Less than a month to go until Vancouver Cocktail Week 2025!

The city’s best party returns March 2 to 9 with more than 40 events, dozens of spirit brands and VCW-partner venues all across the city.

Living Room Creative photo

With fewer than 30 days left until the fourth annual Vancouver Cocktail Week presented by The Alchemist magazine, it’s time to nail down your tickets for the best seminars, most exciting pop-ups and unmissable signature events like the closing Black & White Gala.

VCW25’s schedule is packed with more than 40 events, starting with the traditional Signature Sunday Cocktail Brunch (this year at ARC Restaurant at the Fairmont Waterfront) and featuring seminars, tastings, master classes, parties and burlesque and drag shows. Plus there are cocktail-paired dinners, tea parties and other culinary events, including the Cherry Blossom Tipsy Tea at Notch 8 in the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver and the “Festa della Primavera” dinner at Carlino.

And that doesn’t even include the popular (unticketed) Cinq à Sept series of elevated happy hours, which will be held at VCW partnering bars all over town.

In fact, one of the best ways to discover those venues and explore the city’s talented cocktail culture is by joining one of the neighbourhood cocktail crawls that offer a taste of what the city’s most exciting bartenders are shaking up.

But if there is one event not to miss, it’s the closing night Black & White Gala on March 9. The signature event of Vancouver Cocktail Week will be held in the gorgeous Spanish Ballroom at the Rosewood Hotel Georgia and features live music, a DJ, elevated bar snacks, more than two dozen premium brand sponsors and, of course, more cocktail creativity than you could fit into a bootlegger’s bathtub.

And, because no celebration of community can go without supporting those who make it possible, Vancouver Cocktail Week is proud to announce that a portion of ticket sales will go to our charity partner, Mind The Bar, a Vancouver-based organization that supports mental health wellness in the hospitality industry across Canada.

Tickets for Vancouver Cocktail Week presented by The Alchemist are now on sale. For tickets or to browse the Vancouver Cocktail Week 2025 program guide, visit thealchemistmagazine.ca/vcw/. A print version of the program guide is also available at bars, restaurants and private liquor retailers around Vancouver.

Bespoke bottles

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The Banda Volpi amaro was created in partnership with Arbutus Distillery. Ian Lanterman photo

Vancouver hotspots like Osteria Elio Volpe and Caffè La Tana are authentically Italian, down to the tomatoes in the sugo. Yet your after-dinner limoncello might come from Esquimalt and your dark, bitter amaro from Nanaimo. The Banda Volpi restaurant group collaborates with B.C. distillers to create bespoke bottlings for its restaurants, and its “passion for creating and growing with our community is reflected in every bottle,” says group co-founder Paul Grundberg.

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Preston

Preston cocktail

The cherry garnish complements the tannic note of this original cocktail by Matthew Benevoli.

Ingredients:

1.5 oz bourbon (such as Basil Hayden)

1 oz Japanese plum liqueur

0.5 oz cherry liqueur (from canning)

2 oz steeped and chilled Earl Grey tea

Optional: a dash of lemon juice

Garnish: Boozy Cocktail Cherries

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Last word

Last Word cocktail

Boozy cocktail cherries add a personal note to this herbaceous classic.

Ingredients:

0.75 oz London Dry Style Gin (such as Sipsmith)

0.75 oz green Chartreuse

0.75 oz maraschino cherry liqueur

0.75 oz lime juice

Garnish: Boozy Cocktail Cherry

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The cherry on top

These garnishes add a grace note to cocktails—and make an excellent gift, too

While fresh cherries are best, frozen will work just fine to create a complex and just-boozy-enough garnish. Matthew Benevoli photos

Garnishes can be beautiful, vibrant, eye-catching additions to what we eat and drink. The more appealing, the more they add to our enjoyment. Though usually small in size, garnishes can have a large impact on our overall experience; just because they’re small doesn’t mean they’re not integral to the flavours and finish.

Enter the cocktail cherry.

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Holy smokes! Peated Island whisky named best in Canada

Macaloney’s Island Distillery takes top honours at 15th annual Canadian Whisky Awards

Macaloney’s Island Distillery Peat Project Moscatel Barrique single malt is the Canadian Whisky of the Year. Macaloney’s Island Distillery photo

A peated whisky from Vancouver Island — Macaloney’s Island Distillery Peat Project Moscatel Barrique single malt — has just been named the Canadian Whisky of the Year and upended all our perceptions of what Canadian whisky can be.

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The happiest of times

Afternoon, brunch, late night— why it seems like every hour is happy hour

It’s happy hour somewhere! Getty Images/E+/SolStock photo

It’s happy hour somewhere? These days, it feels a lot more like happy hour is everywhere, especially in Vancouver.

Hard to believe that, just a little over a decade ago, discounted day-drinking was still illegal in British Columbia, the only province in Canada that still maintained seemingly arcane regulations that banned these happiest of times. That changed in the summer of 2014, when B.C.’s liquor laws were revised to loosen up or eliminate a number of restrictions that prohibited things like alcohol sales at farmer’s markets and, of course, bars and restaurants offering time-specific drink specials.

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Chili-Infused Tequila

Add a kick to your classic cocktails with chili-infused tequila. iStock/Getty Images Plus/MikeVasilyev photo

Add a lively lick of heat to a Paloma or Margarita by replacing regular tequila with this chili-infused variation.

INGREDIENTS:

1 (750 mL) bottle blanco tequila, preferably good quality but not too expensive

3 medium-sized fresh chili peppers, washed, seeded and sliced (see note)

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Insights from inside

A very personal look at what it takes to open a successful bar

The room is designed to be bright, cheerful and very personal. Jessica Blaine Smith photos

Opening a bar in Toronto, where every corner of the city seems to be filled with vibrant and eclectic spots, can be as challenging, intimidating and thrilling. It poses even more challenges when you are a self-funded solo entrepreneur, especially when you are known not for your business acumen, your operational skills or your taste in food and wine, but for something as specific as cocktails. In a city celebrated for its diverse culinary and drinkscape, making a mark requires more than just good food and drinks. It demands a vision.

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Make it umami

Compton Ave’s Umami Old Fashioned. Instagram.com/barcomptonave photo

The Dirty Martini is just the start. These days we love our savoury cocktails and the unexpected ingredients that add those rich umami flavours. Here are just five we’ve sampled recently in Toronto bars.

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