On one of my “tours” I picked up some new products and one of them was a port wine style spirit called Angelica. When I looked up the traditional definition of Angelica, this is what I found: “An inexpensive fortified wine, typically made from mission or muscat grapes and enhanced with brandy. Angelica wine usually contains 10 to 15 percent residual sugar.” Now the quality of the Kittling Ridge Angelica is better than this definition provides, but the definition is basically accurate. This is a dessert wine made in the style of port wines, but because of international trademark laws only product from Portugal can legally be called Port, hence Angelica. It is a 1999 vintage product made from villard noir grapes, pot still brandy and barrel aged.

There are lots of bartending styles, but some styles are different than others. The most basic bartenders pop tops off beer bottles, and mixes up a mean rum and coke, but beyond that they are just very hard working “droids.” This is mostly because of the establishment they work in. On the other hand, there are establishments that do quality over quantity. Well crafted cocktails, interesting wine lists, micro brewed beers and a fine selection of quality spirits are all indicators of a quality bar. But it always comes down to the bartenders abilities that determined whether a bar is good. A great bartender can discuss the sports, recent news, local events, and any number of other topics. But, they must also know what they are working with to provide that extra level of service and product knowledge is just as important as the news.

The world of spirits is constantly evolving and there are trends that develop. Right now vodka is the spirit in the spotlight, but with the thousands of brands of vodka inundating the market, the bright light of vodka will burn out soon. So what’s going to take its place? Well most people believe that rum will come around for another turn in the spotlight and I tend to agree. One reason for this is that new types of rum, or rhum, are making appearances on the world stage such as rhum agricole. For those who don’t know, rhum agricole is a relative of rum but is distilled from a “wine” made from fresh pressed sugar cane, instead of the sugar processing waste product molasses. The starting ingredient is the same, but the finished product is much different, and good.

In the summer hamburgers are a mainstay of my diet. They are easy to prepare, the barbecue doesn't heat up the house and there is less mess to clean up. Those seem like good enough reasons to live off of hamburgers, but it's even more so when they taste really good. The trick is to spice things up a bit and certain spirits and wines lend themselves to making burgers taste better. Whisky is a perfect example of one of those spirits, and it is often used in bbq sauce, like Canadian Club Barbeque sauce, which if you can find it, I highly recommend it. The other, not so intuitive, spirit is sweet vermouth. If you want a great burger, you have to try this.

Why do people order dry vodka martini's? Is it because they don't know what else to order? Is it the herding effect? Or do people actually think they taste good? This is as much a study in psychology as it is in drinking trends. Remember the term "monkey see, monkey do", that's how I sometimes feel at the bar. People will order what others order, not because they necessarily know what they are getting, but because everyone else is doing it. This is how the vodka martini trend got started, and we could probably lay some blame on James Bond for this, but mostly over stressed business people who need a quick fix at lunch.

Sake is a traditional spirit from the East, most notably Japan, but China had it’s part in the creation of this drink. Now sake breweries are popping up all around the world. Yes, sake is more like beer than it is wine, even though it is referred to as “rice wine.” More on that later. When I went on my recent summer “booze cruise” looking for unique spirits and beer, sake was one of the items I picked up (Momokawa Diamond Sake, from Oregon). Trying new things is part of the fun of being a bartender, and knowledge is power, so the more I know about spirts the better off I am. So, let us see what sake has to offer!

When thinking about, or discussing how to further promote cocktails, the trick is to  get people off of their old drinking habits. But to do that we need to look at the primary competition. At the bar I work (“Mint”) wine is a significant part of the dining experience and the primary competition to the cocktail. Both wine and cocktails have their place in the dining experience, but wine tends to encroach where cocktails have traditionally been ordered, such as aperitifs and digestifs. Why does this happen and how can the situation be fixed to provide people with a balanced and enjoyable experience?

One of the trends in liqueurs is the cream based liqueur. We have the CEO of cream liqueurs, Bailey’s Irish Cream, and then there are the multiple Irish cream clones including Bushmills,  Carolans, O’Casey’s, and O’Darby’s, among others. Then we have the flavoured creams like Jago’s Vanilla Cream and Dooley’s Toffee cream, both good products with lots of flavour. Also there are tequila cream liqueurs, like Baja Rosa and Tequila Rose and the not so common rum cream. Basically, cream liqueurs are quite popular and Amarula cream is another one that should be looked at and tasted.

The world of cocktails and spirits is growing nicely on the Internet. More sites are covering the release of new spirits and others are documenting the creation of new and interesting cocktails. There are even blogs that report on the humour associated with the consumption of alcohol. It all makes for good, and interesting, reading. Since the last time I posted about the cocktail blogsphere, there are a number of new additions that everyone should check out.

This drink is the underprivileged brother to the Caipirinha. The Caipirissima uses white rum instead of the Cachaça found in the Caipirinha, so for those that don’t want to invest in a bottle of the fiery sugar cane distillate, the Caipirissima is good starting point. I do recommend that you use a good quality white rum, like Appleton or Havana Club Blanco, both of which are barrel aged and provide a good rum flavour. Fresh limes are an absolute must, and a good muddler will help. Other than that, you can enjoy this great summer cocktail.

Since the topic this week for Mixology Monday is grape, and I’ve been doing some research on port, I figured whatever drink I made it should include port. With a quick search for port based cocktails, I came across the Broken Spur Cocktail. The best part about this drink is that all of the components are based on some form of grape. How better to do Mixology Monday than to have everything be grape based.

With blueberry season in full swing it was time to make a blueberry cocktail. Inspiration can be hard to come by at times, but eventually you come across something related and that can inspire a cocktail. Hence, I was browsing some of the many blogs I read, and went to a culinary weblog called Sweet Pleasure. One of the posts included a recipe for Blueberry Basil Sorbet, which sounded quite good to me. But, being a bartender, a cocktail needed to be created to harness this unique flavour combination.

Last week I discussed the Mojito and how it is traditionally made in Cuba. Jamie Boudreau posted a good question in the comment in section, inquiring whether bitters is actually included in a mojito. Tonight, Felix, the Cuban bartender, came to Mint for dinner, so I had an opportunity to follow up with him, regarding this little issue. After making him a mojito, sans the bitters, I asked him if they used bitters in mojito's in Cuba. His answer was no, they do not. The mojito is made with lime, sugar, mint, rum, ice and soda water  and nothing else. Somewhere in Cuba a bartender is adding bitters I'm sure, but as far as I'm concerned there are no bitters in a classic Cuban Mojito. I hope this helps.

As some of you may have noticed, I haven't been posting as much as usual. Part of the reason is because of the new job at Mint, which is using up some of my time. The other part is that it is summer, and I'd rather be outside, instead of in front of the computer. But don't worry, my time away from writing is being well spent collecting information for new posts. In the last three days I've picked 14.5 kg (32 lbs) of blueberries, so there will have to be a blueberry cocktail creation. I've taken a tour of the Kittling Ridge distillery / winery in the Niagara region. Picked up a nice bottle of fortified dessert wine there. Then I headed off to the Black Oak Brewery in Oakville, but no one was home, so I just picked up a six pack of their Pale Ale at the Toronto LCBO. Then I hit the Summerhill LCBO and purchased a bottle of good sake.