celebrate earth hour this saturday 8pm sharp
tomorrow, sat. march 29th at 8pm, the very first EARTH HOUR will take place. all lights will be off for a solid hour no matter location, occupation, situation, ect. easy if you’re home watching a flick, but not so easy if you’re running a restaurant! some innovative peeps from the land down under thought up a good earthy tipple:
“Add A splash or two of vodka, spiced rum, prickly pear pulp, honey, one or two other ingredients and the finishing touch — a passionfruit shell soaked in alcohol and set alight. And you have it: THE EARTH HOUR COCKTAIL”
When bartenders Stuart Moss and David Cockayne, from St Kilda’s Mink bar, set about creating a drink to celebrate the global call for action on climate change they had some clear objectives.
The ingredients must be organic and symbolic of the seven continents. And because electric blenders will be switched off during the hour, it had to be muddled.
But the real challenge was that the cocktail should cast light on patrons sipping in the dark.
They investigated chemicals to make the drink glow in the dark — but that would be against the “organic objective” — and even considered mini solar panels dunked in the cocktail.
“We thought maybe tiny bulbs we could sit in the sun for the day to charge and then drop them into the drink,” Mr Moss says. “But it wasn’t feasible; it was too expensive ($40 a pop).”
After 15 hours of trial and error, it was an empty passionfruit shell soaked in rum and set alight that did the trick. The garnish can be set aside, shining bright for up to 10 minutes.
“I’m not going to change the world, but it’s raising awareness,” Mr Moss says. “If we can get people who are drinking at Mink … asking why are we drinking this, it’s a conversation point and they will start talking about it.”
Mink is one of more than 70 restaurants and bars around Melbourne, and some in regional Victoria, that have signed up to Earth Hour. Many are using candlelight for the hour or designing special menus using local ingredients to minimise “food miles”…
continue reading on THE AGE
