Cranberry Collins

Justin Taylor’s Cranberry Collins. Lou Lou Childs photo

A perfect welcome cocktail to any holiday party and one that can also be served alcohol-free.

INGREDIENTS:
2 oz. gin
1 oz. freshly squeezed lime juice
1 oz. pure cranberry juice
1 oz. rosemary and sage syrup*
3 oz. soda water
rosemary sprigs

METHOD:
To a tall glass, add gin, juices and syrup. Add ice and top with soda. Garnish with rosemary.

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Home Made Eggnog

Justin Taylor’s Home Made Eggnog. Lou Lou Childs photo

Best made a few days in advance to allow the flavours to develop.

INGREDIENTS:
6 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp ground allspice
12 oz bourbon or rum
3 cups whole milk
1.5 cups heavy cream
2 whole nutmegs (for garnish)

METHOD:
Measure all your ingredients. Add the eggs to a blender running on lowest setting. After 20 seconds slowly pour in sugar and allspice. Increase speed to medium and slowly add bourbon, followed by milk and cream, and blend for one minute. Refrigerate immediately in an airtight container. Stir before serving. Garnish with freshly grated nutmeg. Makes 8-10 servings.

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Mulled Wine

Justin Taylor’s Mulled Wine. Lou Lou Childs photo

Turn the heat on under this cocktail an hour before your guests arrive and your home will be filled with wonderful holiday aromas.

INGREDIENTS:
750ml bottle red wine
2 cups freshly squeezed orange juice, pulp removed
0.5 cup granulated sugar
0.5 cup brandy or Cognac
2 tsp whole cloves
3 unpeeled mandarins, washed and cut into quarters
2 apples cored and quartered
1 cup frozen cranberries
4 cinnamon sticks
3 sprigs of rosemary

METHOD:
Add wine, orange juice and sugar into a large pot over medium heat and stir until sugar dissolves. Stud mandarins with cloves and add, along with remaining ingredients, to pot. Cook gently for two hours (take care not to boil off the alcohol). Remove from heat and allow to cool, then strain through a sieve, pressing down to extract the juices from the cranberries and mandarins. Store up to one week in fridge. To serve, heat in a crockpot on low, or in a pan over low heat. Do not boil. Garnish with mandarin segments, apple slices, cinnamon sticks and cranberries. Makes 12, five oz. servings.

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Tales with a twist

Chambar’s Philippe Grandbois weaves new tales for classic cocktails

Jennifer Gauthier photo

For more than a decade, Chambar has been known as not only a destination restaurant famous for its Belgian and North African-influenced cuisine, but also as a cocktail haven that has attracted and nurtured some of the city’s top talent. Now, the restaurant has taken its cocktail program one step further, hiring Philippe Grandbois as Creative Director of Mixology — a new position in the company.

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Don the Beachcomber’s Mai Tai

Donn Beach—a.k.a. Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt, a.k.a. Don the Beachcomber—reportedly invented his version of the drink in 1933, when it was called a Mai Tai Swizzle.

• 1 oz gold rum
• 1.5 oz dark rum
• 1 oz (30 mL) grapefruit juice
• 0.75 oz lime juice
• 0.5 oz Cointreau or triple sec
• 0.25 oz falernum
• 6 drops Pernod
• Dash of Angostura bitters
• Mint sprig to garnish

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Trader Vic’s Mai Tai

Victor Bergeron, founder of Trader Vic’s restaurants, claims to be the originator of the Mai Tai, back in 1944. This is his version of the drink.

• 2 oz aged rum
• 1 oz fresh lime juice
• 0.5 oz orgeat syrup (such as Giffard)
• 0.5 oz  Cointreau or Curaçao
• Mint sprig to garnish

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Tai me up

The origins of the tiki cocktail classic, the Mai Tai

The decor at Vancouver’s Shameful Tiki Room is tiki-tastic. Dan Toulgoet photos

Order the Mai Tai at your peril. It can be one of the world’s greatest cocktails but, like the Bellini and the Margarita, in the wrong hands, it can be an unmitigated disaster. Instead of a delicately fragrant yet powerfully boozy elixir, you are as likely to receive a dispiriting glass of something sweet, sticky and suspiciously hued.

Any bartender who knows their way around the classics should be able to make a decent Mai Tai, but for the real deal, you really want to seek out a tiki expert.

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Rosemary Nights

Jayce Kadyschuk’s Rosemary Nights cocktail. Photo courtesy of Clives Classic Lounge.

• 2 oz Knob Creek Rye
• 0.25 oz rosemary syrup
• 2 dashes black pepper bitters
• 1 dash Angostura bitters
• 1 dash saline solution
• fresh rosemary sprig

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Liquid lore

At Clive’s Classic Lounge, every cocktail tells a story

Photo courtesy of Clives Classic Lounge.

Stepping outside of the box has become old hat to bar manager Jayce Kadyschuk of Clive’s Classic Lounge in Victoria, who, along with his team, is driven by his passion to tell a story through every cocktail served.

“We want to create a unique experience with every drink,” he explains. “People are always curious about what goes into a cocktail, how we came up with the recipe — and that desire for a story forces us to be innovative.”

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Here and now

At Olo, the cocktail list roots you in space and time

Olo bar manager Matt Cooke. Adriam Lam photo

OLO restaurant has a reputation for championing local, sustainable and seasonal fare, and new bar manager Matt Cooke wanted a cocktail menu to match, focused on highlighting the region’s craft distillers. “We have a ton of local spirits here,” he enthuses. “They’re all made with local ingredients, so we want to pay homage to them and the people making them. We want clients to be able to say, ‘Oh, this is an Ampersand cocktail.’”

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