Our friends at Kiesling Detroit offer a range of to-go cocktail kits that are a fun way to follow along with the cooking series. Buy one here!

Here’s what they had to say about their operations: 

As a craft cocktail bar during the time of COVID-19, we are learning a whole new type of service through bottled cocktails. We work hard to be a no-to-low-waste bar. Making ingredients in-house allows us to be creative with flavors and systems for sustainability. 

One of our favorite ways to cut back on waste is to use ingredients twice. We can juice peeled citrus, or use leftover peels and wedges to infuse vinegar for natural cleaning products or make our next batch of house-made bitters. At home, this might look like saving pulp from juicing and using it to infuse a spirit, or rescuing fruit on its last leg by cooking it with sugar and water for delicious homemade syrups you can use in just about anything. 

A good example of this is our to-go Double Barrel Daiquiri is made with lime juice and the husks of the juiced citrus are used to make a cordial to get all the flavor possible from lime to drink. In our bottled Old Fashioneds, our house old fashioned bitters are made with leftover orange peels from the bar (and we’re super proud of our bitters here) and our peeled oranges are getting juiced and sold in Mimosa Kits from our sister coffee shop Milwaukee Cafe on Sundays when we are closed. 

We also love having a complex pantry. Spirits, syrups, and bitters can be enriched by infusing spices, teas, and even dried mushrooms or fruits. These shelf-stable dry goods last a long time but ensure there are always flavors available to play with. 

If you find yourself with extra juice or fruit you need to use up, you can make a cocktail out of it by considering what ingredients are available to you will create a balanced drink. Once you have a few classics under your belt to serve as recipe rubrics, you can make tasty drinks from almost anything.  In the Oaxacan Talk, Oaxacan Dance, acid-adjusted aloe gives us a citrus component using a cold-pressed juice and citrus stock without having to order extra produce. You can think of it as making our own sweet and sour notes to bring a cocktail to a balanced place with unconventional ingredients. 

Drinking offers an opportunity for connecting with friends, relaxing, and tasting something delicious, but as we’re all more and more aware, we need to consider how to treat ourselves while also treating our world well. Craft drinks give us an opportunity to slow down and consider how our drinks can be not only enjoyable but also responsible—to our bodies, our communities, and our earth.