20 Finalists of Novo Fogo Cachaça Bar Strength Challenge

Novo Fogo invited eco-conscious bartenders to enter an original cocktail recipe centering around the theme of sustainable drinking using its thoughtfully produced Bar Strength Organic Silver Cachaça.  

 

Out of hundreds of entries these TWENTLY (20) sustainable and eco-friendly Novo Fogo Bar Strength Cachaça cocktails stood out to the judges. *Winning cocktails will be announced FIVE (5) per week in no order, for a total of TWENTY (20) winning cocktails.

 

Thank you to all the bartenders who participated. Stay tuned for the announcement of the Final 10 Bartenders chosen to compete for the Grand Prize trip to Brazil coming in August, 22.

 

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Libélula Rosa: My Pink Dragonfly

Created by Maxwell Berlin

Phoenix, AZ

maxology.berlin@gmail.com

Bees and Ants and Dragonflies, Oh My! The Brazilian Rainforests are home to an estimated 2.5 million species of insects and more butterfly species than any other place in the world, yet this habitat is under threat from deforestation. The root of the food chain, pollinators, and bedrock of the ecosystem, bugs are the beginning to life in the jungle. As Novo Fogo challenges us bartenders to create environmentally friendly cocktails, my Libélula Rosa or Pink Dragonfly takes inspiration from the myriad of brightly colored, exotic, insects that make their only home in the Brazilian Rainforests. Just as many bugs find nutrition in the waste and scraps of other plant and animal species, my Pink Dragonfly re-purposes waste commonly dumped in many bars. This frozen, bright pink delight blends the popular summer festival drink of Quentão, a type of Brazilian mulled wine made with local wines from the South of Brazil and cachaça, with a Frosé, a super popular cocktail here in the sweltering deserts of Arizona. The tropical notes of Novo Fogo Bar Strength Cachaça perfectly blend with wasted white and red wines that might be slightly past their peak freshness, locally grown watermelon juice that’s been soured to replace citrus and frozen to keep year-round and perfect to blend, and wildflower honey from local bees infused with re-used spices like cinnamon, ginger peels, clove, hibiscus flowers, and dried orange peel scraps I use in my bar. Utilizing local ingredients to Arizona like local wines, honey, watermelon, and hibiscus reduces the carbon footprint and promotes diversity of ingredients just as Novo Fogo does with their production of delicious Cachaça. Perfect for a day lounging by the pool in the AZ summer heat or exploring the thickets of the Brazilian jungles, my Libélula Rosa celebrates the biodiversity of the world with an eco-friendly cocktail. Cheers and Obrigado!

 

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 oz Novo Fogo Bar Strength Cachaça
• 2 oz red wine waste
• 2 oz white wine waste
• 1 oz caramelized spiced honey scrap syrup
• 6 soured watermelon juice ice cubes
• 2 dash orange bitters

Preparation: Blend all ingredients together till smooth. Pour into chilled stemmed glass. Caramelized spiced honey scrap syrup- Bring 1 cup of honey and .25 cup of water to boil. Add bar scraps and spices such as used cinnamon sticks, cloves, dried hibiscus buds, dried orange peels, and ginger peelings till thick and sticky syrup. Let cool before blending. Soured watermelon juice ice cubes: Freeze watermelon juice with small sprinkle of citric acid in ice cube trays, Freeze till hard. Garnish with Watermelon Jerky Dehydrate thin slices of watermelon with light sprinkle of salt till crisp. Cut with dragonfly shape cookie cutter or ant fun shape.

 

