4: Environment

Sustain ability

Ten years ago no one gave a 4X if you were sipping your Piña Colada through a plastic straw much less if you drank your water from a single-use plastic bottle. We came, we consumed, we threw away. And you weren’t judged for being wasteful for doing so because the majority of us didn’t know any better. But we do now and boy, have we gone big on making up for it

Bars, brands, consumers, everyone has been doing their bit to address the effects of the damage we’re inflicting on the planet, some consciously, others because the tools have been put in place for them to do so. Our sustainability issue (winter 2017) was one of our most popular in our decade of publishing and the one we learned the most from compiling. In it, we spoke to innovators like Claire Sprouse from Tin Roof Drink Community and Kelsey Ramage and Iain Griffiths from Trash Tiki about their missions to create greener drinking revolutions. We also looked at sustainable practices in the workplace and checked in with Dré Masso to find out how setting up a bar in Bali has made him more sustainably aware. Four years on and we caught up with Matt Whiley, one of the many influential bar operators around the world who has been on the journey from the early stages. He first became aware of the importance of using locally grown, nurtured and foraged ingredients when he consulted on the drinks list for Simon Rogan’s restaurant Fera at Claridge’s, then embraced the philosophy in a major way when he opened his own bar, Scout in 2017. His latest venture, Re (as in re-use, re-cycle, re-imagined) takes sustainability to the next level. On a serious mission to be the world’s first permanent, zero-waste bar, it’s a benchmark for where the future of drinks is heading. Here Matt tells us about his sustainability journey, from its start in London to his present and future in Sydney, Australia.

I don’t think anyone cared too much about sustainability 10 years ago. The most we did as bar owners was recycle cardboard and even then, it was secured with plastic tape. We’d leave it out on the street, together with our black bin liners filled with rubbish, and it would get taken away. If you did more than that, it didn’t matter as the waste companies would just lob it all together anyway.

Ryan Chetiyawardana definitely opened up the sustainability conversation in the drinks world. What he did with his no citrus, no ice, no shakers mantra at White Lyan really opened our eyes to how we made drinks and how we viewed perishables.

Chefs were ahead of us, particularly at places like St. John in London. They had been using up every part of the animal in their nose-to-tail dining concept from the opening in 1994. But on the flip side, some chefs could be incredibly wasteful, focusing on finding the best part of an animal or vegetable then discarding the rest.

My sustainability journey started with the Pig’s Blood Bloody Marythat we made at our Talented Mr Fox pop-up in 2013. The tomato juice kept going off. But because of that, it was changing, fermenting. We thought it was quite good so we started experimenting with fermenting fruit and vegetables that would have otherwise been thrown in the bin and we continued doing that at our next venture, Peg + Patriot.

Scout was born out of: what would happen if suddenly we weren’t allowed to fly things in from around the world? What happens if we can only eat and drink what’s available in the UK? When we opened in London in 2017 we had a drink on the menu using sea buckthorn. It came from northern Scotland and used to take so long to reach us that I started asking why. When we plotted it out on the map, we worked out that Scotland is farther away than France. So we narrowed down where we got our produce from and in the latter years, our forager would get 85% of our produce in Greater London.

I came to Sydney nearly three years ago to do a Scout pop-up. It was so much easier than doing things in London. It’s rare to see fruit and vegetables wrapped in plastic in Sydney, whereas London supermarkets are still selling pre-cut produce, flown in from Asia or South America, packaged in plastic and not tasting of very much.

Re is the next iteration of Scout. It’s still about living off the land and using seasonal produce, but we take the produce the local market deems as surplus and find ways to use it in our drinks.

Photograph: Keila Urzaiz de Calignon

“I don’t think anyone cared too much about sustainability 10 years ago. The most we did as bar owners was recycle cardboard and even then, it was secured with plastic tape”

Sustainability: Issue 22 Winter 2017

As well as the drinks, we look at every part of the bar. This includes building materials, glassware, light fittings and ingredients. We’ve got lighting made from mycelium (fungus filament) and sawdust, banquette seating created from Piñatex – a faux leather-like material made from waste pineapple leaf fibre – and the woodwork at the front uses Ecoply from sustainable pine grown in Australia and New Zealand. Even the poster on the wall is drawn with charcoal from bush fires. We also have ceramics from clay dropped on the floor, recycled glassware, even the rubber upstairs is made from recycled car tyres. We’ve really thought about what we’re doing here.

The thing that fascinates me most is the fact that we haven’t even touched the surface. Every day we go to work we learn, document and improve to get better at what we’re doing. Yes, we’re here to make money but we’re also here to research and gather information so we can be an open source – if people like what we do, they can get in touch with us to find out more.

