Canada's only magazine dedicated to distillers, spirits and cocktail culture.
Think Kitsilano and you’re likely to think yoga pants and granola, luxe hippies and sandy beaches, vegetarian cafés and cosy pubs. Cocktails? Not so much, right?
INGREDIENTS:
0.75 oz Taboo Absinthe
0.75 oz Giffard White Chocolate Syrup
0.75 oz fresh lemon juice
Prosecco
METHOD:
Combine all ingredients into a cocktail shaker, shake with ice and strain into a chilled champagne flute. Top with prosecco.
—By Simon Ogden
“After the first glass, you see things as they are. After the second, you see things as they are not. Finally, you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.” — Oscar Wilde
Absinthe, the fabled Green Fairy that ran amok through Paris at the height of the Belle Époque, remains the most polarizing spirit on the bar shelf.
When you check in to the Rosewood Hotel Georgia, there’s no real reason to leave until you check out. With spas, superb food and three of Vancouver’s leading bars inside its 90-year-old walls, this glamorous landmark accommodation is a highlight reel of local luxury, history and flavour.
INGREDIENTS:
2 oz blanco tequila (or mezcal)
¾ oz grenadine*
¾ oz fresh lime juice
3 dashes Angostura bitters
1 dash lime bitters
Splash of soda
Lime wheel, for garnish
METHOD:
Shake all the ingredients except soda with ice. Strain over fresh ice in a Collins glass. Top with soda and garnish with a lime wheel. Serves 1.
*La Mezcaleria’s grenadine: Place 1 cup pomegranate juice (fresh is best, but bottled 100-per-cent pomegranate juice will also work) in a small saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat for approximately 5 minutes. To preserve the bright, fresh flavour, do not boil or reduce the juice. Remove from the heat and add 1 cup sugar and a couple of dashes of orange flower water. Stir until sugar is dissolved. This will keep, refrigerated, in a clean glass jar for up to a week.
—by Ryley Zucca
It’s the taste of a perfect summer afternoon: that citrus bite, the peppery hit of tequila, the touch of salt like the spray of a random ocean wave.
We’re talking about the Margarita, of course; the quintessential summer cocktail that holds a mysterious past. When it comes to this particular dame’s history, no one really knows what the truth is.
INGREDIENTS:
• 1 oz (30 mL) Old Camp Peach Pecan Whiskey
• 0.5 oz (15 mL) Lillet Blanc
• 0.5 oz (15 mL) Canadian whisky
• 3 oz (90 mL) unsweetened iced tea (any black tea will do)
Garnish: Okanagan peach slices
INGREDIENTS:
• 0.75 oz (22 mL) Ron Zacapa Centenario Sistema Solera 23 Rum
• 0.75 oz (22 mL) Crown Royal XO
• 0.75 oz (22 mL) sweet vermouth
• 0.25 oz (7 mL) Bénédictine or B&B
• Two dashes Bittered Sling Suius Cherry Bitters
• Two dashes Bittered Sling Western Haskap Bitters
INGREDIENTS:
• 1.5 oz (45 mL) Ungava gin
• 0.5 oz (15 mL) Campari
• 0.5 oz (15 mL) lemon juice
• 0.5 oz (15 mL) egg white
• 0.33 oz (10 mL) simple syrup
• 2 dashes spruce tip tincture (see note)
• 1 oz (30 mL) rhubarb compote (see note)
A long weekend of fireworks and barbecues, sparklers and fluttering Maple Leaf flags stretches ahead of us. Happy 150th birthday, Canada! Now, let’s celebrate.