Trash Tiki – Kelsey Ramage & Iain Griffiths

Trash Tiki | Toronto Cocktail Conference

Trash Tiki is an anti-waste punk pop up that is the brainchild of bartenders Kelsey Ramage and Iain Griffiths.

Both have accoladed backgrounds in the craft cocktail industry. Ramage, who moved over from General Manager at the Oakwood in Vancouver in 2015 to become a head bartender at Dandelyan, in London. On opening it won “Best New International Cocktail bar” for 2015 at the Spirited Awards, and in 2016 moving 47 places to No. 3 in the world and having their menu take the title of “World’s Best Cocktail Menu”. She went on to win the title of Global Champion for Olmeca Altos’ Tahona Society competition in 2016 and continues to work with the brand speaking about sustainability and tequila.

Iain is founder of Mr Lyan Ltd where alongside Ryan Chetiyawardana, the pair have lead the company to a string of success in the last 3 years.

They were awarded co ‘Innovator of the Year’ at the Imbibe Awards 2014 whilst later in that same year, White Lyan was also crowned ‘Best New International Cocktail Bar’ at the Spirited Awards and then number 20 in “World’s 50 Best Bars”. From there he opened Dandelyan, where the pair met. In 2016, Iain took his cocktail for Bacardi Legacy, the Carta Switchel, all the way to global finals, reaching the top 8.

The two came up with the Trash Tiki idea after having spent a weekend working together in Dandelyan. Chatting over a beer and a whisky, they discussed the massive number of drinks they had pumped across the bar on the friday and saturday nights, and what had to be thrown away before during and after those services. The idea came as a way of showing the craft cocktail industry that those would-be waste ingredients could still be used for flavour, in an open-forum community that was non-preachy and could actually be a lot of fun.

In March of 2017 the duo paired up as beverage directors for WastED, a pop-up led by chef Dan Barber of Blue Hill farms. Making cocktails to pair with food entirely made from food scraps and would -be waste ingredients, the pop-up received much recognition for it’s innovation in sustainability.

“We wanted to inject a little fun back into sustainability and show people that it doesn’t take a complete overhaul to make a difference,” says Kelsey. Which doesn’t mean that the pair are not serious about the business of waste. The purpose of taking Trash Tiki around the world is to see how cuisines and cultures waste different flavours by putting them in the trash rather than using them,” says Iain. “Ultimately we will create a platform that is global in every sense of the word, full of recipes and resources that allow the international community to see the breadth of potential behind the products we’re wasting every day.

The two have been touring with with Trash Tiki since June, hitting 32 cities globally in Asia, North America, South America and Australia.

Find them: Trash Tiki | Instagram | Facebook