Canada's only magazine dedicated to distillers, spirits and cocktail culture.
The winner of the Diageo World Class competition is widely considered the best bartender in the world. And right now, the best bartender in the world is Vancouver’s own Kaitlyn Stewart, bar manager of Royal Dinette.
You can’t call something a classic until it’s been kicking around a while. But there’s more to it than that. A classic has a timeless elegance that feels so right, you can’t quite imagine the world without it.
Think Breton stripes, little black dresses, Hemingway’s novels, the Barcelona chair, Frank Sinatra’s velvet vocals and the Manhattan, Old Fashioned or Negroni – the LBDs of the cocktail world.
Here in Vancouver, you might think the cocktail scene is too young to have inspired any classics. You’d be wrong. Here are some of the city’s signature sips.
It might not actually be the very last straw, but Gerry Jobe hopes it’ll come awfully close.
British Columbia’s artisan gins are in a tricky place.
Some are interesting, but not exactly delicious. Some taste good, but aren’t exciting enough to warrant the high price tag that the difficulty of making local hooch demands. Some have such powerful cereal notes you know the distiller really wants to be making whisky instead. Some taste like perfume, others like vodka.
And then there’s Queensborough gin from Surrey’s Central City Brewers + Distillers.
As we get set to celebrate BC Day on Aug. 7, let’s raise a glass to the province’s greatest unsung local ingredient, the one that can transform our cocktails from ordinary to sublime: Salt.
Throughout history, this tasty and essential mineral has been used as a currency, a preservative and a flavour enhancer. Wars have been fought over the stuff. And there’s a whole ocean of it right on our doorstep.
Summer in Vancouver is all about the patio. Almost any patch of sidewalk will do, really, but it’s certainly better if that chunk of concrete comes with a decent cocktail or two.
That said, our very favourite patios are Vancouver’s hidden ones, those quiet urban oases that we share only with a handful of people in the know. Finding a new one is like discovering treasure buried in your own backyard.
Don your fascinators and fedoras, raise your cocktail coupes, and you’re off to the races for the ninth annual Deighton Cup.
Right now our gardens and markets are bursting with seasonal produce that we just can’t wait to transform into cocktails. But don’t you wish you could enjoy those garden-fresh flavours year round?
Think Kitsilano and you’re likely to think yoga pants and granola, luxe hippies and sandy beaches, vegetarian cafés and cosy pubs. Cocktails? Not so much, right?
It’s the taste of a perfect summer afternoon: that citrus bite, the peppery hit of tequila, the touch of salt like the spray of a random ocean wave.
We’re talking about the Margarita, of course; the quintessential summer cocktail that holds a mysterious past. When it comes to this particular dame’s history, no one really knows what the truth is.