Home Bar

Cordials

August 24, 2022 No Comments

Time to be cordial (with our cocktails)

Use high-quality natural ingredients to make your own cordials. Matthew Benevoli photos

Cordials are often referred to as liqueurs or flavoured liquors; however, today we will be making the UK style of cordial, which is more akin to a concentrated syrup.

I’m sure we’ve all noticed and maybe even reached for that bottle of neon green lime cordial at the grocery store. Sure, it works “fine” in drinks like a classic Gimlet (which is simply gin and lime cordial, shaken and served in a chilled cocktail glass), but the artificial lime flavour can take away from the beautiful spirits we love.

Home Bar

Spiced rum

December 15, 2021 No Comments

Give this DIY winter warmer a West Coast twist

Homemade spiced rum makes a good gift, especially for yourself. Matthew Benevoli photos

As the days get shorter and colder, we trade our Hawaiian shirts for sweaters and our light spirits for dark. Spiced rum is a wonderful way to warm up your cocktails during the autumn and winter. But what is spiced rum? In short, it’s (usually) an aged rum that’s been flavoured.

Modern versions of rum have been around since the 17th century, with accounts of “secret blend rums” in Jamaica flavoured with fruit, herbs and spices being served in Port Royal taverns. When spirits age in oak barrels, the wood commonly imparts rich flavours of vanilla and caramel, but beyond this you’ll find spice notes of allspice, nutmeg and clove, among others. Depending how the barrels are treated, you may also find toasted nut and stone fruit notes atop the woody oak blanket. “Spicing” with these components seems a natural evolution to further enhance the flavours that rum already presents us with.

Home Bar, Recipes

La Joya

July 15, 2021 No Comments

Matthew Benevoli’s La Joya uses his homemade ginger bug.

• 1.25 oz blanco tequila

• 0.5 oz elderflower liqueur

• 0.75 oz ginger bug

• 1 oz orange juice (preferably fresh-pressed)

• 0.25 oz lemon juice

• Garnish: lemon twist, orange slice or vibrant flower

Home Bar, Recipes

Ginger Bug Penicillin

July 15, 2021 No Comments

Matthew Benevoli’s Ginger Bug Penicillin uses his homemade ginger bug.

• 1.5 oz blended scotch whisky

• 0.75 oz fresh lemon juice

• 0.75 oz ginger bug

• 0.5 oz honey syrup (see note)

• 0.25 oz peated Islay scotch

• Garnish: piece of candied ginger or a lemon twist

Home Bar

Ginger Bug

July 14, 2021 No Comments

Fizzy and spicy, it’s the best base for summer’s most refreshing patio cocktails

To make the ginger bug, you will need ginger root, sugar and filtered water, as well as Mason jars, paper coffee filters or cheesecloth, and measuring tools. Matthew Benevoli photos

With the longer days and hotter weather just around the corner, let’s get a helping hand from nature. We’ll be creating something with some heat, a little bit sweet and bright as the summer: a ginger bug!

A ginger bug isn’t really a bug at all, but a naturally fermented ginger mixture with some sugar, water and a little time and care. For generations, naturally fermented soft drinks have been used as health tonics and as refreshments for everyone from laymen to royalty. Traditional ginger beer and ale used to be produced with the help of a ginger bug, and contained natural medicinal properties to ease cold symptoms and nausea (I’m sure we’ve all heard someone swear by sipping ginger ale for an upset stomach.)

Classics, Home Bar

5 drinks every home bartender should know how to make

February 26, 2021 No Comments

Our editor’s essential cocktails

An Old Fashioned is a classic cocktail every home bartender should know how to make. Getty images photo

Now that we’re all spending so much more time at home, this is a good opportunity to brush up on our home-bartending skills. That means learning at least a few recipes to serve to the people in your bubble and, eventually, all the many friends you’re making on Zoom.

The most important drink you should know how to make is the one you like best. That’s also the best advice for stocking your liquor cabinet, though for your sake I hope it’s something simple, like a highball, rather than, say, a Ramos Gin Fizz, which requires egg whites, orange blossom water and a seltzer bottle, among other things.

After that, it’s best to start with classics. They are, after all, classics for a reason—they taste good, and they work—but they are also a good place to start experimenting if you want to get creative. Here are five drinks every home bartender should have in their repertoire.

Home Bar

The new home bar

January 29, 2021 No Comments

Even before we found ourselves hunkering down at home trying to flatten the curve of a global pandemic, home bartending was already a growing trend. Once COVID-19 hit, though, we were all living in a world of cocktail kits and mixology livestreams and tutorials on how to arrange your bar cart.

Home Bar, Recipes

Powell Street Punch

January 22, 2021 No Comments

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

Home Bar, Recipes

50/50 Martini

January 21, 2021 No Comments

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

Home Bar

DIY vermouth

January 20, 2021 No Comments

Add a personalized twist to your favourite cocktails with this aromatized, fortified wine

For this white vermouth, you’ll need botanicals such as grapefruit peel, bay leaves, dried apples, chamomile and mint tea, which mimic the earthy flavours of the wormwood that gave vermouth its name. Matthew Benevoli photo

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.