Sexual harassment, Speed Rack and the realities of being a woman bartender
You’ve come a long way, baby – or have you?
You go, girl
Vancouver #2
Before the team at Botanist installed the bar top, creative beverage director Grant Sceney “bought a drink for the next generation of bartenders” by embedding a bottled cocktail, a handwritten note and a copy of the first bar menu inside the bar itself. This is the cocktail they left for the future: an updated version of the classic Vancouver cocktail. “We’ve made the Vancouver Cocktail as Vancouver as we can,” says Sceney.
Botanist stirs things up
With its own cocktail lab, this new bar is set to launch an era of innovation in Vancouver
Bored with the same old watering holes? Well, you’re in luck, because Botanist is getting ready to shake up Vancouver’s cocktail scene.
Joy’s Cocktail
This refreshing patio-sipper of a cocktail is created by Appleton Estate master blender Joy Spence.
Ingredients:
• Slice of orange
• 1 oz (30 mL) Appleton Estate Reserve Blend
• 3 oz (90 mL) ginger ale
• 5 drops Angostura bitters
• Slice of orange peel to garnish
From Jamaica to Vancouver
A visit from the queen of rum
“When people taste it, the first word you hear is, ‘Whoa,’” says Joy Spence, smiling. I take a sip. “Whoa,” I exclaim. She laughs.
B.C.’s spirits boom: sample the best in handcrafted hooch
BC Distilled festival an opportunity to sample everything from amaro to whisky, all made right here
It’s hard to believe that just five years ago, British Columbia had fewer than 10 artisan distilleries. Today, the province has at least 40, with a whole bunch more in the works.
The romance of amaro
First there’s chocolate – dark and rich. Then spice—a whole caravan of exotic flavours and aromas from faraway lands. The bitterness lands next – astringent, clean, pleasantly mouthwatering. Throughout, delicate florals, dried fruits and an underlying sweetness keep everything in balance. There’s plenty to love about the new Mia Amata amaro from Odd Society Spirits, and not just because it counts Brazilian aphrodisiacs among its botanical makeup.
“I wanted to make it a modern-style bitter,” says Mia Glanz, the bartender who created it. “It took three years of work. I discarded an original recipe and started again.”
The Paper Plane Updated
Mia Glanz puts her own spin on the modern classic cocktail.
• ¾ oz (22 mL) lemon juice
• ¾ oz (22 mL) Aperol
• ¾ oz (22 mL) bourbon
• ¾ oz (22 mL) Mia Amata amaro
It’s better with bitters
It’s right there in the original description of a cocktail, dating back to 1806: “a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters – it is vulgarly called a bittered sling.”
In other words, bitters are what make a cocktail a cocktail. And that makes bitters an essential part of any home or professional bar.
The Last Wall
This Mexican-influenced variation on the classic Last Word cocktail was created by bartender Tarquin Melnyk to highlight the fresh, juicy Ms. Better’s Green Strawberry Mah-Kwan bitters. “It has the biggest wow factor when people are trying bitters for the first time,” he says.
• 1 oz (30 mL) mezcal, preferably Siete Misterios
• 1 oz (30 mL) green Chartreuse
• 1 oz (30 mL) Luxardo Maraschino liqueur
• 1 oz (30 mL) fresh lime juice
• 2 dashes Ms. Better’s Green Strawberry Mah-Kwan bitters