S&C alerts–good, clean, fair

These are the tenets of Slow Food, and the theme for this edition of shoes and cocktails news.

Cocktails – Jason Wilson, in his Spirits column in the Washington Post, recaps the “slow cocktails” found at the Slow Food Nation conference in San Francisco. Slow cocktails, like slow food, are prepared in a thoughtful way. Basically, you think about where your ingredients come from and how they are prepared. Slow cocktails are craft-oriented, made from artisan producers, and free of artificial ingredients. The spirits used in slow cocktails are not always organic, (because there currently isn’t enough organic grain to make mass quantities), but distilleries should be sustainable. An article from thekitchn.com highlights Slow Food USA’s chairman, Allen Katz’s slow spirit picks and one of his recipes.

Slow Spirits:

• Square One Cucumber Vodka (organic)
• 4Copas Reposado Tequilla (organic)
• Plymouth Sloe Gin (not organic, but made from berries using an old-fashioned process)
• Maker’s Mark Bourbon (not organic, but sustainably produced)

Slow Cocktail: Long Island Margarita
for one cocktail

6 blackberries
10 fresh mint leaves
1 1/2 ounces 4Copas Reposado Tequilla
1 ounce fresh lime juice
1 ounce Long Island lavender syrup (Heat 6 ounces simple syrup in a saucepan. Remove from heat and add 2 tbs dried lavender. Allow to cool. Strain and refrigerate until ready to use.)

Muddle blackberries in a mixing glass. Add remaining ingredients and shake over ice. Strain into a rocks glass filled with ice and garnish with two additional blackberries.

Shoes – Awhile back we highlighted Natalie Portman’s vegan footwear, Té Casan. Some less expensive options, to go with your slow cocktails, can be found over in Zappos eco-friendly section and at Planet Shoes, the place where you can find these adorable pumps from Poetic Licence.