Exploring the World One Drink at a Time since 2005
Ice can be a pretty boring topic unless you are talking to a cocktail enthusiast, then you just need to sit back, listen, and enjoy the cocktail they served you demonstrating the potential of ice. Besides filling the glass and chilling the drink, what’s so important about ice? Well, there are a couple of things, including how the ice chills […]
There are some classic cocktails that use bitters as a key ingredient, the Negroni being a primary example. The problem is with the modern North American palate and its fixation on sugar laden drinks. Sweet, salt and sour seem to be fine but most North Americans shun bitter flavours. There is a small, but growing, minority that does enjoy bitter […]
When you think of Greek spirits the first thing comes to mind is Ouzo, the anise flavour liqueur. If you’ve tried Greek wine (Retsina) you might have liked it, or maybe not. Some of the wines use a pine resin to seal the barrels leaving a unique flavour that is what people remember about these wines. These wines are not […]
Starting a distillery from scratch can be a daunting task, especially in Canada, but the gentlemen at Still Waters Distillery have succumbed to their passion and taken the leap anyway. For cocktail aficionados, they are planning to produce a 100% rye whisky, but with ageing that is a few years away. Single malt whiskies seem to be their true passion, […]
Making classic Tiki drinks isn’t the easiest endeavour. When you start browsing through the drink recipes, trying to decide what to try next, you may often find yourself in short supply of a number of key ingredients. One of them is Falernum, sometimes called Velvet Falernum, which is fairly easy to make if you can’t find a supplier. The other […]
Around this big blue marble, stylish 1920’s era bars are making a discrete come back. The most recent addition is door 74, in Amsterdam, which is under the watchful gaze of Philip Duff. For those who know Philip, most would agree that he is a bon vivant with an insatiable appetite for cocktails and beautiful women. His worldly travels landed […]
Cigars have a wonderful aroma and those aromatics seem like a great way to enhance the flavour of a cocktail, but be careful, the nicotine in the tobacco can be dangerous.
The idiom “jumping the shark” is defined as the moment in time when a creative effort moves beyond the essential qualities that initially defined its success and progresses into absurdity. The publication of “The Sorcerer of Shaken and Stirred” by the New York Times is a perfect example of the transition into absurdity. I’ve been holding my tongue on the […]
After the successful first edition of the Gin Connoisseurs Program (GCP) in 2010, G’Vine has started looking for the top gin bartender for 2011. This year G’Vine is looking for fifteen bartenders to compete. The top two bartenders from each of the following countries (Canada, Germany, Spain, the UK and the US) along with five “wildcard” bartenders from anywhere in […]
Every time I go to the liquor store the Canadian whisky section stands out quite prominently. I personally like the Canadian style of whisky, and that character is smooth with slight toffee sweetness and hints of fruit on the nose, balanced out by some spicy rye and oak flavours. There is a vast array of Canadian whisky brands to choose from, […]
Royal Reserve is the name of a whisky distilled by Corby’s, a major Canadian distiller that was bought by Hiram Walker a few years ago. With all the mergers going on in the spirit world, it’s hard to say who owns Corby now. The one thing that Corby has done is create some good Canadian whiskies, including the Canadian Whisky […]
The recent upswing in popularity of spirits has had good and bad effects. The good part is that there are many more options for the consumer, with the healthy competition producing gads of new products. The bad part is that to fill the demand many companies have cut back on quality and put it into marketing. At what point does […]