Sustainable Vodkas (better brands to choose)

Vodka is a high-percentage spirit alcoholic drink that is usually made with wheat or potatoes. It’s name means ‘water’ but it’s not!

Yet despite obviously not being safe near animals, in veterinary medicine, one of its components is used to treat anti-freeze poisoning in pets.

Rather than buy multi-national big brands, why not try some homegrown artisan brands? For a bloody Mary, pour over ice, add lemon, a pinch of salt, tomato juice and garnish with a celery stick (use vegan Worcestershire sauce, for a spicy version).

Most artisan spirits are mixed with tonic water, and quinine should be avoided for some medical conditions (and pregnancy/nursing, but then hopefully you’re not drinking vodka anyway). Also check medication before consuming grapefruit or rhubarb tonic waters.

For glass bottles, cork is too dense to compost, so recycle at off licenses or send off in bulk to Recorked (don’t leave them lying around, they are choking hazards).

For cans of tonic water (or vodka sodas), pop ring-pulls back over holes (and pinch tops shut) before recycling, to avoid wildlife getting trapped. 

Sapling Spirits (world’s first climate-positive vodka)

Sapling Spirits is made with British wheat and plants a tree for each bottle sold. You’ll find a unique code on each bottle tells you what tree was planted (and where). Try it in this apple and ginger spritz.

A recent study found that the average bottle of vodka uses 2.8kg of carbon before it reaches the customer. Made in London, this uses charcoal filtered water, to leave a hint of natural sweetness.

So far, the company has planted over 300,000 trees (both in the UK and abroad), and saved over 300,000 bottles from landfill.

The range includes standard vodka, plus a raspberry hibiscus pink vodka, which makes use of wonky raspberries, that would otherwise have gone to landfill. Hibiscus should be avoided for pregnancy, but then hopefully are not drinking vodka anyway?

There’s also a regenerative vodka, made with eco-farmed wheat that is a tasty mix of toffee, cereal, earth and chocolate orange!

Bars and restaurant buying wholesale use refillable 5 litre eco boxes, which saves 7 bottles from ever being created. The bottles are also made from 40% recycled glass, and use natural corks.

Pure Organic Vodka (from an eco Essex boy!)

Pure Organic Vodka was founded by an Essex boy, and includes a low-calorie version, and flavoured vodkas (caramel and peach/grapefruit.

Respirited (from surplus grain and green energy)

Respirited is made with surplus grain and green energy, sold in recycled bottles with compostable closures and biodegradable recycled labels. Serve over ice with squeezed fresh lime and soda water.

Tipsy Wight (with foraged fruits on Isle of Wight)

Tipsy Wight makes hedgerow vodkas, from ingredients foraged on the Isle of Wight. Locals pick ingredients like sloe, wild cherry, plum, and crab apple each season. The range (most vegan) includes:

• Cherry
• Damson
• Elderflower
• Medlar
• Quince
• Wild Plum
• Wild Garlic

Arrowtown Vodka Sodas (to help the oceans)

Arrowtown Drinks make vodka sodas in easy-to-recycle cans, like ‘hard seltzers’, so less alcohol than vodka (around 5%, the same as beer but lower in calories).

Healthier than a gin and tonic, but less puritanical than drinking a glass of water! For every can sold, the company remove 2 plastic bottles from the oceans, in partnership with an organisation abroad.

They employ people in developing countries to remove ocean plastic from the ocean, which is then sold for recycling.

This brand was inspired by two young brothers, who with the wisdom of a couple of university students (not much!), decided it would be fun to take on the world’s biggest brands of sugary seltzer drinks, by offering something better, and which helped wildlife too.

Choose from four flavours:

• Black Cherry & Apple
• Peach & Raspberry
• Lime & Elderflower
• Mango & Pineapple