The sweltering humidity has been hanging like a wet blanket for the better part of a week. The restaurants air conditioning unit is cranking out the cool air, but the temperature behind the bar is still repressive, but at least I know the kitchen guys have it worse. I don’t envy them one bit. The bar is packed with guests and cold drinks are the primary request, be it a cold bottle of Corona or a frosty martini. But for me there are only a few drinks that can provide relief from the scorching heat and humidity. The Mojito is one of those drinks and when a Cuban bartender is sitting at your bar and orders one, it better be a good one.

It is official, Mint became fully operational on Thursday (July 20, 2006). With any restaurant opening there was the last minute preparations, like menu’s arriving sixty minutes before opening. I spent most of the week at the restaurant prep’ing the bar, finalizing the wording of all the menu’s and just getting everything lined up and ready to go. If you have ever watched the Food Network show called Opening Soon, then you may understand what I mean by last “minute preparations,” and if not I’ll give you an idea in this post, but check out Opening Soon if you get a chance, it’s a good program.

With temperatures approaching 35°C/95°F (humidex of +42°C/107°F), which is freaking hot for us ice dwelling Canucks, Mixology Monday, the Lemon Edition, couldn’t have come any sooner. Lemons have this great thirst quenching characteristic and when combined with lots of ice, there is nothing better on those hot summer days. With the lemon theme I wanted to make something cool, light and refreshing. I didn’t want something super sweet and sticky. For me a Mojito is the most refreshing drink going, but that uses lime and I don’t want to just sub in lemon, and Paul over at Cocktail Chronicles already did the Pisco Sour. It looks like a another new cocktail creation is forth coming.

With the new restaurant, Mint Restobar, opening on Thursday it has been sucking up a lot of my writing time, but things should be back to normal this week. With the opening date finalized the purchase of the bar inventory needed to be done. Since we are a fine dinning establishment, I went with some better quality products, but still kept it common enough that most “calls” could be fulfilled. Mint has a clientele already built in, because of the people involved, so part of the product selection was based on their drink preferences. Other than that, this bar will grow as need be. If people want something, we will probably bring it in.

There are very few independent Canadian whisky distillers left, but Forty Creek is one of them, and a good one at that. The Forty Creek distillery is located between Toronto and Niagra Falls, Ontario. It is operated by John Hall who has been a wine producer for over 20 years, and to scratch an itch, he began making whisky in the early 1990's. When he started to think about making a whisky, he looked at it from the knowledge he already had and that was making wine. Mr. Hall likes to state that he follows tradition, but is not bound to it, which is great because it makes for a quality product.

This is the last section of the menu, and of course it is about digestifs or night caps. For the most part sweet and creamy drinks fit into this category, but sometimes bitter drinks also fit into this section. The bitter drinks are usually for people who pulled a Mr. Creosote (Monty Python) and just hogged out on an 18 oz steak. In the case of Mint we are going to stick with some classic cream based drinks, a modern creation and some coffee drinks. Bitters are available if someone needs. See, if the waiter had just offered Mr. Creosote a glass of bitters and not a wafer, then none of that would have happened, or maybe he could have eaten the wafer without the cataclysmic results. Anyway....

In the quest for a well balanced drink menu I have included some basic mint based drinks, some classic cocktails, a few modern creations and then the aperitifs. The standard definition of an aperitif is a an alcoholic drink usually enjoyed as an appetizer before a large meal. It is derived from the Latin verb aperire, which means to open. Many aperitifs have a bitter component to them, but they don’t necessarily need that, but they should be of a dry style and not sweet or creamy. For some good examples of aperitifs, you can read the Mixology Monday summary on aperitifs. For the Mint menu, there are currently four cocktails, with the possible addition of one more.

The first part of the cocktail menu included a handful of relatively simple mint based cocktails. Sometimes simple is best, but there are other times when kicking it up is a good thing. Why do anything if you can’t show off your skills? Of the five cocktails that are included, three are true classic and two are modern creations, one being my own. Each drink will be made using premium spirits, when possible. One question that might popup is why I don’t have any vodka cocktails? Well, people seem to love vodka so much that they know what to order. I’m try to introduced people back to flavoured drinks and unique combinations. You can only fake a laugh so many times when someone orders a vodka martini, extra dry and tries to be funny about what to do with the vermouth. It gets old really, really fast so do me the favour and order something classic or original.

As I mentioned in my previous post, the opening of Mint is fast approaching. Since I’m the bartender, I created a cocktail menu that balanced new and old. The drinks span a wide range from aperitifs, classic drinks and modern creations. A portion of the menu is dedicated to cocktails with mint as an ingredient. It seems a bit obvious, but when was the last time you had a properly made Mint Julep? The other thing to remember is that the city I’m in hasn’t had a good cocktail for years, so it’s better to start off walking than running.

With the opening date for the new restaurant, Mint, coming up quickly, the choice of beers I want to stock is something I've been thinking about. The two beers on tap have been predetermined, Stella Artois and Alexander Keith's IPA, so that left me with the bottles. Aside from a short list of standard beers, I wanted to pick four or five beers that represented some great micro breweries and provide a range of flavourful beers. The first four that I've picked are Steam Whistle Pilsner, Robert Simpson Confederation Ale, Blanche de Chambly (wheat beer) and the beer I'm reviewing now, Cameron's Auburn Ale. In the future I'd like to add a few more beer to the list including Black Oak Pale Ale, Mill Street Coffee Porter and McAuslan Oatmeal Stout. But for now, let's look at Cameron's Auburn Ale.

On any given day if I were offered a properly made Ramos Gin Fizz I would never turn it down. This is a drink with a long history, dating back to 1888 and a unique taste and consistency that is hard to find in almost any other drink. The trick to this drink is creating a stable foam using egg white and cream. Once you’ve mastered that, then the rest is easy. The flavour of the drink is citrusy and that is provided by gin, lemon, lime and a drop or three of orange flower water. A little bit of sugar is used to sweeten the drink and a splash of soda water is used to give the drink a little “fiz.”