Canada's only magazine dedicated to distillers, spirits and cocktail culture.
At 5 p.m. on Wednesday, November 3, it became official: Vancouver is about to have its first ever cocktail week. We’ll drink to that!
From March 6 to 20, 2022, Vancouver Cocktail Week presented by The Alchemist magazine will celebrate the excellence of the city’s cocktail scene and the hospitality of its bars, hotels and restaurants.
Here at The Alchemist, we think it’s time to look forward rather than back; to be hopeful rather than anxious; to raise a glass to the good rather than drink to forget the bad. So the Fall/Winter 2021 issue is all about our bright, sunny future.
Let’s start with an announcement: The Alchemist magazine is thrilled to present Vancouver Cocktail Week from March 6 to 10, 2022. Expect parties, seminars, our Cinq à Sept series and much more. We can’t wait to see you there!
When The Dalmore puts its once-in-a-lifetime selection of six exceptional single malt whiskies on the auction block this October, the Highland distillery is offering more than prestige and fancy spirits. It is sharing a taste of history, captured in amber spirit.
The Dalmore Highland Single Malt is offering The Decades No. 6 Collection as a single-lot auction at Sotheby’s Hong Kong on October 8. Partial proceeds from the auction will be donated to V&A Dundee as part of a four-year partnership with the art museum.
• 1.5 oz Pisco El Gobernador
• 0.5 oz Koch Espadin Mezcal
• 1 oz Peach and Chili Pepper Shrub
• 0.5 oz Lemon
• 0.5 oz Lime
• 0.5 oz Egg White
Once we can travel and socialize again, we know just where we’ll be heading. We’re going to a bar. And not just any bar. The very best bar in the world.
That’s The Connaught Bar, which was named No. 1 by The World’s 50 Best Bars last November, after spending 10 years on the list. It’s an elegant 1920s-style space on the ground floor of The Connaught Hotel in London’s posh Mayfair neighbourhood. The room is both glamourous and cosy. Although it’s a vintage space, it was redesigned by David Collins and relaunched in 2008 with swellegant nods to Cubism and Art Deco.
It’s time to raise your glass in celebration of one of the world’s most beloved cocktails, as bars and restaurants mix things up for a good cause for the return of Negroni Week.
The elegant aperitif is traditionally made with one part gin, one part vermouth rosso, and one part Campari, and is garnished with orange peel.
However, for Negroni Week, participating venues offer up their own renditions, available to customers with proceeds going to a charity of choice. This year, Negroni Week will be celebrated from Sept. 13 through 19.
If you’re the sort of person who likes their cocktails served with a side of storytelling, then Bénédictine is the drink for you. Consider it the Forrest Gump of the spirits world, popping up at just the right moments and in the just the right cocktails.
Bénédictine is an herbal liqueur produced in France, based on Cognac, sweetened with honey and flavoured with 27 herbs and spices including saffron, hyssop and lemon balm. Like Chartreuse, it was originally produced centuries ago, concocted by monks as a medicinal tonic.
Or was it?
• 1 oz gin
• 1 oz dry vermouth
• 0.5 oz. Bénédictine
• 2 dashes orange bitters
• Garnish: lemon twist
2 oz rye whisky
0.75 oz Bénédictine
0.75 oz sweet vermouth
3 dashes absinthe
3 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
Garnish: 3 brandied cherries
Countless bartenders have arrived at their profession from unlikely origins, but Kevin Brownlee doesn’t consider his career trajectory odd. He believes he simply traded one education role for another. A former public-school teacher, he transitioned from sitting behind a classroom desk to standing behind a bar after realizing his greatest love is hosting, as well as constantly improving his knowledge of spirits and cocktails. Honing his skills in revered Vancouver dining rooms such as West, Pourhouse and AnnaLena, he subsequently won multiple awards, including first place in Grey Goose’s Pour Masters competition. Brownlee is now Portfolio Ambassador for Bacardi.