SEVENTEEN bars and restaurants from around Edinburgh have joined forces for a new campaign to raise awareness of climate change.
Toast to Gaia will see venues across the Scottish capital offering customers cocktails created using sustainable ingredients. The self-guided ‘trail’, which kicks off on Saturday 19th March, has been created by Edinburgh Science Festival, an annual event which hosts a variety of science-themed events in Edinburgh. This year’s festival, taking place between 9th and 24th April, includes the Climate Cocktails event on 15th April, which will explore ways bartenders can create more environmentally-friendly drinks. Hosted by whisky writer Becky Paskin, it will include input from mixologist and bar owner Iain McPherson and Miran Chauhan, head bartender at Johnnie Walker Princes Street.
Bars participating in Toast to Gaia include The Voodoo Rooms, Last Word Saloon, Panda & Sons and Uno Mas.
Jon Hughes, group operations manager at Bramble, the Last Word Saloon and the Lucky Liquor Co. said: “The climate emergency we’re living through affects all parts of our lives which of course extends to what we do in our leisure time. The cocktail trail is a great opportunity for us in hospitality to look at the way we’re doing things, and to see if we can make drinks in ways that aren’t harmful to the world. We wanted to see if we could make use of some things that we usually might consider waste and so the key ingredient in our serve is a cordial made from beer that is usually discarded when we clean our draught beer lines, and from leftover citrus husks that we’ve already used for juicing and zests.
“We’re also super excited to see that organisations like the Edinburgh Science Festival are keen to work with bars and restaurants in the city after what has been a difficult time for our trade, and we can’t wait to show everyone what we’ve come up with.”
