Vodka is tasteless (barring flavored vodkas) and can be made from any number of things. Milk, carrots, quinoa — wherever there are fresh ingredients, there are people making vodka from those fresh ingredients. However, Misadventure and Company out of San Diego, California is looking past fresh and straight to food waste.
Co-owners Sam Chereskin and Whitney Rigali are way past potato and grain vodkas. The duo uses old bread products from a local food bank that are past expiration or otherwise unsuitable for donation. You might be surprised at the variety of bread products they use.
“We get Twinkies, Ho Hos, French baguettes, crullers, you name it. The whole bakery aisle goes into our vodka,” Rigali told NBC San Diego. And that’s because vodka can be made out of any ingredient that contains large amounts of sugar or starch.
The distilling process at Misadventure and Company is relatively simple (although, as Chereskin told NBC, when they first came up with the idea “no one thought it was a good one”). First, they create a mash from the smorgasbord of expired bread products obtained from the food bank. Then, yeast is incorporated into the mash, which consumes the sugars and creates alcohol as a byproduct. Finally, that fermented product is distilled down into vodka.
Using waste reduces Misadventure and Company’s production costs, and it’s also helping reduce what would otherwise just go to the landfill. Unfortunately, food waste is a problem that does not seem like it is going to be solved overnight. Luckily we have creative and socially conscious distillers (and brewers like Stone Brewing Company, who use waste water to brew) who are not only concerned with their products, but are also dedicated to sustainability.
