How to "Green" Your Cocktail

Looking for ways to make your home bar better for the planet? Here are 5 tips to make your cocktails more eco-friendly:

#1 Be Choosy with Your Spirits

This goes beyond choosing glass over plastic (although you’ll see below we think that’s important too). The way your rum (or any spirit) is made has a big impact on the planet. For example, rum is made from sugarcane, and not all sugarcane is equal. Some producers use GMO cane, process with heavy amounts of chemicals, and burn the fields just prior to harvest (a practice linked to increased air pollution and known to cause respiratory illness in workers and nearby populations). Poor working conditions, such as lack of shade and hydration, can also be a problem.

Lula Sugar Mill growers farming and with Montanya Founder and Owner Karen Hoskin.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Montanya Distillers partners with a family coop of sugarcane growers who don’t burn the fields at harvest time, minimize pesticide use (because their own houses are right next to the fields) and use the leftover biomass to heat and power the sugar mill. Many of these farmers have worked their land for generations, and we know them personally. Our founder and owner Karen Hoskin visits the mill, and some of them have ties to Crested Butte. All of these factors are an important part of how we manage our environmental footprint.

#2 Remember that the Type of Spirit Matters Too

Knowing the raw ingredients for your favorite spirits allows you to make more mindful choices. For example, our sugarcane comes from Louisiana in a region where not much else grows well. It also grows relatively quickly, making it easy to meet continued demand, and is machine harvested so workers aren’t exposed to elements like extreme heat. We can also meet increases in demand without expanding into fragile ecosystems.

By contrast, some spirits are made with ingredients that take a long time to grow, are found in inherently fragile ecosystems or require intensive production practices that impact people and the environment. This is important to know so you can adjust your consumption to minimize your personal impact.

#3 Forego Plastic Packaging

To put it simple, single use plastic is an epidemic. Pre-pandemic, the equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic was dumped into the ocean every minute. Since then, takeout and the use of plastic gloves has caused plastic waste to sky rocket—and only 8% of it gets recycled. (Want more proof? Check out this post on our Plastic Neutral Certification, or this post about our partner company, Zoetica Life.)

Thankfully, it’s relatively easy to eliminate plastic when it comes to sourcing cocktail ingredients. Start by purchasing your rum, mixers and other ingredients in glass (we use Cradle to Cradle certified glass for our rum) or aluminum. Both materials can be recycled more reliably than plastic. Or make mixers yourself from fresh unpackaged ingredients. We also try to remember the following:

• When purchasing fresh citrus we use our own, reusable produce bags or forgo the bag altogether and wash the citrus at home.

• When purchasing glass bottles or jars, we look for sizes and shapes we can see reusing, either for storing cocktail or garnish ingredients, making our own simple syrups or flavored rums, or for use outside of the home bar (say, for making salad dressing at home).

• It’s okay to forego the latest trend if it comes in a form of packaging that we can’t recycle or reuse (we’ve always believed the best cocktail ingredients, including garnishes, are fresh, whole ingredients anyway).

Stainless steel straws have helped us make more eco-friendly cocktails at Montanya, shown here in the Fiery Passion.

#4 Bid Adieu to the Little Black Straw

We know. Sometimes a straw makes a difference to the enjoyment of a cocktail. But the truth is that many cocktails don’t require them, and plastic straws and even single-use paper straws just aren’t necessary. When we use them, we opt for reusable stainless steel.

#5 Rethink Cocktail Napkins

As common as the little black straw, we think these are an example of an item considered standard fare but not always necessary. In your home bar, it’s easy to forgo using one or consider an alternative: a coaster to keep the glass from leaving rings, reusable cocktail napkins if you just like having them, or paper napkins that are 100% recycled. We are also big fans of these reusable organic cloth napkins from Zoetica.

---

More from the Blog:

4 of the Biggest rum myths

Your Cocktail Shopping list is ready