• 2 oz. Cherry Heering
• 0.5 oz. orgeat syrup
• 0.25 oz. Fernet-Branca
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1 egg white
Mount Pleasant
Home and away
Andrew Schneider’s Mount Pleasant cocktail put Cherry Heering front and centre on the London stage
Close to 3,000 bartenders around the world vied to be the best, but in the end it was the U.K.’s Grant Murray who was named winner of the prestigious 2016 Peter F. Heering Classic Challenge at London Cocktail Week in October.
Vancouver entrant, Andrew Schneider, bartender at Vij’s, advanced to the final round of the competition, held as part of the World’s Best 50 Bars gala countdown, and judged by spirits luminaries, David Wondrich, Lauren Mote, Simon Difford, Charlene Dawes, Hamish Smith, and host Andrew Seymour.
The cosmopolitan
Our man at the bar, John Burns, discovers the joys of warm beer
It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, reading 141 books over the course of a few months, but that was a side project of mine over the fall and if I’m going to be completely frank, since we’re old friends now, I’ll admit that it wasn’t always tea in my cup as I worked my way through eight linear feet of Canadian nonfiction.
Now that I’ve finished the reading, you’d think I’d never pick up a book again, but I found myself leafing through Charles Dickens the other day—it’s the snap in the air—and came across this passage from Our Mutual Friend: “The bar of the Six Jolly Fellowship Porters was a bar to soften the human breast.…[The rooms] had red curtains matching the noses of the regular customers, and were provided with comfortable fireside tin utensils, like models of sugar-loaf hats, made in that shape that they might, with their pointed ends, seek out for themselves glowing nooks in the depths of the red coals, when they mulled your ale, or heated for you those delectable drinks, Purl, Flip, and Dog’s Nose.”
Vancouver’s Brooklyn
A take on the defunct classic cocktail, The Brooklyn, and an homage to the relationship between North Vancouver and the big city over the bridge.
• 1.5 oz. rye whisky
• 0.3 oz. amaretto
• 0.3 oz. Cocchi Americano
• 0.3 oz. maraschino liqueur
• 3 dashes of bitters
• 1 maraschino cherry
Prodigal sons
How Sons of Vancouver is riding the big boom in small spirits
It will be just two short years in February since Sons of Vancouver opened for business—with a 700-litre still repurposed from a dairy pasteurizer. And, like so many of the distilleries around B.C., owners James Lester and Richard Klaus have barely had time to pause for breath.
Take the past few months of 2016 as an example: Sons ran a successful crowdfunding campaign to upgrade to a proper—and much bigger—still, opened a tasting room, and will release a special barrel-aged edition of their signature No. 82 Amaretto in time for the holidays.
It wasn’t meant to happen this fast.
Whistler warmers
Après ski is a cozy affair at Fairmont Chateau Whistler’s The Mallard Lounge
Whistler is synonymous with winter. Temperatures fall and, in short order, so too does the snow and a barrage of tourists eager to take to the slopes.
And when those tourists have had their fill of the great outdoors, many of them descend upon Fairmont Chateau Whistler’s The Mallard Lounge.
Spirited gifts
We asked some top B.C. bartenders which bottle of local spirits they would put on their Christmas list
Katie Ingram
Lead Bartender, L’Abattoir Restaurant
I’d pick Okanagan Spirits Laird of Fintry Single Malt Whisky. It is a Scotch-style single malt made with 100 per cent B.C. malted barley using French and American oak, and finished in Okanagan wine barrels. The nose is unbelievable with plum, vanilla, raisins, berries, poached pears, nuts, and classic oak characteristics that continue on the palate. It has a dry finish with a hint of sweet vanilla and baking spices. I would make a twist on a Rob Roy — a Rodney’s Roy — with 2 oz. Laird of Fintry,
0.3 oz. Noilly Prat Rouge,
0.3 oz. Noilly Prat Ambre and two dashes Bittered Sling Cascade Celery Bitters.
German Burnt Punch
A take on the traditional Feuerzangenbowle
• 1 sugar cube
• 0.25 oz Bacardi 151 over-proof rum
• 1 oz Asbach German brandy
• 1 oz Cointreau
• 3 oz fresh orange juice
• 0.5 oz fresh lemon juice
• 0.25 oz vanilla syrup (such as Giffard)
Light my fire
Flames add flavour—and drama—to festive concoctions
I was just thinking of a Flaming Rum Punch,” says Clarence Odbody, the 293-year-old guardian angel in Frank Capra’s 1946 masterpiece It’s a Wonderful Life. But in this post-war dive bar all that’s on offer is “hard drinks… for men who want to get drunk fast.”
Back when Clarence was just a cherub, though, punches were all the rage. A concoction of spirits with something sweet, something sour, something weak and something spicy, punch was a communal beverage, enjoyed at social gatherings. It was often served hot, typically heated by inserting a molten hot poker into a jug, bowl or pitcher of liquor. There were, at times, flames.
Since then, flamed drinks have gone in and out of fashion like a Blue Blazer in a fickle breeze.
Cool Yule
Warm up with these festive cocktails
Whether it’s a glass of eggnog, a hot buttered rum, or a mug of spicy mulled wine, the winter season is loaded with tasty cocktails. What makes them ideal for the home bartender is their reliance on easily sourced pantry ingredients: spices (cinnamon, clove and nutmeg), fresh herbs (rosemary, thyme and sage), and fruits (mandarins, cranberries and pomegranates). Here are my family recipes for iconic winter cocktails—and a twist or two designed to take your holiday gathering to the next level.