Bartender on a Mission to Lower Your Cocktail’s Carbon Emission

Hunky Dory is a cocktail bar in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood that sets new standards of sustainability on the NYC food and beverages scene.

The owner, Claire Sprouse is the main driving force behind the earth-friendly theme that is fizzing through the entire establishment.

Apart from avoiding water-intensive ingredients, like almonds, she is looking for new ways to reduce the carbon footprint of every drink and plate — by inventing cocktails that use food waste as ingredients.

According to Treehugger, “The recipes are gathered from Sprouse's colleagues and fellow bartenders around the U.S., and consist of wildly imaginative recipes that can transform an old banana peel into a delicious cinnamon syrup, or teach you how to fat-wash a bourbon with the leftover juice from a roasted chicken dinner. Instead of using onions year-round in a Gibson, she makes the gin-and-dry-vermouth cocktail with pickled rhubarb, cherries, or persimmons, depending on the season.”

When tomatoes are out of season, Sprouse uses a carrot base for her Bloody Marys, adding that there’s hardly anything better than using vegetables when they’re in their prime.

Instead of just riding the wave of green policies, this woman with a vision firmly believes that the food and beverage industry can actually lead the change.