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The Lorax

Created by Leanne Favre

Brooklyn, NY

lmfavre@gmail.com

I named my cocktail after the Dr. Seuss story, The Lorax, a cautionary tale of deforestation that is as important today as it ever was. Novo Fogo is doing great work fighting against deforestation in Brazil, working with the Un-Endangered Forest Project, who plant native and threatened trees in the Atlantic Forest, but we all need to do our part! At my bars and in my personal life, I avoid single-use products as much as possible and strive to make sustainable choices. Recently I have implemented a forced carbonated keg program at both bars because I was tired of the amount of single serve soda bottles we went through every shift. Through this method I have reduced the use of bottled soda water at our bars by ~50%. To create this conscientious cocktail, I wanted to use both the method of force carbonating cocktails to reduce waste and the idea of giving spent ingredients a second life. The Lorax is a riff on the classic cocktail: the Air Mail. In this cocktail, I used Chamomile syrup to evoke the flavors of honey, as it is challenging to get ethically sourced honey. After straining the dried tea flowers off the syrup, they are dehydrated, candied, and used as garnish. This further reduces waste by eliminating the need of additional ingredients while being both aromatic and delicious! The champagne element of the drink comes from blending flat champagne into the chamomile syrup. When champagne no longer has the proper effervescence to serve to guests, we give it a second life by using it in this syrup, which I have dubbed “Cham-Cham” syrup, the champagne contributes acidity and subtle notes of yeast and almond. This is a great way to reuse something that would otherwise go to waste. I used a blend of citric and malic acid to imitate lime juice. Most limes are shipped from Mexico which produces a huge carbon footprint. Although it’s sometimes hard to avoid using fresh citrus, this cocktail works great without it! A bonus to using the acids in place of juice is that it allows the cocktail to be more shelf stable and makes it easier to carbonate. A touch of Mango Brandy is used to add bright fruit notes and a hint of tropical funk while helping to tie the other elements of the drink together. It fills in fruit flavor that is missing with the absence of citrus juice. I chose to use a Rhinehall product because their ideals align with those of Novo Fogo. Rhinehall sources locally, composts and works with a local beach clean-up group called the Alliance for the Great Lakes. Novo Fogo Bar Strength is the perfect platform for all these flavors. The Cachaça’s notes of ripe mango and juicy kiwi are complemented by the cocktail’s bright acidity and the funk of the mango brandy. The Cham-Cham syrup is perfectly complemented by the Cachaça’s subtle hints of warm plantains and toasted nuts. After everything is combined, filtered water is added for dilution and the cocktail is force carbonated. The subtlety of the bubbles mimic the texture and mouthfeel of a champagne cocktail. The cocktail is then bottled in reusable glass bottles and can be stored in the refrigerator. (This can also be scaled up and served out of an ISI charger if you don’t have access to CO2 tanks or bottles.) When ready to serve, The Lorax is poured over crushed ice, cobbler style, and garnished with the candied chamomile flowers & a reusable straw. The cocktail is bright, zesty, and refreshing with layers of nuance and flavor! “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” – The Lorax

 

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 oz Novo Fogo Bar Strength Cachaca
• 1 1/2 oz Cham-Cham Syrup*
• 1/4 oz Rhinehall Mango Brandy
• 1/4 teaspoon Citrus Powder**
• 1 1/4 oz Filtered Water
• Candied chamomile flowers (for garnish)***

Preparation: Scale batch up by six. Combine ingredients in a liter plastic bottle and force carbonate with a refillable CO2 tank two times. Gently pour into a reusable bottles and cap. Store in the fridge until ready to serve. Note: If you don’t have access to a CO2 tank, you can carbonate the batch in an ISI canister with CO2 chargers and pour to order. *Cham-Cham Syrup: 3 parts Flat Champagne, 2 parts Chamomile Syrup, mix until incorporated. Chamomile Syrup: 2 cups water 2 cups cane sugar .5 cup dried chamomile flowers Bring the water and sugar to a simmer in a small pot over medium heat. from heat. Add chamomile and allow to steep for 20 mins. Fine strain and reserve flowers. ** Citrus Powder: 2 parts Citric Acid, 1 part Malic Acid, Mix until incorporated. ***Candied Chamomile Flowers: Take used flowers. Line a dehydrator tray with parchment paper. Spread used wet chamomile flowers out in a single layer. Dehydrate until dry and crisp. Serve in a frosted pilsner glass over crushed ice.

 

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The Phoenix

Created by Taylor Lax

Los Angeles, CA

taylorthecocktalilbandir@gmail.com

In the bar industry we have so much waste. I wanted to create a drink that was environmentally friendly that utilized items we in the bar industry throw away on the daily. Citrus is a huge waste in our industry and in a lot of programs I have worked in places where we juice all the main citruses daily for our bars. So decided to maximize the utilization of the left-over citrus to create a stock that can have acid adjusted to mimic the sour component of a cocktail. A lot of bars also utilize fruits like pineapple for the juice as well as the pineapple leaves, but the scraps left over from cutting pineapple are useable and people even make tea those scraps for health benefits and have a great amount of flavor. Also, banana peels which is usually thrown out carries a lot of flavors as well and is a great way to add banana flavor into drinks and really maximize the use of a banana that might be used for another dish or drink your restaurant. After all these items are used, they can be turned into compost for your garden and lessen the environmental footprint. I even used a mason jar for my glassware to really embody the idea of reusing and maximizing uses of thing we might ordinarily throw away without a second thought but as my drink is named the Phoenix for the idea of rebirth and new life from items that would already be considered “used” or “trash.”

