Canada's only magazine dedicated to distillers, spirits and cocktail culture.
Sangria has been around for quite a while — a couple of thousand years, in fact. “Most people don’t realize that it’s been around that long,” laughs Paul Rivas, who, along with his sister Natalie, owns Vancouver’s Bodega on Main — the reincarnation of the much-loved former downtown tapas bar, La Bodega.
INGREDIENTS:
• 1 oz. Odd Society East Van Vodka
• 0.5 oz. freshly squeezed lime juice
• 3 oz. Walter’s Caesar Mix
• 2 dashes Tapatio Hot Sauce
• Pinch ground pepper
• Pinch brown sugar
• 3 oz. Main Street Pilsner
METHOD:
In a 20 oz. pint glass, add ice and all other ingredients, and stir. Garnish with a stick of celery.
INGREDIENTS:
• 1.5 oz. Wayward Distilling Honey Rum
• 0.5 oz. orgeat syrup
• 0.5 oz. freshly squeezed lime juice
• half a ripe banana
• 3 dashes Angostura Bitters
• 4 oz. Strangefellows Guardian White IPA
METHOD:
Put the banana into a cocktail shaker and muddle to a paste. Add everything except the beer, add ice and shake vigorously. Fine strain over fresh ice into a goblet. Top with Strangefellows Beer. Garnish with fresh banana slices.
Kissed by a Bee, Sage Paloma, Raspberry Thyme Collins… The cocktail menu at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel’s ARC Bar, pays proper tribute to the 2,100-square foot garden perched on its roof.
ARC’s general manager Roman Vondal describes the garden, which also includes four bee hives, as a treasure coveted by both the hotel’s chefs and bartenders.
INGREDIENTS:
• 1 oz. Okanagan Spirits Gin
• 0.5 oz. Okanagan Spirits Rhubarb Liqueur
• 2 oz. freshly squeezed ruby red grapefruit juice
• 3 dashes Bittered Sling Grapefruit & Hops Bitters
• 3 oz. Parkside Graffiti IPA
METHOD:
Add all ingredients except beer to a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake hard for 15 seconds. Fine strain into a pilsner glass, top with Parkside Beer. Garnish with a fresh grapefruit wedge.
INGREDIENTS:
• 1 oz. Shelter Point Distillery Whisky
• 0.75 oz. lemon juice
• 0.5 oz. clove-infused maple syrup*
• 3 dashes of Bittered Sling Gastown Bitters
• 2 oz. Four Winds Pale Ale
METHOD:
Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass. Add ice and stir for 15 seconds. Strain over fresh ice into an Old Fashioned glass. Garnish with apple slices.
We are fortunate to not only have incredible local spirits in B.C., but also an abundance of amazing craft beers. As a cocktail maker, this is another great excuse to start mixing — but before you begin that process, you’re just going to have to make the sacrifice and open a few beers to taste.
• 1 fresh raspberry
• 1.5oz Odd Society Wallflower Gin
• 0.5oz Odd Society Crème de Cassis
• 0.5oz Odd Society Bittersweet Vermouth
• 1oz lemon juice
• 0.25oz simple syrup
• 2 dashes Szechuan pepper bitters
• 4 drops Ms. Better’s Bitters Miraculous Foamer
The Tasting Lounge at Odd Society Spirits in East Vancouver is a veritable beehive, buzzing with collaboration. Behind the bar, Kylie Bartlett shakes a frothy Tree Sum cocktail and strains it into a coupe glass. The neon-green libation was created by Vanessa Bourget, owner of Exile Bistro, and is made with a foraged-pine-needle, parsley syrup that Ms. Bourget trades to the craft distiller in exchange for the drink’s other key ingredient, Odd Society’s Wallflower Gin.
Part of the distillery’s Visiting Cocktail program, the forest-fresh Tree Sum is just one of many collaborations that allows Odd Society to live up to its name as an unusual innovator within British Columbia’s still somewhat oddly disconnected worlds of craft spirits and bartending.
“Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy night.”—Bette Davis as Margo Channing—Gibson in hand—in the classic 1950 movie, All About Eve.