• 2oz The London No. 1 Gin
• 0.5oz Pierre Ferrand Dry Curacao
• 0.75oz Lemon Juice
• 0.5oz Pazzo Chow Lavender Tonic Syrup
• Egg white
Dry shake, then shake with ice. Serve neat in a coupe. Garnish with lavender.
La Gitana
Douglas Fir
Find this signature cocktail at the D/6 Bar and Lounge at Parq Vancouver.
• 1.5 oz Douglas Fir-Infused Gin from Yaletown Distillery
• 0.5 oz Cointreau
• 0.5 oz dry vermouth
• 0.5 oz sweet vermouth
• 3 drops of Bittered Sling Orange Juniper bitters
Stir ingredients over ice. Strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice. Garnish with a dehydrated orange slice and a Douglas fir tip. Serves 1.
Big-Batch Negroni
Free up your party time by bottling up these Negronis in advance of your next party. Once bottled and properly sealed, these will keep for about one month.
• 2 cups gin
• 2 cups Campari
• 2 cups sweet vermouth
• 2 cups water
Combine ingredients in a large pitcher. Stir, pour into small bottles, seal, label and refrigerate or stash in ice.
Blueberry Gin Smash
• 1.5 oz Queensborough Gin
• 0.5 oz dry vermouth
• 0.5 oz maple syrup
• 2 dashes aromatic bitters
• 5 fresh blueberries
• 3 lime wedges
• 1 mint sprig
• Tonic water
Add bitters, blueberries and limes into the glass and muddle them. Add Queensborough gin and dry vermouth and stir. Add ice cubes and top up with tonic. Add some crushed ice to the top of the glass and garnish with some blueberries and mint.
The Last Word: Clover Club
Millennial pink. Tumblr pink. Scandi pink. Candy pink. Pale dogwood. Blush. Rose gold. Rose quartz. Rosé. Frosé. Call it what you will, the soft, sweet, nearly-neutral hue of a generation is all around and here to stay. We prefer it in a cocktail. How about you?
Pacific Rim Distilling
Built entirely by hand by distiller Luke Erridge and his 75-year-old grandfather, Pacific Rim Distilling is a small batch craft distillery operating out of Ucluelet. Luke has refined old family recipes that date back to pre-prohibition for the modern palette, and his spirits are fermented using a wild yeast culture from Barkley Sound.
2-317 Forbes Street, Ucluelet
PacificRimDistilling.ca
PRODUCTS
• Humpback Vodka
• Lighthouse Gin
SEA TO SKY RAD-LER BEER COCKTAIL
Made with Vancouver Craft Beer Week’s 2018 Collaboration Beer, Sea To Sky Double Dry-Hopped Pilsner, by bartender Shaun Layton of Backcountry Brewing.
If you’ve been following the burgeoning cocktail scene in Vancouver over the past decade, there’s a good chance you’ve come across bartender Shaun Layton and his spirited creations. Having managed the bar programs at hotspots like George, L’Abattoir and Juniper, Layton has a well-earned reputation as one of the West Coast’s top cocktailiers. He’s been named Vancouver’s Bartender of the Year by Vancouver Magazine, Westender, Western Living and Georgia Straight, and coming this fall, he’ll be opening his own Spanish-themed bar in Mount Pleasant, Como Taperia.
It’s G&T time
The Alchemist’s tasting panel searches for the best B.C. gin to enjoy with your tonic
Now that spring has finally sprung, we’re craving lighter sprits and fresher flavours. In other words, we’re craving gin, especially when it’s mixed with tonic water.
Our tasting panel comprising some of Vancouver’s top bartenders—Max Borrowman of Juniper Kitchen & Bar; Amber Bruce of The Keefer Bar; J-S Dupuis of Wentworth Hospitality (Tableau Bar Bistro, Homer St. Café); and Josh Pape of Gooseneck Hospitality (Wildebeest, Bells and Whistles, Bufala, Lucky Taco)—sampled nine B.C. artisanal gins, suggested the best cocktails to make with them, and then mixed them with tonic water to determine which worked best.
Here’s what they had to say.
Gins & Roses
This British-inspired cocktail was created in 2017 by Justin Taylor, in Vancouver.
• 1 oz Odd Society Wallflower Gin
• 1 oz sloe gin
• 0.75 oz fresh lemon juice
• 0.25 oz honey syrup (see note)
• 0.75 oz pasteurized egg whites
• 3 dashes Bittered Sling Kensington Bitters
• 3 drops rose water
Chill a coupe glass with ice. Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake vigorously for 20 seconds. Fine strain cocktail into the chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with dehydrated rose petals. Serves 1.
Bramble
This classic cocktail was created in 1984 by Dick Bradsell, in London.
• 1.5 oz London Dry gin
• 0.75 oz fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 0.5 oz simple syrup (see note)
• 0.5 oz Okanagan Spirits Blackberry Liqueur
Combine gin, lemon and simple syrup in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake. Strain over fresh ice in a double old-fashioned glass. Cap cocktail with crushed ice. Drizzle blackberry liqueur over the top of the cocktail. Garnish with fresh organic blackberries. Serves 1.