DrinkTheEarth.com Blog

With organic wines and beers getting much of the eco-friendly headlines these days, we were anxious to see how their counterparts in the spirits world were measuring up.  With that backdrop, as the first Earth Day in DrinkTheEarth.com’s existence rapidly approached, we could think of no better way to celebrate our appreciation for the planet than to sample a few of the best organic vodkas on the market.

We could have gone in numerous directions, as organic vodka is one of the few spirits that can be easily sourced in the U.S.  Not surprisingly, it is also the category that has garnered the most recent media attention.  After much contemplation, we settled on three; TRU, Crop Harvest Earth, and Rain Organics.  To eliminate any bias, we conducted the test as a blind, side-by-side tasting, and even included a sampling of a traditional vodka, Absolut, in the process.

Our first selection, which we later learned to be Crop Harvest Earth, carried a strong smell of alcohol on the nose.  Made from certified organic grain and bottled in Minnesota, each batch of Crop is distilled only as many times as required to remove any impurities.  Billing itself as the ‘cleanest’ vodka, Crop is distilled so efficiently that no carbon treatment or charcoal filtering is necessary.  With a silky feel in the mouth, we found it to be crisp, and smoother than we had expected. 

Moving on, our second taste was that of TRU Organic Vodka, made in Los Angeles, California.  TRU’s motto is “Drink It. Plant It.”  Not just a slogan, the company actually plants a tree for every bottle sold (over 50,000 planted as of March, 2009).  In addition to sourcing American organic wheat, the company emphasizes a carbon-negative existence, including the use of lightweight bottles, and shipping boxes that double as shelf displays.  During our tasting, we found a very well-rounded vodka.  Our ultimate consensus was this might have been the most versatile of the three organic options.

Last but not least, Rain Organics was probably the most unique of the three vodkas we tasted.  With a slight sweetness in the nose, the flavor included hints of butterscotch and caramel.  Rain is made from white organic corn sourced from a single farm in Yale, Illinois.  With seven layers of distillation, this vodka follows a rigorous process through production, and is made in the famed Buffalo Trace Distillery of Frankfort, Kentucky, the oldest distillery site in the U.S.  With the slight sweetness in the taste, we thought Rain would make a devastating dessert martini, but could also easily be had straight.

So which was our favorite?  That would be like asking Mother Earth to choose her favorite child.  In the end, we struggled to select a winner, but felt a little more educated for the next time we open up the bar for a vodka cocktail.  Regardless, not a bad way to wind down DTE’s first Earth Day.

For those of you who didn’t catch up to our Twitter posts, below are the six organic beverage facts we sent out earlier in celebration of Earth Day.  We hope you took a chance to reflect on our planet’s future on this important day of awareness and appreciation.

Earth Day Fact #1: Milwaukee’s Lakefront Brewery lays claim to the first U.S. certified organic beer, an E.S.B. made in 1996.

Earth Day Fact #2: Nearly all wines contain some sulfites naturally, including those made following organic or biodynamic practices.

Earth Day Fact #3: The USDA National Organic Program was implemented in ‘02, although other certifications have been around much longer.

Earth Day Fact #4: Approx. 70% of all Demeter-USA certified biodynamic wineries are in CA. Nearly 20% are in Ore., with the rest elsewhere.

Earth Day Fact #5: N. Dakota has been called the ‘Napa Valley of Rye’, and is where several organic distillers source rye for their vodkas.

Earth Day Fact #6 (and last): NYC’s GustOrganics is the only organic bar certified by the USDA.

Next up:  Look for a write-up from our Earth Day Organic Vodka tasting coming soon.  We tasted three organic selections, Crop, TRU, and Rain, against a well-known  non-organic offering.  How did the ‘green’ options fare?  Find out shortly.

New editorial features!

