Recipe courtesy of Bodega on Main
• 0.75 oz Tanqueray No. Ten Gin
• 0.75 oz Appleton Estate Reserve Blend
• 0.5 oz Aperol
• 0.5 oz Lime
• 0.5 oz Honey Ginger Syrup
• 2 dashes of Lavender Bitters
• 2 oz Cava
• Grapefruit Peel
La Colmena
Powell Street Punch
Matthew Benevoli’s Powell Street Punch uses his recipe for homemade Red Hibiscus Vermouth.
• 1 oz brandy
• 1 oz Red Hibiscus Vermouth
• 0.5 oz Sons of Vancouver amaretto
• 1 oz apple cider
• 0.25 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice
• Garnish: Cinnamon stick
50/50 Martini
Matthew Benevoli’s recipe uses his homemade White Chamomile Vermouth recipe
• 1.5 oz dry gin
• 1.5 oz White Chamomile Vermouth
• 2 dashes orange bitters
• Garnish: Lemon twist
DIY vermouth
Add a personalized twist to your favourite cocktails with this aromatized, fortified wine
Let’s talk about the often-misunderstood aperitif vermouth. What is it? Where does it come from?
Vermouth is fortified wine with herbs, roots, spices and sometimes sugar added. There are a handful of different styles to choose from: the most common offerings are sweet red, traditionally from Italy; and dry white wormwood-infused from France. The word vermouth is the French pronunciation for “wermut,” which is German for wormwood, the mystical herb that gives absinthe its reputation and provides the distinctive dry, bitter note found in vermouth.
A taste of Japan
Just when you thought bitters companies had created every flavour imaginable for your cocktail-drinking enjoyment, The Japanese Bitters comes along to wake up your palate with something completely new.
Umami Martini
Replace murky olive brine with clear bitters in this evolution of the classic Dirty Martini.
• 1.5 oz gin
• 0.5 oz dry vermouth
• 2 dashes The Japanese Bitters Umami Bitters (or to taste)
• Garnish: cocktail olives or pickled mushroom (optional)
Dangerous drinks
10 things not to do at home—or anywhere, according to CocktailSafe’s Camper English
The Roof is on Fire! That was the name of a dangerous-drinks seminar that San Francisco writer Camper English (of alcademics.com fame) and Bittermens co-founder Avery Glasser gave in 2016 at Tales of the Cocktail. Their warnings on potentially dangerous bartending ingredients, equipment and techniques were so eye-opening, English later nabbed a grant to develop cocktailsafe.org, a geekily helpful website packed with deeply researched information and resources.
“Bartenders on Facebook were chatting a lot about potentially dangerous drinks … and I thought it would be useful to put all this information, and a lot more, in one place as a reference to bartenders everywhere,” he says.
Here are his top 10 red flags for home mixologists—and pros, too.
Spice up winter with Fever-Tree ginger
Ale or beer, spiced or smoky, it’s what we’re thirsty for right now
Warm, bright and pleasantly spicy—when the weather turns cool, we crave the flavour of ginger. Luckily, Fever-Tree has our holiday-spice cravings covered with a range of ginger mixers.
“People love it,” says Alexis Green, the national brand engagement manager for Fever-Tree. “People are slowly starting to discover the ginger ale range and they really love it. People are going crazy for the smoky and the spicy.”
Unleaded: the Best Alcohol-free Drinks of 2021
Let’s retire the mocktails and let these placebo drinks, “nocktails” and free-spirited bottles happily get you through Dry-uary
This year could be peak Sober Curious: just check out the new booze-free vending machine at Larry’s Market in the Shipyards, featuring mickeys of Solbru booze-free spirit and cans of Sober Carpenter and Partake near-beer in slots that recently held healthy salads and takeout—proof that Dry-uary is a full-blown lifestyle trend.
Seedlip Grove 42 Margarita
Recipe courtesy of Seedlip
• 10 oz Seedlip Grove 42
• 6 Tbsp agave syrup
• 4 oz fresh lime juice
• Ice
• Salt
• Lime wheel (for garnish)
Salt glasses in advance by running lime around the rim, followed by rolling in salt. Garnish each glass with a lime wheel. Pour all ingredients in a jug, stir, add ice and stir again before serving. Makes 4 drinks.