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Photo by Elizabeth McMullen
Why It's Good:
These organic liquors allow you to party like a rock star—guilt-free (hangovers and mistakes notwithstanding).
Why It's Green:
Organic ingredients cultivated without chemicals, green labeling and packaging, energy-efficient production, and fair-labor practices are involved in the making of these fine-tasting spirits.
Where To Get It:
Click on the above individual spirits to learn more about the product in our database, which contains where-to-buy links.
Cocktails, Anyone?
Green should refer to the quality and kind of your cocktail offerings, not to the color of your face the morning after. To that end, always use fresh ingredients, measure for quality and consistency, and when required, shake for a full ten seconds to ensure a smoother, more balanced drink. In my spirits-consulting travels, I've taste-tested quite a range of eco-friendly liquors, and these—to the palate and pocketbook—are the best of the bar.—Michael Green
Square One Organic Vodka: This kosher and organic vodka, made in small batches from 100% American rye and water from the Snake River watershed in Wyoming, has a crisp, earthy flavor. What's also cool is that the label is made from recycled bamboo and cotton, the unfrosted bottle is not chemically treated, and plant matter left over from production is used as feed on a nearby dairy farm.
Reyka Vodka: From Iceland, this wheat and barley spirit has all that you would expect from Nordic vodka: clean citrus aromatics, with a spicy, mineral finish. Plus the water used to make this liquor is filtered through Icelandic lava fields, and the facilities used to make it are run off of geothermic energy.
Juniper Green Organic Gin: Distilled with juniper, coriander, angelica, and savory, this 100% organic London Dry Gin comes from the Charles Maxwell family, who has been making the good stuff in London since 1700. The organic ingredients sourced from around the world results in a gin lacking in chemicals, but not complexity and flavor.
Papagayo Rum: Distilled in traditional stills, and aged in oak for a rich, full liquor that fills out a mojito or Cuba libre perfectly, this organic rum is made from sugarcane harvested on one of Paraguay's only farming collectives. Over 800 families are paid a living wage, and educated on the benefits of organic farming.
Highland Harvest Organic Scotch Whiskey: With strong but not overpowering vanilla notes from being oak-aged for four years—starting off gentle but finishing spicy—this is a classic sipping Scotch, made the way whiskey was made before the Industrial Revolution. Free of fertilizers, pesticides, and fungicides, this blended Scotch has much lower levels of methanol than other big-production whiskeys. As methanol is a main cause of hangovers, this whiskey might actually leave you feeling as good tomorrow as it will tonight.