The Tippling Point | Raise a glass to nature this World Environment Day

Clarity and crispness are the highlights of Air Vodka. As 'British GQ' put it, it's "crisp like a shard of light". (Representational image: Taylor Simpson via Unsplash)

Everyone happens to know and can even talk at length about the implications of carbon emission and what carbon dioxide (CO2) does to our fragile nature. But does anyone do something about it? We feel so helpless about the matter that some dejected people rue over it over a drink or two. Hey, how does THAT help?

Traditionally made alcohol, as it involves fermentation of grains, releases around 15lb of CO2 to the already injured atmosphere. Which means we leave behind more carbon footprints either directly by making or indirectly by drinking spirits! Is that reason enough to chuck that bottle into the garbage forever?

Take heart, not with this new cool product that is aptly named Air vodka.

Instead of adding more fuel to the fire, every bottle of this booze from New York promises to take off a chunk of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Launched by Air Company, a Brooklyn-based startup, in 2019, Air Vodka boldly joins the global war against carbon emissions by having an voracious appetite for carbon dioxide.

Usually vodka is made by the fermentation of some foodstuff (usually grains) that contains sugar or starch. Yeast cells aid in adding more fizz to the process.

Air Vodka on the other hand uses only two ingredients - CO2 and water. The production method is also simple.

The distillery in Brooklyn uses electrolysis to ease out hydrogen molecules from water. Oxygen, now a waste product of this chemical process, is released into the atmosphere (that reminds us of photosynthesis, doesn't it?). The hydrogen molecules are then fed into a carbon conversion reactor along with carbon dioxide captured from the surroundings. Ethanol, pure spirit, is born.

You only have to combine it with water to make vodka. How simple, right? But the price tag tells us a different story.

The startup's revolutionary vodka is a luxury brand, costing about USD 65 a bottle. But as it promises, each bottle removes a pound of the greenhouse gas from our surroundings.

But tell me, how does Air Vodka tastes like?

Almost like water, or as British GQ puts it: "Clean and crisp like a shard of light." The company recommends taking it on the rocks or in a cocktail. Clarity and crispness are its highlights.

Air Vodka became a finalist in the NRG Cosia Carbon Xprize, a global competition that acknowledges revolutionary technologies capable of converting CO2 emissions to helpful products. The company, which is backed by Toyota Ventures, Parley for the Oceans, JetBlue Technology Ventures, and Carbon Direct Capital Management, produces about 5,000 cases of the product a year. More distilleries are coming.

The vodka is available in select locations in New York, and can also be procured by online via orders made on the company website.

Sorry if this story seems to say that you need have to start drinking to help the atmosphere. The Air Company also makes a hand sanitizer and a new fragrance called Air Eau de Parfum using the same technology.

(Today there are so many companies which make products like laundry detergent, eyeglasses, jet fuel, etc., using carbon. Three cheers to the growing ecological awareness.)