Cocktails with Camper: Earth Day Eco-Drinks

When you plan your annual Earth Day cocktail party this April 22 (everyone has one, don't they?) choose green drinks to keep with the theme.

Drinking ecologically should be as easy as swapping out the nonorganic cocktail ingredients with organic ones -- but in reality, there aren't that many organic types of liquor on the market with which to mix.

If you can't find these products in your local store, choose locally made liquor, wine and beer brands instead. They have to travel a shorter distance from the source to your mouth.

Organic produce is easier to source than organic booze (and filler juices usually make up the majority of your drink), so go for fresh-squeezed organic orange, lime, lemon and other fruit rather than bottled mixers.

Getting certified as an organic liquor is never easy task, but for tequila, it's even harder, because the growth time of the agave plant used as its raw ingredient takes anywhere from six to 12 years (compared with one year for most grains used in other spirits).

4 Copas, one of only a few organic tequilas on the market, uses organic ingredients and processes. The manufacturers also recycle waste materials into organic fertilizer, and they're beginning to capture methane gas released in their compost process to power the facility.

Organic margarita:

• 2 oz. 4 Copas Blanco Tequila
• 1.5 oz. organic lime juice
• 1 oz. 4 Copas organic agave nectar
• Splash of club soda

Shake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Strain into double old-fashioned glass filled with new ice, and garnish with a lime slice. If you can't find the 4 Copas brand agave nectar, seek out another organic brand, but you'll probably want to dilute it 50-50 with water.

One of my favorite eco-drink accessories isn't organic liquor or recycled cocktail glassware, but the Soda Club soda maker. With it, you can make soda water at home, or add their flavorings (now without high-fructose corn syrup) to make tonic water, cola, ginger ale and other soft drinks to use as mixers.

With this little machine you can stop buying canned or bottled soda products in disposable containers, saving transportation fuel costs and carbon emissions, packaging materials, and your hard-earned cash.

The Farmer's Market Spritz is my default drink after produce shopping, and it's so easy you don't need a recipe. Take whatever fresh fruits you have around the house. I've used oranges, limes, lemons, grapefruits, plums, apricots, nectarines and others, and juice them or muddle them into the bottom of a tall glass. Then add an ounce or two (or none, if you want to go nonalcoholic) of organic vodka; top with soda water. Fresh, easy and eco-licious!

Vodka, unlike most kinds of spirits, has several organic versions on the market. Organic Tru Vodka launched in 2008 (try the lemon flavor). Rain Vodka, made with organic ingredients, has been around for several years. Crop Vodka is new to the market in plain, cucumber, and tomato flavors. Also releasing a cucumber-flavored vodka in late April is Square One Organic Vodka, a brand made from organic rye. While the cucumber won't be out in time for Earth Day, the plain vodka has been on the market for more than a year, and it's really good stuff.

Square One Vodka founder Allison Evanow sent me this new recipe she whipped up at home recently, inspired by tangerines and mandarin oranges that are still in season. Now that's fresh!

The lawn party:

• 1.5 oz. Square One Organic Vodka
• 1/4 oz. Maker's Mark bourbon
• 1/4 oz. Aperol
• 2 oz. organic fresh squeezed tangerine or mandarin juice
• Touch of organic agave nectar if needed

Put all ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice and shake like mad! Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Written and originally posted by Camper English

Photos: Getty Images, Square One, Soda Club and 4 Copas

Camper English is a cocktails and spirits writer and the publisher of Alcademics.com