Canada's only magazine dedicated to distillers, spirits and cocktail culture.
1 sugar cube
2 straws Ms. Better’s Bitters Aromatic Bitters
2 oz Forbidden Spirits Adam’s Apple Brandy
Rinse: Okanagan Spirits Taboo Absinthe
Garnish: lemon zest
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
• 2 oz Altos Blanco Tequila
• 0.5 oz Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
• 1 tsp St. George absinthe
• 2 tsp lime juice
• 0.5 oz Five Alive Cordial (see below)
• 1.5 oz Plymouth gin
• 1.5 oz dry vermouth, preferably Noilly Prat
• 2 dashes orange bitters
• 2 dashes maraschino liqueur
• 2 dashes absinthe
• Garnish: olive
It’s all fun and games until someone loses an ear. Vincent Van Gogh’s escapades might have delivered the final cut to the fashionable, anise-flavoured spirit absinthe, invented in Switzerland in the late 18th century and favoured by Belle Époque bohemians. Seen as highly addictive and dangerous, it was banned in the U.S. and much of Europe for nearly a century, until 2007.
Likely the poor quality or high-proof base spirit—not the relatively small amount of hallucogenic thujone, naturally found in absinthe’s bittering agent, wormwood (Artemesia absinthium)—was responsible for absinthe-attributed naughtiness. But its reputation as the bad boy of the spirits world persists, as does its role in cocktails, particularly of the French-influenced New Orleans school, such as the Sazerac, Corpse Reviver No. 2 and La Louisiane.
Here are five local absinthes to try, from newcomers to B.C.’s standard-bearers.
• 1 oz freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 6 mint leaves
• 1 oz Taboo Absinthe
• 1 cup crushed ice
• Sparkling water
• Garnish: 1 lime wheel
• 1 oz Baba Yaga Absinthe
• 0.5 oz fresh lime juice
• Ginger beer
• 1 oz simple syrup
• 1 oz absinthe
• 1 oz fresh lime juice
• 4 oz water
• Garnish: 4 slices cucumber
• 1 oz absinthe
• 2.5 oz fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 5 oz lavender syrup
• 5 oz still water
The 12th edition of B.C.’s only magazine dedicated to cocktail and spirits culture returns with everything you need to quench your thirst this summer.