November is no one’s favourite month. It’s dark, cold, wet and gloomy, and it isn’t quitethe month that comes with presents. Maybe that’s why it’s such a great month for drinking. I mean, maybe that’s why it’s such a great month for new product releases and exciting social events, starting with these.
Blood Orange Sidecar
Blood oranges are in stores right now, but not for long. They are delicious in any of the traditional sours, especially in this juicy variation on a classic Sidecar.
INGREDIENTS:
1.5 oz (45 mL) Cognac or brandy
1 oz (30 mL) Cointreau
0.5 oz (15 mL) lemon juice
1.5 oz (45 mL) blood orange juice
METHOD:
Place all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake well. Fine strain into a chilled cocktail coupe. Serves 1.
A Cornucopia of cocktails in Whistler
Savour the art of the shaken and stirred at the ski resort’s annual food and drink fest
If you think Whistler Cornucopia is just about wine, think again. Sure, there’s no shortage of Chardonnay, but the annual food-and-drink festival is also about beer, whisky and, above all, cocktails.
In fact, Whistler has generally become a great destination for cocktail lovers. As Mary Zinck, the manager of travel media for Tourism Whistler, says, “I don’t think there is a place that you can go where you can’t get a good drink.”
Mountain Mezcal Sour
This smoky, sweet and sour cocktail was created by Rob Kharazmi and the bar team at Sidecut, Four Seasons Resort Whistler, just in time for Cornucopia.
39 bits of booze lingo every cocktail lover should know
Your primer for the the lexicon of liquor
Cocktails have their own vocabulary, a richly evocative lingo that has evolved over the years from the barkeeps who sling the drinks, the customers who swill ’em and the scribes who take note of it all.
Here are some of the most useful expressions to know.
The Last Word
This Prohibition-era cocktail had been long forgotten until it was rediscovered by Seattle-based bartender Murray Stenson.
INGREDIENTS:
0.75 oz (22 mL) gin
0.75 oz (22 mL) green Chartreuse
0.75 oz (22 mL) maraschino liqueur
0.75 oz (22 mL) fresh lime juice
METHOD:
Place all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a chilled martini glass or a coupe. If you like, garnish with lime twist. Serves 1.
Hendrick’s Gin Old Fashioned
Floral, fragrant and refreshing – Josh Pape’s gin-based take on the Old Fashioned has been a huge hit at Wildebeest.
INGREDIENTS:
1-inch cylinder of cucumber, or ½ oz (15 mL) cucumber juice
2 oz (60 mL) Hendrick’s gin
2 tsp (10 mL) runny honey (see note)
2 dashes Scrappy’s lavender bitters
Cucumber slice to garnish (optional)
METHOD:
Muddle the cucumber in a mixing glass. (Alternatively, stir in the cucumber juice with the rest of the ingredients.) Add ice, gin, runny honey and bitters and stir until the drink is well chilled and has reached your ideal level of dilution. Fine strain into an Old Fashioned glass over fresh ice. If you like, garnish with a slice of cucumber. Serves 1.
Old Fashioned refashioned at Wildebeest
Cocktail-forward restaurant serving nine new takes on the classic for its fifth birthday
The Old Fashioned is, arguably, the original cocktail, or at least, the whisky version of it.
Meet Davin de Kergommeaux, Canada’s rye guy
Davin de Kergommeaux and I are lounging in the oak-paneled sitting room of Willistead Manor in Windsor, Ont., ancestral home of the Hiram Walker family, sipping rye and, fittingly, talking about Canadian whisky.
“I’ve got a lot of single malt at home, but preferentially, I drink Canadian whisky,” says de Kergommeaux. “I like the rye spices in Canadian whisky. It’s flavourful, well-balanced and enjoyable.”
It’s time to try Canada’s oldest whisky
Canadian Club 40 Year Old is the oldest whisky ever released by a Canadian distiller
Only in Canada, you say? Pity. Everyone else will have to travel to the True North to get their hands on the oldest Canadian whisky that has ever been poured.
“In Canadian whisky, you’re never going to find a 40-year-old whisky – not until today,” Tish Harcus tells us as we stand outside the Windsor, Ont., warehouse where row upon row of barrels stand stacked upon each other.