At Liquor Lab in New York, Nate Fishman says that they often need to find ways to use up citrus. As a "social mixology experience" they don't have the daily hours of operations that traditional bars do, so there are times when citrus juice/fruit won't get used before it goes off. To make use of citrus fruit that won't be juiced, first they make dehydrated citrus wheels. Then if they still have more citrus than they can use, they do a combination technique to make both flavored syrups and caramelized citrus wheels. Fishman writes, "We take the leftover citrus wheels... Read more →