Now that Spring is in full bloom, it’s time to take advantage of all the fresh cocktail ingredients available to us!

In collaboration with Savvy Housekeeping, may I present a truly refreshing and beautiful Spring cocktail — made with herbs and fruit straight from the bountiful Savvy Housekeeping garden!

We used fresh lemons and lemon verbena along with Tru2 Organic Gin, which I highly recommend for this (and other cocktails for that matter).

Lemon verbena has a flavor that is like a mild mint with a lemony finish, so we thought it would be perfect for muddling and mixing. And we were right.

Lemon Verbena Spring Fling

1/2 cup fresh lemon verbena
1/2 a lemon
2 tbs. simple syrup
2-3 oz. gin (depending on how strong you like it)
club soda

Muddle the lemon verbena, fresh lemon juice and simple syrup at the bottom of a tall glass (collins glass). Then add the gin. Put crushed ice on top (this not only keeps it cold but also stops the leaves from getting in your mouth). Top off with club soda. Garnish with a slice of lemon.

NOTES:

We tried making lemon verbena simple syrup. It tasted like a high-end throat lozenge. Unless you want a Ricola cocktail, I don’t suggest it. Also, we tried it with another high-quality gin and found that it wasn’t as balanced as when made with Tru2 and we had to add some more lemon and simple syrup to balance the juniper flavor of the gin.

Hail the “holy trinity”! Last week I had the pleasure to meet the faces behind Le Tourment Vert (www.letourmentvert.com) and experience their vision of what this wonderful spirit offers after such a long hiatus from our shores. This Absinthe is handcrafted in small batches by Bruno Delannoy of Vinet Ege and combines fourteen herbs to create a truly inspirational blend.

The color of Le Toutment is a mouthwash blue, it is quite shocking. It has a strong anise flavor and may be a tad overly sweet. The aftertaste is all sugar, which makes it good for cocktails.

Moving beyond the ritualistic, yet fun, Classic and Bohemian Method of enjoying Absinthe, Le Tourment Vert mixes with a variety of flavorful cocktails. I particularly enjoyed La Fee Verte, the Green Fairy.

The Green Fairy

Mix in Shaker

2oz. Le Tourment Absinthe
1/2 oz. Lime Juice
1 1/2 oz. Orange Juice,
squeeze of lime

Shake well and pour into martini glass, garnish with lime.

A perfect green drink! I may include it in my rounds this St. Patty’s day.

more St. Patrick’s Day Cocktails
Le Tourment Vert
more absinthe cocktails

Happy Valentine’s Day! We assembled some fun Valentine’s Day links to some of our favorites.

Why? Because we love our readers!

Cheers!

How to Open a Champagne Bottle with a Sword- Drinks After Dark
Green Gifts for Valentine’s Day- Best of the Green Web
Dark Chocolate Raspberry Kisses
Classic Romantic Cocktails - About.com
Chocolate & Whisky - Stotch Chix
Maker’s Mark Bourbon Chocolates

Valentine’s Day Cocktails

Inhabitat has an interesting post about Maker’s Mark.

With all the attention smaller, boutique spirits makers have garnered for “green” offerings,  a nationally distributed “corporate” brand surprises us all by using locally sourced grain and engaging in many other sustainability initiatives.

I was also surprised to learn that the Maker’s Mark Distillery functions on less than 200 of its 620 acres of land. The remaining land is operated as a nature preserve, where Maker’s Mark houses its own Arboretum of Kentucky native species on-site.

But what makes Maker’s Mark truly unique is its energy production facility that recycles the byproducts of the distillation process. Developed by Ecovation, the system takes the grain and water mix that is produced during distillation and recycles or uses it to generate renewable energy.

IS IT GREEN? Maker’s Mark Bourbon Whiskey @ Inhabitat

The Slow Food Nation Conference in San Francisco recently and spirits were nicely represented. The slow food movement is a reaction to fast food that champions sustainable, local ingredients. The showing was a nice change for distilleries, who have not been the most eco-friendly. On hand were several Bay Area producers including Square One Vodka, Anchor, George Spirits, and No 209 Gin.

A nice take away? Even large commercial distilleries are adopting sustainable processes. For example, Maker’s Mark recently started using anaerobic digestion to turn waste into a bio-fuel.

Read more:
Claiming a Seat at the Slow Food Bar - washingtonpost.com
Slow Food - the website

This past Saturday, June 21, the eve of summer solstice, ABSOLUT Vodka and Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino turned off the lights at 9:30pm for 60 seconds during the Outernational Music Festival featuring Gnarls Barkley, Thievery Corporation and special guest Bebel Gilberto. All marquees at Mandalay Bay, including all concert lights, shut down for one minute.

Kicking off a series of “Lights Out” bar promotions across the country, Lights Out Las Vegas was a symbolic gesture to call attention to the vision that “In An ABSOLUT World” – if every consumer committed to turning off their lights, the effects of global warming could be reduced and the planet would literally be a cooler place.
(more…)

We were asked to write a post about sustainable distilling practices for “The Best of the Green Web”, a collection of post about sustainability, climate change and green initiatives.

Contributing to the site are some of the best on the web including Boing Boing, Makezine & Notcot. The site is a treasure trove info, green ideas and over sustainable goodness.

Read my article about sustainable distilling practices on The Best of the Green Web