Sustainable cocktails, zero-waste bars aim to change the way we drink

Behind the bar at New York's The Daily, Iain Griffiths whipped up a "Green" Sour in a blender: Ford's Gin, a coin of fresh cucumber, a whole egg, orange bitters, sea salt, raspberries, crushed ice and a lemon half, with the peel already removed. There was nothing left over but a single egg shell.

Presenting: the (almost) zero-waste cocktail.

There was no extra ice to be dumped out into the sink. The lemon peels were set aside as garnish and flavor fodder for simple syrups. Even the gin bottle was deliberately manufactured for reuse, with labels that peel off easily and measuring cup-like markings etched into the glass.

Now to get everyone to take a sip.

Eco Road Show

The typical cocktail bar is a trash machine. And despite plenty of eco talk circulating among breweries, wineries and distilleries, the dialogue had so far bypassed the consumer end.

To rectify that, in October Griffiths teamed up with Simon Ford of liquor producer the 86 Co. for a whistle-stop tour of several U.S. cities - including Chicago - concluding in New York. The topic: how to create a sustainable bar.

"Sustainability is unsexy. It's a challenge," acknowledged Griffiths, speaking to a group of bartenders as they sipped his blended sour. This is an industry that thrives on late-nights and bad habits to sell more alcohol, not long-term planning and intentional restraint.

His pitch: altruism is good, yes, but by reducing costs related to water, energy and raw ingredients, "it actually earns you money in the long term."

The template exists at London's award-winning White Lyan, where Griffiths works as business development manager with owner Ryan Chetiyawardana, who has made a name for himself with innovative bars that focus on environmental sustainability. (Not for nothing he was also named International Bartender of the Year 2015.)

Last year, during a speech at booze industry trade show Tales of the Cocktail, Chetiyawardana pegged the "bags and bags of lemons" he saw thrown away when he worked at other bars as his inspiration to go greener. "It was a shame to me," he said, "citrus is expensive. It comes from all these countries. You squeeze the lemon juice out and then throw it away in the bin."

At White Lyan, Chetiyawardana famously uses no ice (instead, he pre-chills drinks and glasses) and no citrus (he instead created a citric acid that he likens to "a turbocharged lemon on crack"). Dismissing both the hefty carbon footprint that comes with imported spirits as well as the excess packaging needed to cushion glass bottles, he even goes so far as to make in-house spirits. (A distilling license is easier for a bar to obtain in the U.K. than it is in the U.S.)

In the end, the bar throws away a single bag of garbage a week.

Foodies first

An extreme example to be sure, but one that Chad Arnholt, co-founder and partner at San Francisco-based consulting firm Tin Roof Drink Community, believes can take root in the U.S. He has spent the past year working with soon-to-open San Francisco restaurant The Perennial to create a "full service low impact bar."

It's here, in restaurants, where owners are incentivized by slim margins and plenty of perishables, that U.S. bars seem most ready to move the needle toward a more sustainable model. High-profile chef stunts, like Dan Barber's WastED this past March in New York (which saw a special "veggie pulp" burger sold at Shake Shack) only set the charge off more.

Arnholt's challenge: reduce water waste; conserve energy related to heating and refrigeration; identify ingredients, like produce and spirits, that are responsibly produced and transported; and minimize ingredient waste. And of course, maintain cocktail quality and healthy profit margins above all else

"Bars aren't inherently green, 'clean,' or sustainable," he says. "The drainwater from the World's 50 Best Bars could fill an Olympic-size swimming pool in one year."

Bars emphasize speed, while eco is often analogous with "slow." Finding a way to balance "deliciousness" with sustainability, he continues, "is the modern hospitality challenge."

How drinks may change

Among the changes sustainability may bring to cocktail bars:

• More pre-mixed cocktails in bottles and on tap; fewer drinks shaken with ice.

Reduced ice use will be the most visible change. A stirred or shaken drink often uses two sets: first in a cocktail shaker or mixing glass to chill and dilute; then strained over fresh rocks for presentation purposes (straight-up cocktails excepted). Each drink made this way consumes up to a half-pound of ice, or 1½ liters of water, Arnholt estimates.

Instead, pre-batched drinks can be made ahead of time, pre-diluted and stored at a cool temperature, to be served bottle-service style or pulled from a tap. A smaller change we may see even sooner: Old Fashioneds and other spirit-forward drinks stirred over a single large piece of ice - instead of shaken and then strained over that large, decorative cube.

• Fewer drinks served in martini glasses.

Narrower glasses like Collins or highballs maximize space on a dishwasher rack, thus cutting down on water usage. (Those oversized martini glasses went out of vogue in craft cocktail bars a long time ago, anyway.)

The paper tiki umbrella's days are numbered. In addition to what goes in the glass, "zero waste" means an increased emphasis on what Arnholt calls "consumables." That means swapping sturdy, reusable coasters for paper napkins and metal spoons for straws (for bartenders to taste drinks - most use scores of skinny black straws, then drop them into the trash).

• More drinks with "reused" ingredients.

There's no such thing as scraps. If mint leaves are used for mojitos, stems get macerated for mint-infused alcohol; if lime juice is squeezed, the peel is zested to flavor syrups, preserves, cordials, shrubs and more. "Often we throw out the parts with the most flavor," says Griffiths.

Monetary rewards

Although it's hard to quantify exactly how much a bar might save, "a more sustainable bar program can absolutely save money for the house," Arnholt insists, pointing broadly to water and power bills. In terms of individual drinks, trends like pre-batching results in speedier drink times that can potentially drive more sales, as well as control portions, which has a direct impact on produce expenses.

Of course, nothing is that easy - a sustainable bar is an intricate puzzle to solve. For example, cocktail dens that eschew ice to minimize water usage may have to consume more electricity for refrigeration. The Clinebell ice machine in particular, which some high-end bars employ to make large chunks of crystal-clear ice offers "100-percent water efficiency," Arnholt notes, but "it sucks electricity like a bear."

This begs the ultimate question: Is "zero waste" even possible?

According to Griffiths, no, it's not - but it's still the "holy grail." Even at White Lyan, which has reduced waste at the bar by a jaw-dropping 75 percent compared to a typical bar, it still produces that bag of waste each week. Sustainability, rather, isn't an all-or-nothing proposition. It's a process.

"You should continue to drive toward zero waste, even if you can only get to 20 percent or 30 percent, not 100 percent waste-free," Griffiths urged. "Zero waste is a long time before it becomes a reality. But at least you try."