MNN - Mother Nature Network

Organic beers and wine aren’t your only option for greening your drink choices at your holiday party. There are many organic holiday spirits you can offer your guests, too. Green holiday spirits – sounds a bit corny, doesn’t it? Let’s face it. It’s green booze. Vodka, gin, tequila – whatever your pleasure, there’s a good chance there’s a greener option.

VeeV Açai Liqueur ($35; veevlife.com for stores) is a spirit created from the antioxidant-rich açai berry; for every bottle sold, the company donates $1 to rainforest preservation groups. 

First we drank it straight. It definitely tasted alcoholic going down with slight burn, but then it had a nice fruity aftertaste. 4 of the 5 of us tasting thought it was pleasant and were willing to keep on experimenting.

 

Next, we mixed it with a little club soda and a squeeze of lime. Not too exciting. Kind of bland. Perhaps we put in a little too much club soda. I was sent some recipes for Veev, but we decided to try our own concoction.

 

At the beginning of summer, I had frozen some cut up strawberries in sugar that were the last of the local picking. We defrosted them and made a frozen drink. In a four cup blender, we filled the blender with ice. Then we poured Veev up to the two cup line, mixed together the strawberries and a little fruit punch Juice Juice and poured that in the blender to the top. We (and when I say we, I mean my friend Mike who was the master mind of this drink) also squeezed a little fresh lime juice in. Blended it all together and it was good. Mike felt the need to add a little more Veev, but I thought the proportions were fine.

 

If you are looking to green your alcoholic beverage intake, then I suggest you give VeeV a try and experiment with your own ingredients or use one of the recipes found on the website.

If you’re hosting a holiday party this season, it may be fun to throw VeeV into your mix of options. Something new and hip. Your guests may not notice that the vodka or gin you are serving is organic (that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t serve it), but they will probably notice this simply because it’s something new. It could open up a conversation about greener, better beverage options that are becoming increasingly available.