There’s a lot of good stuff out there when it comes to cocktails. There’s also a lot of gunf, too. ‘Healthy’ cocktails (lolz), overwrought, manic concoctions, or just downright terrible ones dominate menus the world over, but something we can get behind is sustainable cocktails with a conscience. Especially if they’re top notch.
Unfortunately, we humans have formed a bad habit of trashing the planet, so it’s time for us to stick a plaster on the poor thing and let it heal. Here to help us do that, at least when it comes to boozing, is Potato Head Hong Kong’s new bar operations manager Tom Egerton. Egerton has tended bar the world over and was most recently the bar manager at Sydney’s Eau De Vie, a venue our Time Out Sydney fam gave a lot of love to after their visit.
As Potato Head originates from Indonesia, Egerton was inspired by the country’s ability to maximise ingredients and therefore minimise waste, leading him to develop a drinks menu featuring ingredients that otherwise would’ve been disposed of. The aim of the game is to create drinks with maximum flavours and minimal waste.
In the circle of life, all fruit waste, pulp and husk will be used to create compost to grow herbs and produce for new cocktails later down the line. Here, this concept translates to an ever-adapting menu.
New libations include the Li Chi Pu, a lychee-infused gin with grapefruit bitters, lemon, sparkling wine and a lychee crisp, and the Run Amok featuring Nusa Cana rum, mango curd, sambal, basil, aromatic bitters, fried mango skin and turmeric. There’s also the Maluki Cooler with salted gin, vermouth, vanilla and cascara wine with coconut vinegar and soda and the Instagrammable Pisang Colada made with house-spiced rum, coconut puree, fresh pineapple juice, recycled citrus syrup, lime juice and aromatic bitters.
As the menu and ingredients progress, there will be fermented tepache - a soda made from pineapple waste, coconut-aged cocktails, including a coconut milk punch that’s been rested for four months inside coconuts, and salt cured citrus fruits. Potato Head also use bamboo straws, so there’s another green tick. So if you fancy some great cocktails that are environmentally friendly, sustainable and tasty af, you know where to go.