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If, like us, you've been getting friendly with your home bar during quarantine, you've probably mastered the classics and are ready to take things up a notch. Enter Kelsey Ramage, Toronto's premier antiwaste bartender behind environmentally-friendly cocktail pop-up Trash-Tiki and Supernova Ballroom, the city's destination for seasonal and sustainable sippers.
Back in May, we partnered with the eco-friendly cocktail slinger and Vodkow – a sustainable, carbon-neutral vodka made from unused milk sugars in Almonte, Ontario – for a sustainable pantry cocktail contest unlike any other. We asked the pro and aspiring bartenders of Toronto to create a #WasteNotWant Vodkow cocktail, which Kelsey Ramage and Foodism's Associate Editor Katie Bridges shook up live on Instagram, before crowning a winner.
The competition was fierce, but Tabytha Towe's 'Tweedle Tea' cocktail reigned supreme and will now be available for purchase at Dolly Trolley Drinks (with $20 from each set going directly to our winner). The online cocktail shop – which delivers high-quality, handmade cocktail mixers from Supernova Ballroom to your door – will be selling everything you need to make the #WasteNotWant winner's Vodkow cocktail alongside their roster of sustainable cocktail kits. Select your cocktail, add your booze of choice (or go non-alcoholic) and Dolly Trolley Drinks will provide contactless delivery on Monday, Thursday or Saturday – it sure beats lining up at the LCBO.
Below, we share the winning drink and the talented creations of our runners-up so you can keep mixing things up during lockdown.
To find out more about Vodkow and where to buy a bottle, click here.
The runners-up
Perk Me Up
by Japhet Bower
Ingredients
60 ml Vodkow
15 ml spent coffee sherry vinegar
15 ml maple syrup
60 ml low sugar tonic water e.g. Fever-Tree.
Method
Pour all ingredients except the tonic water into a mixing glass and stir for 30 seconds. Strain into a glass half-rimmed with the sugared coffee grounds and top up with tonic water.
Additional prep:
To make spent coffee sherry vinegar, take 24 g of spent coffee grounds and add 68 ml of sherry vinegar. Let it sit overnight and strain with a cheesecloth. Set aside the grounds.
To make the sugared coffee rim, take the grounds you set aside and dry them at 175 F. Blend them with 24 g of white sugar. Add 4 g of salt.
Unicorn Milk Punch
by Tess Sawyer
Ingredients
45 ml Vodkow
90 ml Unicorn Milk Punch*
20 ml Sunshine Syrup
50 ml Sunshine Juice Blend
20 ml Mint 'Tea' (mint leaves and water)
30 ml coconut milk
For Unicorn Milk Punch*
50 ml Sunshine Juice blend
20 ml Sunshine Syrup
For Sunshine Juice Blend*
2 parts lemon juice
2 parts cantaloupe juice
1 part carrot juice
For Sunshine Syrup:
Lemon zest
Carrot and cantaloupe scraps
Method
Into a large vessel pour cold coconut milk. In a separate vessel combine the Sunshine Juice Blend, Sunshine Syrup, and Mint 'Tea'. Slowly pour the mixture into the cold coconut milk. Let sit for at least an hour hour and up to 24 hours refrigerated depending on the size of the batch. Using a coffee filter strain the milk punch into a new vessel. If the first pour is not completely clear, pour that back over the same coffee filter so it can catch the solids. You should be left with a velvety clear liquid.
For the Sunshine Syrup:
Zest your lemons before juicing and save for this syrup. You will use those lemon zests and your off-cuts from the carrots and cantaloupe as well as the 'guts'.
In a pot add your fruit and veggie scraps with enough water to cover them. Bring the water to a boil. Then add 1.25 times as much sugar as you did water. Turn the stove down to simmer and stir until the sugar dissolves. Let cool.
For the Mint 'Tea':
When I buy mint, I put it in a container with water in my fridge to keep it fresh for days. You can use actual mint tea, but as a means to repurpose ingredients, I used the water the mint had been sitting in which is essentially a cold-brewed mint tea.
Blueberry Fields Forever
by Isaac Haslam
Ingredients
45 ml Vodkow
90 ml Blueberry Shrub
Soda
Sarjesa Earl Grey Tea
For Blueberry Shrub:
1 cup sugar
1.5 cup blueberries
1 cup apple cider vinegar
Method
For Blueberry Shrub:
Pour blueberries and sugar into a mason jar. Muddle until a chunky slurry is produced. Cover with cheesecloth or loose-fitting lid. Set out on the counter for 3 days.
Uncover mixture which now should be completely syrupy. Add apple cider vinegar and blend until the mixture is juiced.
Strain mixture and let sit inside the fridge for a few hours before use.
For tea:
Steep 2 bags of Sarjesa Earl Grey Tea in 7 oz water
Let sit in the fridge for 8 hours – disturbing it if possible every 2 hours.
Remove tea bags and store in the fridge until making the cocktail.
Combine 4 oz of Blueberry Shrub mixture with 3 oz of Sarjesa Earl Grey Concentrate
Fill a Collins glass with ice and pour in Vodkow and Blueberry Shrub mixture. Top with Soda.
Garnish with small lavender sprig
The winner
Tweedle Tea
by Tabytha Towe
Ingredients
45 ml Vodkow
90 ml Strawberry Tea mixture
For Strawberry Tea:
4 Celestial Chamomile and Lavender teabags
2 Tbsps coconut sugar
2 cups frozen strawberries
3 Tbsp coconut flakes
Method
In a pot bring 2 cups of water to boil with 4 Chamomile and Lavender tea bags.
Add frozen strawberries, coconut sugar, and dehydrated coconut flakes.
Turn to simmer, stir, then turn off. Let sit and cool 15 minutes.
Double strain the liquid into a jug with a lid and remove the coconut flakes, strawberries and tea bags. Add 4 cups of filtered water. Shake and put in the fridge. The coconut flakes may leave a powdery residue so strain more if desired.
Serve in a teacup or old fashioned glass, fill with ice. Add Vodkow and top with Strawberry Tea mixture. Garnish with a lavender sprig for a beautiful aroma or sprinkle coconut flakes on top.
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