Recreate the experience of being in your eco-luxury resort of choice while soaking in the stories and wisdom of travel industry’s thought leaders at next week’s Regenerative Travel Summit 2021: make their signature cocktails at home. 

Check out these cocktail recipes shared by our featured regenerative resorts: Playa Viva in Mexico, Winterlake Lodge in Alaska, Fogo Island Inn in Canada, and  Chaa Creek and Hamanasi Resort, both in Belize.

Playa Viva: Organic Basil Margarita

It’s Earth Day every day in this woodsy, all-inclusive seasonal ecolodge surrounded by lush green palms in Juluchuca, Mexico. At Playa Viva, guests can enjoy genuine farm-to-table cuisine, with coconuts, mangos, cashews, tamarind, tomatoes, lettuces, and microgreens, among others, harvested straight from its organic garden. Feel the warm Pacific Ocean breeze on your skin when you stir up this Cinco de Mayo staple, made even better with organic tequila and organic basil – just the way Playa Viva makes it.

Ingredients

• 4 leaves of organic basil
• 1 lime
• 1 ½ oz of 4 Copas organic tequila (or other organic tequila)
• 1 teaspoon of agave nectar (agave honey – “Miel de Agave”)
• 5 large cubes of ice
• Thin layer of Sal Viva in a dish (for rimming glass)

How To Make It

1. Start with the four leaves of organic basil.
2. Place them in a blender, then squeeze in juice from lime, add the tequila and blend (without ice). 
3. Once blended, pour the blended mix into a shaker glass with the ice and add the agave nectar
4. Margarita should be shaken (not stirred)
5. Take the remaining lime and rim the mouth of the glass to add moisture so when you dip the glass in a plate with Sal Viva, the salt sticks to the rim.
6. Pour in the shaken mix into a glass for the perfect Playa Viva Organic Basil Margarita.

Winterlake Lodge: Eli’s Old-Fashioned

Here’s the perfect drink to keep warm for those who live in colder climes, such as in Alaska’s wild interior, where Winterlake Lodge is perched. This eponymous drink – named after Winterlake Lodge’s guide manager – is served in a glass smoked with alder wood – the same wood the lodge uses to smoke salmon. For a distinctly Alaskan touch, birch syrup tapped from surrounding birch trees replaces the traditional sugar cube. 

Ingredients

• 2 ounces (60ml) bourbon whiskey
• 2 dashes Angostura Bitters
• 1 teaspoon (5ml) birch syrup
• 1 orange wedge

How To Make It

1. Using a small handheld kitchen torch, heat a small piece of alder wood to produce smoke and place a glass upside down over it to capture the aroma.
2. Delicately peel the flesh of the orange from the rind and place the flesh in a shaker.
3. Add the birch syrup and bitters to the shaker and muddle until the orange flesh is sufficiently pressed.
4. Add the bourbon to the shaker and stir.
5. Remove the glass from the alder and add the contents of the shaker to the glass.
6. Add three to four ice cubes and swirl lightly.
7. Twist the cleaned orange peel for garnish.

Fogo Island Inn: Ludlow’s Lilac

This refreshing gin-based cocktail has the perfect balance of tangy lemon and floral notes. It’s garnished with delicate lilac petals from a tree brought from England to Fogo Island 150 years ago, by the Ludlow family. Several generations of the Ludlows have raised their families in Joe Batt’s Arm, the community where Fogo Island Inn is located. The distinctive gingerbread cut-outs at their family home are evocative of lilac petals.  ‘This pretty cocktail gives a true taste of place and is a favorite among the inn’s guests.

Ingredients

• 1.5 oz Newfoundland Distillery Co. gin
• 0.5 oz green Chartreuse
• 1 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice 
• 0.5 oz lilac simple syrup
• 1 egg white
• Peychaud bitters
• Fresh lilacs

How To Make It

1. Pour all drink ingredients into a shaker and dry shake for about 20 seconds.
2. Add a scoop of ice and shake vigorously.
3. Double strain the drink into a chilled coupe glass.
4. Garnish with drops of Peychaud bitters and fresh lilacs.

Chaa Creek: Dragonfly

An overgrown citrus orchard transformed into a lush jungle getaway, Chaa Creek enchants with an authentic experience of wilderness made effortlessly luxurious by the property’s tropical charm. Its signature drink, the Dragonfly is a cocktail drink that embodies the beauty and flavor of tropical Belize: fruity, refreshing, and exquisite.

Ingredients

• 1 oz Gin
• 1 oz Caribbean White Rum
• .5 oz Crème De Banana
• .5 oz Midori
• .5 oz Lime Juice
• .5 oz Lime Cordial
• Soda Water

How To Make It

1. Place all ingredients in a shaker and shake.
2. Top off with a splash of soda water, and serve in a tall Collins glass.