J.P. Wiser’s 24 Year Old takes top prize at the 16th annual Canadian Whisky Awards
Photo courtesy of Canadian Whisky Awards
Davin de Kergommeaux founded the Canadian Whisky Awards in 2010 to boost the awareness and quality of our homegrown spirit, announcing the winners each January during the annual Victoria Whisky Festival.
Sixteen years later, as he prepares to hand the awards over to a new generation of whisky lovers, he describes the state of Canadian whisky as “diverse and robust,” and says: “Canadian distillers are doing stuff that was unheard of even 16 years ago. What we have is something really exciting and really Canadian.”
Think you know Irish whiskey? Diverse styles and new distilleries are defying the stereotypes
Cork’s Shelbourne Bar is a must for whiskey lovers, with a menu that offers more than 500 options, all from Ireland. Photos courtesy of Shelbourne Bar
Ireland’s southern “second city” of Cork has many things going for it, including an easy walkability, a perhaps surprisingly impressive culinary scene and more than a brewery or two of note. For anyone with an interest in Irish whiskey, however, without question its top attraction is the Shelbourne Bar.
Life is sweet these days for a Kelowna-based syrup maker
At the Simps Modern Beverage shop in Kelowna, customers can find more than 70 syrups and other products—and they can craft their own dirty sodas just for fun, too. Photo courtesy of Simps Modern Beverage
The day I stop by Simps Modern Beverage, located in an industrial part of Kelowna, everything is in cheerful chaos. Customers mill around the tiny shop, which is in the process of a makeover; behind the scenes, a small team is furiously packing boxes, answering calls, taking deliveries and sending even more of them out the door, everyone apparently doing at least three things at once.
Making a dirty soda is less about following a recipe than it is about assembling the soda, syrup, cream (or creamer) and other add-ins to your own taste. But this is a good place to start. And if you do feel like breaking the rules and adding a shot of vodka or other spirits, we promise not to tell.
Hot toddies and hot buttered rum are the warming drinks we crave in cool weather—and easier to make than you might think. Matthew Benevoli photo
As the weather shifts from warm to cold and dewy mornings turn frosty, we all look for ways to stay warm and cozy. Sometimes we grab a sweater or fuzzy blanket, but this year why not try hot buttered rum?
I normally gravitate towards drinks in my comfort zone, like a hot toddy, mulled wine or hot apple cider; however, it’s fun to branch out, venture into new territory and explore other options. Often associated with the winter holidays, hot buttered rum can easily be enjoyed throughout the year. Its blend of baking spices, brown sugar, vanilla, hot water, rum and (you guessed it) butter creates a rich, velvety and whimsical cocktail to warm you to the core and bring a smile to your face.
According to cocktail historian David Wondrich: “The hot toddy was the original way single-malt scotches were consumed as they were considered to be ‘lesser quality’ whisky in contrast to the art of blended scotch.”
Narrative-driven cocktail menus don’t just list drinks, they tell a story of place
At Vancouver’s Prophecy Bar, the menu includes cocktails like the Souvenir, which comes with a personal story that has universal relevance. Maggie Lam photo
This summer at Cry Baby Gallery, a cocktail bar hidden behind a small art gallery in Toronto’s Little Portugal, the menu took a new direction—from minimalism to maximalism.
Once a sparse and straightforward list with a dozen cocktails, the menu at Cry Baby is now a 22-page nostalgia trip rooted in analog-era Toronto. It borrows its format from the Yellow Pages, an artifact that is described on the menu as sort of a pre-digital influencer. Each drink is tied to a fictional business of days gone by—psychics, martial arts studios, modelling agencies and others—to build out an imagined community and history.