Need a fresh suggestion for an organic wine to pair with your next dinner?  Want to impress your friends with knowledge of the latest eco-friendly cocktail on the market?  We’ve recently added some new editorial features to DrinkTheEarth.com, including a weekly organic/biodynamic wine selection of the week, as well as organic beers & spirits of the week.  Wine selections will be updated every Monday on a weekly basis, while we will be featuring new beers and spirits each month.  These will include new-to-market beverages, as well as those that might not be easy to find at your local corner wine and beverage provider.  Oh, and we’re also open to recommendations.  As much as we’d like to, we can’t possibly spend all of our time searching the web for the latest in organic drinks.

Still confused about what makes a beverage organic, or what those certifications really mean?  We’ve also made enhancements to our online Resources, including several new organic beverage FAQ’s.  There’s a lot of confusion still out there, so we’ll be adding to our list of questions in the coming weeks or months.  Have a suggestion for what else we should include?  Feel free to let us know.

Perhaps the least discussed segment of the organic beverage industry is organic liquors.  While there are a growing number of organic wineries and micro-breweries, few certified organic distilleries are in existence.  We recently had a chance to chat with the Founders of ORGANIC NATION & Pacific Botanicals, who have developed a unique partnership whereby the latter produces organic rye for the former’s organic vodkas.  The interview appears here as part of our Eco-Chats series.  This partnership allows O-N to source rye from scarcely more than an hour away, as opposed to importing from a much further distance, saving on distribution costs and the environment at the same time.

Both Diane Paulson and Mark Wheeler take their impact on the environment seriously, as these long-time Oregon residents believe in building a business around the principles of sustainability.  We enjoyed hearing the story of their ongoing partnership, and hope you do, too.

The city that never sleeps now has an organic watering hole to contribute to its ongoing insomnia.  Last month, Manhattan’s GustOrganics opened a bar inside of its Greenwich Village restaurant, featuring a menu entirely comprised of organic beers, cocktails, wines, and liquors, as well as fresh organic fruit.  Impressively, the bar makes the claim as the first to be certified organic by the USDA.

Taking its commitment a step further, GustOrganics also features a wind turbine on the roof (must be an interesting sight in NYC), and menus made from 100% recycled paper and soy ink.  For those not able to live in the big city, we hope this is a sign of a new nightlife eco-trend to come.

Lisa Averbuch of organic spirits maker LOFT Liqueurs was recently featured on CNBC’s The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch.  The founder of the Emeryville, California company was part of a segment entitled ‘Million Dollar Ideas’, in which three entrepreneurs had thirty seconds to pitch their idea to a panel of experts on Deutsch’s show.

Competing against the inventor of something called the Rah Bra, and a children’s furniture company, Cartoon Furniture, Lisa made her case for why America is ready to seek out eco-elixirs.  Reaction to her pitch was mixed, with two of the three panelists dismissing the value of organics to the average bar patron.  However, a third panelist did reference the successes that biodynamic and organic wines have had, and suggested that it was time for organic liqueurs to have their day as well.

Definitely worth a watch (note: LOFT’s pitch starts at about the 3:00 mark), although in the end, the panelists chose whimsical children’s furniture over organic liqueurs as a better financial bet.  That’s OK, Lisa.  Even if part of Madison Avenue isn’t quite ready for organic liqueurs, we’re still with you.

I’m trying to squeeze a visit or two to a couple of organic spirits makers during my trip to California wine country this month.  Very few seem to be open to the public, which is a shame.  When I have visited organic wineries in the past they have used the on-site experience to really educate consumers on what organic wine is, the certifications involved, and what separates the wines from their non-organic brethren.  I think organic spirits have an even more difficult time with education and awareness because most people understand even less about the distillery process than they do about how wine is made, which probably has at least something to do with the fact growing grapes is considered far sexier than growing rye.

Of course, than dangers (and liability) of consumers taste-testing hard alcohol before getting back on the road is what makes it not an equal experience to tasting wine, but that hasn’t stopped the big distillers (like Maker’s Mark in Loretto, KY) from offering tours and some kind of on-site experience.  Follow their lead, makers of organic libations!