episode 15

Festive drinking

We talked about the festive / holiday season last year, in season 1. Not being able to meet up with family due to COVID made us focus more on the true gifts of spending time, showing love and support rather than spending money, buying the next toy, indulging in festive spending perhaps even beyond our means.

All that is still valid this year – including COVID (omicron) postponing in-person reunions. 

But wherever we are, at least in the UK, there is an increase in alcohol consumption during this time of the year. 

As usual, we are not interested in telling anyone to drink or not, or what to drink. We want to explore how to become more discerning customers – what to look for when trying to buy alcoholic drinks? Is it better to buy local, if their production is dirtier? How about packaging? How about certification? 

  1. Look at the energy used in production. Is it renewable? If not what do they do to reduce, capture or offset their carbon emissions ? The best is they follow that order – not emit loads using fossil fuels and then plant a few trees
  1. Where do the ingredients come from and how are they produced? Half way around the world but organic or dirty but close or the sweet spot of close and clean? Do they have any certification ? Even if not any information ?
  1. Have they minimized the amount of packaging? What do they use for their packaging? Mixed materials like paper and plastic of a carton are lighter and easy to transport but not recyclable. Glass is heavier but is recycled widely – as well as keeping the wine for longer and making a perfectly good candle holder! 
  1. How do they treat: – their suppliers (fair trade),  – their workers (fair wages and conditions) and  – you, their customers (a product that’s fair to your environment as well as your palette, health and wallet)? 

Don’t just buy, ask questions! Make the producers of all drinks know that you mean sustainable business and are not afraid to use the power of your money however much it is!

And about much more – all about wine, and whisky, but with lessons for all other tipples too, we spoke to Dagmar Droogsma

*** The views we and our guests express in this podcast are our own ***