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.

Seaweed: Bar manager Elise Hanson, winner of the 2024 Bombay Sapphire Most Imaginative Bartender Award, loves savoury cocktails. At Civil Works on Queen West, she adds a wakame seaweed distillate to The Finished Pipe, her boozy take on tom yum soup make with sake and house tom yum cordial.

Parmesan cheese: At Slice of Life in Kensington Market, Parm is grated over a Martini made with mezcal, strawberry liqueur and house-made bitter-chocolate liqueur, and the whole drink garnished with pink peppercorns.

Soy sauce: At Compton Ave., the new British-themed bar in Little Portugal from Bar Chef’s Frankie Solarik, a soy reduction adds a deep savoury note to the Umami Old Fashioned (bourbon, pandan syrup, maple syrup, a soy reduction and lapsang souchong bitters).

Olive oil: At Azura on Danforth Avenue, Shayne Herbert emulsifies Turkish olive oil with gin, lemon and basil, in a drink called the Olive Branch.

Pickles: The team at World’s Best Bars-anointed Bar Pompette loves playing with unexpected ingredients, such as hay, beeswax, whey and the pickle distillate in their popular Cornichon Martini.