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5 months ago
From net zero gin to a rum made from surplus honey
Historically, the world of alcohol production has been pretty taxing on the planet. Elaborate packaging is often used, and the process tends to involve lots of water, heat and energy. Yet a number of savvy producers are taking steps in the right direction: ensuring the production process is energy efficient, repurposing products and eliminating single-use plastics from the chain. Below we highlight the eco-friendly alcohol brands to stock up your drinks cabinet with.
The raison d’être of English whisky brand Fielden is to champion regenerative farming. No chemicals or pesticides are used in the farming process: instead rye is grown in clover, which is better for the soil as it provides moisture and allows wildlife to thrive. Plus, the use of clover boosts the taste. Try the classic Rye Whisky, which has notes of warm, flaky pastry, butter and caramel.
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Katherine Jenkins OBE founded Cygnet 22 alongside her husband Andrew Levitas. Made with the planet in mind, Cygnet 22 comes in a bottle that weighs up to 50 percent less than the average spirits bottle, which means far less raw materials and energy are required during the production and transportation process. The bottle is also recyclable and refillable, with upcycling capabilities fundamental to the design. Master distiller Aster Sadler heads up the distilling process, creating gin with a silky, smooth taste, using 22 of the finest Welsh botanicals, including mankua honey, chosen by Katherine herself for its healing properties.
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Emma Watson has swapped movies for drinks, launching Renais Gin alongside her brother Alex. But the celebrity name isn’t the only thing to be excited about: Renais is a certified carbon-neutral gin brand, made using upcycled grapes – including some from the Watsons’ family vineyard in Chablis. The grapes are distilled in small batches, then combined with Kimmeridgian stone distillate alongside pressed organic grapes sourced from Chablis’ Grand Cru vineyards and natural botanicals, such as acacia honey. Aside from the production process, green initiatives include using solar-powered stills at the distillery, and biodegradable packaging made of mushrooms.
Mark and Andrei decided to launch Beesou after noticing that many drinks brands use E numbers to colour their liquid. They set out to create something with no artificial flavours or colouring, and fell in love with the idea of making an aperitif from raw English honey – which not only tastes delicious, but helps raise awareness about saving the bees. Beesou is B Corp certified, and 10 percent of its profits go to the Bees For Development charity, which works to alleviate poverty through beekeeping. The aperitif is made using all-natural ingredients, and has notes of cinchona bark, pink grapefruit and bitter orange.
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Sapling Spirits, which makes both vodka and gin, is a climate-positive company aiming to tackle climate change through reforestation and regenerative farming – for every bottle sold, a tree is planted (and on every bottle, you can track down your tree via a unique code). The brand has planted hundreds of thousands of trees, and its climate journey doesn’t stop there: it has recently launched new eco-refill pouches. This move cuts down its carbon production by 25 percent, while making it less expensive to restock your climate friendly tipples.
Beeble was born out of a desire to cut waste. It all began when founder Nicola bought her very first bee hive: she nourished the bees, and soon enough she was giving honey to all her friends, and eventually expanded to ten hives in the garden. She quickly noticed, however, that honey stuck to the frames was being wasted – so to combat this, she had the brainwave of soaking the frames in whiskey. The first batch of Beeble Honey Whiskey was made. Since then, Beeble has grown, with 130 hives across Milbury and Marlborough, with bees producing honey for not just whiskey, but vodka and rum too. All honey is ethically and sustainably produced, and the company uses the Idler Beekeeping Technique, which means honey is only taken from the hives a few times a year, when it’s in surplus.
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Female-founded craft rum brand Montanya hails from the Rocky Mountains, but it recently became available in the UK. Its sustainability credentials are impressive: the distillery is wind-powered, the company offsets 110 per cent of its carbon production and uses water from a snowmelt-fed aquifer underneath the distillery. Eco-friendly decisions are made throughout the process – from sourcing sugarcane from a family run co-operative in Louisiana to bottling in Cradle to Cradle certified glass. Montanya’s hero drink is the Valentia variety, a dry, aromatic rum that’s aged at altitude for four years.
Founded during lockdown, rosé brand Folc is the brainchild of Elisha Rai and Tom Cannon. It was born out of a belief that great wine should be inclusive, feature quality ingredients and commit to sustainable practices. Its winemakers are accredited through Wine GB’s sustainability scheme, meaning they are committed to environmental conservation and biodiversity. Folc is already using plant-based corks and recyclable materials across its labelling and packaging – but its long-term ambition is to become a fully carbon-neutral business. Try the 2020 Vintage Rosé, crafted in a collective of family-run vineyards in Kent and East Sussex and offering a crisp taste with hints of English strawberries. One of the tastiest eco-friendly drinks around.
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Not only is this one of the prettiest gin bottles around, it’s also certified net zero and completely plastic-free. Made by the Isle of Wight’s sole distillery, Mermaid Gin is designed to live in harmony with the natural world – just like its namesake. Its bottles are fully recyclable – though part of the reason founders Xavier Baker and Conrad Gauntlett created such a beautiful bottle was to encourage people to repurpose it. The brand also gets involved with a number of environmental projects, including a recent collaboration with The Ocean Foundation, a company working to protect the Jobos Bay Reserve through its SeaGrass Grow project.
One of Scotland’s most northerly distilleries based in the coastal town of Wick, Old Pulteney is influenced by its intrinsic connection to the sea – which it’s dedicated to protecting. The distillery has significantly reduced its carbon footprint by using a sustainable fuel source, using a ‘community heating’ scheme which utilises wood chip to generate steam. And, to tie in with World Oceans Day last year, the brand partnered with kelp restoration non-profit, SeaTrees, making a commitment to plant more than 4,000 mangrove trees globally, and restore 2,665 square-feet of kelp forest.
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A family business based in Lichfield, The Apiarist began with couple Alex and Natalie Conti’s simple interest in the honeybee. This developed into a larger environmental project which includes a bee forest, a pollinator-friendly planting scheme – and, most recently, an eco-friendly alcohol offering. During lockdown, the pair commissioned a local craftsman to extend their home apiary in a bid to encourage more family time outdoors. As a result, they were left with surplus honey – which they decided to use to make their own gin. They partnered with the local Greywood Distillery to create a debut batch, which became popular pretty quickly. Since then they’ve added a rum to the mix, which has been rapid aged to the equivalent of three-year barrel rum and contains aromas of vanilla and almond with hints of lemon.
All rums in Two Drifters Distillery’s five-strong range are produced with a carbon negative footprint. The eco-friendly alcohol brand is spearheaded by husband-and-wife duo Russ and Gemma Wakeham, who set out to create well-rounded rums that limit their impact on the planet – something Russ is an expert in, having spent years studying carbon capture on utilisation techniques. For a bit of extra help, Two Drifters works with Climeworks, a company which captures CO2 from the air, turning it into stone and storing it underground. Alongside this, staff cycle to work, there’s an electric van for deliveries and waste molasses are donated to local farmers. All varieties – which range from pineapple to spiced rum – can be enjoyed neat or as a base for cocktails.
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Husband and wife team Tom and Tina Warner founded their gin distillery in 2012 on Falls Farm, which still operates as a working livestock farm. Championing the farm-to-table method, Warner’s gin is made using water from the farm’s own spring, botanicals from its gardens and fresh honey from its beehives. Waste ingredients such as discarded citrus peel, meanwhile, are rescued and used in recipes. Not only this, but the company has planted over five acres of wildflower meadow in the local area to create conservation areas and habitats for pollinators.
