Sustainable Cocktail Ideas - Pure Scot
What better way to celebrate Earth Day 2021 than with a delicious AND sustainable cocktail created by drinks legend, Sebastian Hamilton-Mudge. After 2020, many people have perfected their sourdough and banana bread baking skills and this is the perfect recipe to be waste conscious and give leftover bread a new delicious life.
Light Banana Bread Syrup
100g Banana skins (approximately 2 average sized bananas)
20g Soft Brown Sugar (white sugar will do if its all you have)
50g Toasted (stale) bread
500ml Boiling water
Step 1 - Make the Banana Oleo Saccharum - Add sugar and banana peels to a bowl and muddle together well, cover and set aside for a few hours. Where else have you got to be anyway?
Step 2 - When the Oleo is ready, toast stale bread and add it to the bowl to make (start making) the syrup.
Step 3 - Add hot (off the boil) water to the mix and give a little stir. Cover the bowl and leave for a few minutes to allow the bread to soak into the water. Again, no rush.
Step 4 - Pour content out into a bowl through a sieve, pressing the bread firmly to extract all the liquid, but try not to break up the bread.
Step 5 - Wash the sieve, then line it with kitchen towel or use a coffee filter and let the mixture pass into a clean bowl. This will also take a little while, so again, chill out and just check back with the process every so often. If you’re making a larger batch, you may need to change the paper you're using to filter if it gets completely coated.
Once passed, it should have a light, clear, golden colour. Not too dissimilar to the look of a light whisky.
Step 6 - Batch together equal parts of this light banana bread syrup and Pure Scot Signature (1:1 ratio) . Bottle and store in the fridge. A bit of time to rest the ingredients together will only improve the recipe.
By batching up a few serves at a time, the effort you put in at the beginning pays off in the long run. You have a cocktail ready to pour from the bottle whenever the fancy takes you!
When ready to serve the Waste Not, Want Scotch Cocktail
Grab a lowball glass and add a dash or two of Hella Mexican Chocolate Bitters (Ango works well here too...but these spicy chocolate bitters really hit the mark if you can get hold of them!)
Pour in your batched mix then add ice, preferably a large chunk.
The drink itself isn’t a banana fever dream. The flavour is subtle and makes for an incredibly smooth sipping drink that both complements and brings out the flavours of the whisky, whilst adding a creamy body and delightful hint of spice.
Happy Earth Day from Sebastian and the Pure Scot team!
