Velvet:
The concept is "Farm to Shaker" - Berlin's cutting-edge sustainable bar. -Part 1

Velvet is an experimental bar that creates one to four new cocktails each week, while actively working on sustainability and implementing the concept of "Farm to Shaker. We asked female bartender Sarah Fisher to tell us more about their efforts!

writer：Hideko Kawachi（ベルリン在住）Photos：Gianni Plescia

Sustainability is the norm for bars!

Nowadays, bars cannot help but think about sustainability.

The problem of food loss is exemplified by the massive waste of lemon and lime peels.

In addition, the focus on the origin and season of ingredients is also related to carbon dioxide emissions and energy issues.

At BCB (Bar Convento Berlin), one of the largest bar fairs in Europe, to be held in October 2023, there was a sense that sustainability has gone beyond a temporary trend and has become firmly established.

Spirits distilled from ingredients that were destined to be discarded, the proposal of pre-mixing to reduce waste, and the circulation of glass bottles .......

One talk show that attracted a great deal of attention was that of Sarah Fischer, a female bartender at Velvet, who introduced her experimental experiments in local production for local consumption and seasonal production for seasonal consumption, with the goal of zero-waste.

The lab features a different cocktail each week!

Opened in the spring of 2017, Velvet was named Bar of the Year by Germany's Mixology magazine in 2019, just a year and a half after opening, and has received national and international acclaim.

It was even ranked 77th in The World's 50 Best Bars 2023 (the only one in Germany).

Looking around the restaurant, one sees a large wooden counter and velvet chairs.

Bottles of spirits from around the world and homemade premixes line the windowsill.

At first glance, it looks like an authentic bar serving classic cocktails.

But in fact, this is an experimental laboratory where creative cocktails change weekly on the menu.

Farm to Shaker!

Fischer, the head bartender at Velvet, started working at a bar in 2013 to pay for college.

It was at a bar called "ORA" that he met Ruben Neideck, with whom he would later launch "Velvet".

He is famous for his creative recipes and excellent selection of spirits.

Neideck launched Velvet with a few friends under the concept of "From Farm to Shaker.

The idea is to bring the same sustainable, locally produced, locally consumed approach to the bar as the "farm-to-table" concept in the restaurant industry.

In the spring, we use cherry blossoms and Japanese pagoda trees. In early summer, we use strawberries from the fields. In the spring, they use flowers and buds of cherry trees and Japanese pagoda trees, and in early summer, strawberries from the open air. We also get herbs and rare vegetables from a local farm in the city," says Fischer.

For them, the cocktail is a tool to express the bounty of nature in a glass.

Seasonal aromas in a glass.

For example, the cocktail "Strawberry (Winter)," made with strawberries that were pickled in salt last year, is a tea-colored liquid that pleasantly betrays the impression one would expect from the name "strawberry.

When you pick up the glass, you can smell the sweet and gentle aroma of strawberries.

When I sipped the liquid together with the strawberries that I had stuck into the pick, the salty taste was followed by the bitterness of alpine bitter, which is made from 42 different kinds of herbs, and the complex aroma of the fruity tequila "OCHO BLANCO.

It reminded me of the scenery of the budding season of spring to come.

On the other hand, "Pumpkin No. 2," made with pumpkins that were in season at the time of the interview, is based on a cordial made by squeezing pumpkins, which have a strong acidity and aroma but a weak sweetness.

To this, the aquavit "Lysholm No. 52" soaked with coriander and aniseed, Jamaican rum, cardamom spirits, sake, and spicy, clean-tasting turconel Irish whiskey are added to create a multilayered aroma.

On the palate, the fresh aroma of a knife in a sorrel squash was brought back to life.

Delicious innovations to reduce food loss.

The use of seasonal ingredients from the neighborhood is intended to surprise guests with the tastes and aromas of familiar items, and sometimes to evoke memories.

At the same time, there are reasons to reduce inefficient transportation, carbon emissions, and packaging waste.

Even if it is impossible to go completely zero-waste, Velvet tries to reduce food loss as much as possible.

For example, cherry and plum seeds are made into amaretto. This is done with care, though, because they can produce hydrocyanic acid. ...... After squeezing, the fruit fibers are dried and powdered for garnish. I once made a cordial by soaking lavender stems using only the buds. It may seem like a lot of work, but how do you use leftovers? It may seem like a lot of work, but thinking about what to do with the leftovers is what inspires the cocktails," Fischer laughs.

The "Walnut" cocktail he made for us this time is served with pumpkin ice cream sandwiched between cookies made from walnut shavings after distillation.

In fact, the first reason for making ice cream was to consume the large amount of egg yolks that were left over.

Currently, methylcellulose is being introduced in place of egg whites, but the staff all love ice cream, so they use a variety of dairy-based leftovers as the base for their ice cream.

In the second half of the interview, we will take a closer look at the weekly "lab day," where one to four new cocktails are created each week.

Continue to Part 2