Waste Not, Want Not: Fermented Zero-Proof Cocktails w/ Olive Todd of Clavel

Zero-Proof & Zero-Waste Cocktails is a hands-on workshop focused on building deep, complex flavors using seasonal ingredients—and using all of them. Together, we’ll explore fermentation techniques that bring nuance, acidity, and texture to spirit-free drinks while minimizing waste and maximizing creativity.

Participants will learn how to make:

• Golden Beet Kvass, a bright, savory lacto-fermented beverage that shines in brine-based drinks and leaves you with tender, tangy beets perfect for stews and savory dishes.

• Acorn Squash Cheong, a fermented syrup that adds richness and depth to cocktails or desserts, with leftover squash ready to be transformed into pie filling or folded into pasta.

• Lacto-Fermented Grapefruit Honey, a vibrant, floral ferment that pairs beautifully with black tea and makes an elegant zero-proof highball.

Throughout the workshop, we’ll discuss how to apply these techniques across future projects—whether behind the bar or at home—so you leave with adaptable skills, not just recipes. Each attendee will take home recipe cards, samples of each ferment, and a deeper understanding of how fermentation can expand the zero-proof cocktail toolbox.

Olive Todd is the Bar Director at Clavel, where she has led the bar lab—the experimental and production arm of the program—for the past three years. Her work centers on developing new flavors through seasonal and local produce, with a particular passion for weaving ancestral food-preservation techniques into modern cocktails and culinary applications.

Whether she’s refining ferments in the lab, foraging in the woods, or following her senses to new flavors around the city, Olive approaches drinks with curiosity, intention, and respect for ingredients. You can occasionally find her behind the bar at Clavel, bringing thoughtful, fermentation-driven flavors to the glass.

Workshop registrations are final. No exchanges, transfers, or refunds.