Canada's only magazine dedicated to distillers, spirits and cocktail culture.
Well, you get the picture. Wondering what to get the cocktail aficionado on your holiday list? Start right here.
Barstools are for boasting. And when you’re alone, they’re for wool-gathering, your privacy on public display. Random thoughts assail you — unless you’re just there to watch the game, which is fine but for the purposes of this column let’s assume no high-def.
I’m at a bar now, in fact, just me and no TV, making notes on napkins the way you do. This is not unusual. Over the last 18 months I’ve warmed my share of seats, and I’ve written about some of the highlights in these pages, usually from notes on the backs of napkins very like this one. Those 18 months happen to have included a fair amount of travel, and so the cocktails I’ve described have often gone down in other cities, in bars very like this one.
Fa-la-la-la! It’s beginning to taste a lot like Christmas at The Cascade Room, where the holiday cocktails are merrily flowing.
The Giffard Menthe-Pastille, which is similar to a white crème de menthe, is available at Legacy Liquor and other select private retailers.
• 1 oz (30 mL) cachaça
• 1 oz (30 mL) Giffard Menthe-Pastille
• 2 oz (60 mL) heavy cream
• 1 egg white
• 2 oz (60 mL) soda water or as needed
• ¼ bar spoon (2 mL) crushed candy canes
It takes about three seconds for a shot of ice-cold aquavit to pass your lips and slide down your throat, leaving its distinctive hit of caraway and liquorice tingling on your tongue and introducing a pleasing warmth into your belly. The Swedish Shot, as it is known — raise your glass, lock eyes with your fellow toasters and drink up — is swift and satisfying.
INGREDIENTS:
1.3 oz Sheringham Akvavit
0.3 oz Amaro Montenegro
0.3 oz Noilly Pratt Extra Dry
METHOD:
Combine ingredients into a shaker filled with ice. Strain into a chilled coupe glass rimmed with a rosemary solution (salt, water, rosemary). Garnish with a smoked olive.
Vancouver made cocktail headlines around the world in August when Kaitlyn Stewart was named bartender of the year at the Diageo World Class competition.
The Royal Dinette bartender’s feat was extraordinary, topping a field of 56 mixologists from around the world during a gruelling four days of competition in Mexico City.
A new artisan distillery opening up in B.C. isn’t exactly news these days. There are already 51 of them around, with another 13 in the works and as many as 80 licences floating around out there, according to B.C. Distilled founder Alex Hamer.
What is news, though, is when that distillery is co-owned and operated by one of Vancouver’s best bartenders.
INGREDIENTS:
• 2 oz (60 mL) Resurrection Spirits White Rye
• 1 oz (30 mL) Carapano Antica Formula sweet vermouth
• 2 dashes orange bitters
METHOD:
Place all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir well. Strain into a cocktail coupe. Finish with flamed orange peel oil and garnish with an Amarena cherry. Serves 1.
I’ve always loved apples — in pies and crumbles, roasted with pork — there is no end to the versatility of this beautiful local fruit. As a cocktail maker, apples play a major role in my creations. Our B.C. apples are bountiful, and we produce so many varietals to choose from. As the cool, crisp breezes of fall begin, apples automatically become a focus at my professional bar, but they are perfect to incorporate into drinks at home. Here are four recipes to get you started, but feel free to experiment with different varieties of apples, in different forms. Your house guests will be happy, I guarantee it.