 

Ingredients:

• 2 oz Silver Novo Fogo
• 1 oz Banana Peel Pineapple scrap syrup*
• 1/4 oz Mahina coconut liqueur
• 3/4 oz acid adjusted citrus stock**
• Few washes ango on top
• Fresh Grated nutmeg
• Banana leaf and banana chip (for garnish)

Preparation: *Banana peel pineapple scrap syrup: 2 cups water, 2 banana peels 2 sides of pineapple, chopped. Put into water unit boiling. Reduce heat and let simmer covered for 20 minutes Put mixture into blender and add 2.25 cups sugar and pulp until sugar dissolves Let cool and strain. **Acid adjust citrus stock: 1 liter water, 1/2 piece left over grapefruit after juicing, 1/2 piece orange left over from juicing, 1 lemon left over from juicing, 2 limes left over from juicing. Cover and simmer for 1 hour until stock is no longer clear and fruit is pale. Let cool. Strain and add 40 g citric acid 20 g malic acid. Combine ingredients inside a reused Mason jar. Garnish with banana leaf and banana chip.

 

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Extra-Curricular Activities

Created by Colleen Hughes

Charlotte, NC

ch.cocktails@gmail.com

I was inspired to create the Extra-Curricular Activities cocktail by what is most in season in the springtime of North Carolina, and to best utilize it to reduce our carbon footprint by forcing locally. Strawberries currently are local, plentiful, and very easy sourced from farms in my community, so I created an acidified strawberry cordial that could act as the citrus juice replacement but also the sweetener for this cocktail. My current cocktail program is built on sustainability and ensuring that we are being as low waste as possible. To that end, we already peel 100% of the lemons that we bring in before we make our lemon stock to create lemon oleo sacrum that we use in other parts of our program, so I added a touch of it into this cocktail for brightness. I have also created foaming vegan egg white replacer from the spent pulp of apples (that we juice for another cocktail in our program) that we cook down to harvest the pectin for mouthfeel and texture in our cocktails. The combination of these ingredients has led me to create this vegan and very thoughtful sourced Cachaça strawberry sour. The marriage of these flavors is beautiful in their simplicity and allows the fresh bright fruity and complex flavors of Novo Fogo Bar Strength Cachaça to shine through.

 

Ingredients:

• 2 oz Novo Fogo Silver Cachaça Bar Strength
• 1.5 oz acidified strawberry cordial *
• 1/4 oz lemon oleo sacrum
• 25 vegan egg white

Preparation: Combine all ingredients in shaker and dry shake to combine. Then add ice and quick chill. Pour into an 8 oz fizz glass. *Acidified Strawberry cordial: 1000g strawberry juice strained, 500g hot water, 1000g raw sugar, pinch salt. Heat. Combine sugar, water, and salt to boil. When sugar has completely dissolved, cut heat and cool. Add strawberry juice. Acidify by total weight 1.5% citric acid 1.5% malic acid. Blend in acids. Store refrigerated for up to 2 weeks. Garnish with paper butterfly.

 

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Serra Do Mar

Created by Jilson Ramos

Miami, FL

ramos_1988_1@hotmail.com

I call my cocktail Serra do Mar in reference to Morretes, a small town where the Novo Fogo distillery is located. This region is surrounded by beautiful mountains, forests, and a great diversity of flora and fauna which make it a place of great interest in every way. I have been inspired by this region using only organic products, which are very easy to obtain and including being able to grow them ourselves in our home. I wanted to give the cocktail an herbal and citrus flavor but highlighting above all the star and main product that is Cachaça, Novo Fogo Bar Strength Silver. In the cocktail I have tried not to waste anything. I reused the pulp of the apple juice and created a garnish with it, which can be eaten. This is a true eco-friendly cocktail. Kilometer zero products (Proximity products) and reuse of the remains.

 

Ingredients:

• 2 oz Novo Fogo Bar strength Cachaça
• 1 1/2 oz Organic Apple Fresh Juice
• 3/4 oz Serra Verde Syrup*
• 3/4 oz Lime Juice
• 2 dash Saline Solution**

Preparation: Add the Novo Fogo Bar Strength Silver, Organic Apple Juice, Serra Verde Syrup, lime juice and saline solution into a shaker with ice and shake until well-chilled. Strain into rocks glass over fresh ice or big Cube Clear Ice. *Serra Verde Syrup: 1000 ml Simple Syrup 200 gr Dill 200 gr Basil 200 gr Coriander 50 gr Sage. Blender and Strain *Garnish with Apple Fruit Leather: Use leftover apple pulps from juicing the apple and add sugar (one-third the weight of the pulp). Stir it in a pan while adding heat so the sugar will dissolve and incorporate better. Spread the puree thinly and evenly over parchment paper and place in a dehydrator set to 65°C for 8 hours. **Saline Solution 20 gr sea salt 80 ml water.