We’re looking at this from an insular perspective, looking for ways we can improve. Four weeks after opening we had thrown quite a bit in the bin. So the next day we implemented a notebook system next to each of the paper, glass, multi-purpose and compost recycling bins, and we have to record what goes in, what it weighs, what we’ve learned from putting it in the bin and how we can use it in the future. We’ll be working more closely with other industries to utilise waste and create circular economies. We’re using chardonnay leaves from a winery, pandan pulp, mint pulp and strawberry tops from other businesses, plus excess cocoa from an ice-cream shop, coffee chaff and cascara from a coffee shop, then we’ll subsidise those things with the food waste from the market.

Our next big initiative is Never Wasted. We’ve asked 10 bars in the CBD [Central Business District] area of Sydney to have a workshop with me and my team at Re to talk with no judgment about what they put in their bins. Over a four-week period we’ll be asking each bar to donate a waste item to another bar and that bar has to feature it on their drinks menu. After four weeks the idea is that everyone will have reduced their waste by 80%. This could be big for what we do in the industry. We want those 10 bars to become 20 bars, then 100. Eventually we want it to be on the World Class Global competition programme, so everyone who competes in the competition takes that to their city.

Find out more at wearere.co.au

“Over a four-week period we’ll be asking each bar to donate a waste item to another bar and that bar has to feature it on their drinks menu”

What’s in a name?

An iconic 1970s pop song, a belief that spirits categories aren’t actually helpful, and a bourbon made in Texas blended with a fruity chilli grown in Germany’s Black Forest. Welcome to the world of Horse with No Name

Horse. With. No. Name. Really? What else would you call a new kind of spirit? And a spirit, moreover, that deliberately chooses not to be categorised in any traditional or formal way. “One plus one equals two, but to make one and one add up to three you need a little something others don’t have – something that defines uniqueness and the constant pursuit of it, something that doesn’t fit in any sort of category.” It’s this idea that’s key to the philosophy of Alexander Stein, the creator of Horse with No Name. And he’s a man who certainly has a very distinctive view on spirits, particularly when it comes to categorising them. Or rather, why it shouldn’t come to categories at all. “To me distillation goes hand in hand with chasing aromas and rendering them in liquid form – although alcohol is merely the medium, not the actual goal of the process. In contrast to the culinary world, spirits are generally divided into different categories rather than sensory components and the possibilities associated with them. It’s a form of conditioning that prevents variety and innovation. Why do distillates and spirits have to fit into a particular category? What’s wrong with forging down other paths, combining technologies and traditions, and contemplating the world of aromas from another perspective?” But if it’s not a traditional category of spirit, what actually is Horse with No Name? “The Horses Spirit Company was founded in 2020 with the aim to blend the centuriesold distilling expertise of the Black Forest into the traditional production of American whiskey, thereby capturing the best of both worlds on a new quest into the spirit realm.” To put it another way, we should be focusing not on what it is but rather how it’s created. “We are distillers to the core, but by no means whiskey experts. In keeping with the idea that a cobbler should always stick to his last, we decided to partner up with the award-winning craft whiskey distillery, Firestone & Robertson in Texas.”

So, they created a great bourbon for you – what next? “To spice up the bourbon, we created a habanero distillate in the Black Forest using artisanal methods of flavour extraction. The habanero is a spicy and fruity variety of chilli pepper. In order to capture its exotic essence they are thoroughly milled and macerated in molasses-based neutral alcohol, carefully distilled, diluted with natural spring water, then left to mellow in earthenware tanks.”

But habanero chilies, they’re supposed to be super-hot, right? “No, more fruity than spicy. The heat caused by the capsaicin (the spicy substance in peppers) is kept out of the distillate, meaning you get the full habanero flavour experience but without the heat.” You’ve got your bourbon and a deliciously fruity habanero chilli pepper distillate, now what? “We simply infuse our bourbon with the habanero spirit. And bottle it.”

It’s clearly a premium spirit – how would you describe the finished product? “It combines the best of both worlds: the fragrant oak aroma and richness of an aged bourbon with its floral accompaniments of vanilla and coconut, and a hint of the elegant, fruity sweetness of habanero – but without the heat. And a smooth, long-lasting finish.”

Finally, we all know ’A Horse with No Name’, it’s a 1970s classic, but how did it end up on the label? “How would you call a habanero-infused bourbon? Damn right, a Horse with No Name!” We see.

“To spice up the bourbon, we created a habanero distillate in the Black Forest using artisanal methods of flavour extraction”

Mint Julep

Ingredients 40ml Horse with No Name

20ml soda water

10ml peach brandy

1 tsp cane sugar 4 mint leaves

Mint sprig, to garnish

Method Tear the mint leaves into small pieces, then add to a lowball glass with the soda water, peach brandy and sugar. Mix together and fill with crushed ice. Pour in the Horse with No Name, stir briskly and garnish with the mint sprig.

horsewithnoname.com @horsewithnoname

Please enjoy Horse with No Name responsibly