by Danny Childs, Founder and Author of Slow Drinks
Last month, I had the honor and pleasure to represent Slow Food by leading a cohort of eleven beverage professionals to the Tales of the Cocktail conference, the leading annual summit for people in the beverage and mixology industry. This effort was made possible thanks to funds raised through the 2023 Negroni Week campaign, organized by Imbibe and Campari.
Our group consisted of folx from different backgrounds, cities and sectors of the industry; each of them were all united by a common commitment to extend Slow Food’s principles of good, clean and fair into their professional and personal lives. Bartenders were the most highly represented occupation in the cohort, but we also had a distiller, bar owners, a sommelier, and me, Danny Childs, the author of the book Slow Drinks and the founder of a consulting and education company of the same name.
Slow Drinks can be seen as an extension of the Slow Food Movement that aims to bring sustainability and biodiversity into the forefront of the beverage industry by incorporating regionally significant botanical ingredients, ancient and modern preservational techniques, and hyperlocal sourcing into the creation of mixed drinks. A “slow drink” is a good, clean and fairly produced beverage, alcoholic or not, with a unique backstory about the drink’s biodiverse and locally sourced main ingredients, history or technique. I have been working hard to spread this message in the industry for the last decade, and Slow Food’s endorsement and investment in this movement has the potential for a profound paradigm shift within the beverage sector as a whole.
Since this was our first time organizing this scholarship program within an already very large conference, we had to be very intentful and creative with how to incorporate “slow” elements like sustainability and biodiversity in our group’s programming, while also giving each member enough autonomy and space that they were able to get the most out of this experience on an individual level. We started our trip with a wonderful meet and greet dinner at Coquette, a pillar restaurant in the farm-to-table movement in New Orleans. The following morning, we gathered in the hotel’s atrium for a pre-conference chat where I and Bilal Sarwari, the interim executive director of Slow Food USA, were able to share each of our experiences of working within the Slow Food and Slow Drinks movements. Armed with this knowledge, each of the scholarship recipients went forth to glean as much as they could from the conference’s panels, presentations and pop-ups over the next few days.
As the week went on, we punctuated our individual agendas with group meetings meant to reinforce our Slow Food curriculum. This included a group trip to the farmers market and a pop-up event I hosted at Wild South, the sister restaurant of Coquette, where we highlighted Ark of Taste and other important regional ingredients in our cocktail menu. We also participated in an intimate group chat with Alex Jump, the founder of Focus on Health (FOH), who emphasized the importance of prioritizing our physical and mental health in this industry. On our last night, we gathered for our farewell meal to reflect on our experiences and share a final evening of laughs.
Since we’ve returned, we’ve had our virtual debriefing meetings with most of the group where we were able to hear everyone’s highlights (the farmer’s market tour!) and things they wish we may have incorporated more of into their programing, like hands-on cocktail making. They each restated their commitments to incorporating the lessons learned on this trip into their communities and professional pursuits, in addition to pledging to mentor and connect with future recipients of Negroni Week scholarships.
Overall, I couldn’t think of a better inaugural class of scholarship recipients, and I feel invigorated and excited to launch the 2024 Negroni Week campaign next month from Sept. 16-22, before heading off to Turin with our next group of Negroni Week scholarship recipients.
