Cocktails

Maple Phosphate
Cocktails, Low ABV, Soda

Maple Phosphate

Every year as winter cedes into the past, the maple tree sap starts to run. A time-honoured tradition in the north is to tap a spile into these maples and siphon off a few buckets of sap, then boil it down into a syrupy brown liquid and drizzle it on everything. That is the taste of spring. Since I’m in […]

Vodka Pays the Bills Cocktail
Cocktails

Vodka Pays the Bills

Simple vodka cocktails are an easy way to get people to try new things. Not everyone likes brown, bitter, stirred so the trick is to use something they are familiar with.

How to make a French Martini
Cocktails

French Martini

When Chambord decided to do a promotion to help sell their liqueur, the French Martini recipe was born, and it is one of the few corporate creations that has developed a loyal following.

Cocktails

Summer Beverages for the Thirsty of Gotham (1884)

Before I began my long hiatus on Art of Drink, I had accumulated hundreds of old newspaper articles about drink and cocktails in the 1800s. My intentions were to write about and share/transcribe them, but cocktail blogging kind of died with Facebook taking over, and I never wanted to post stuff to Facebook, because that would be like working for […]

Cocktails

Diablo Cocktail

While I was thinking about what to write, I glanced up and notices my collection of Food & Drink magazines from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO). I decided somewhere in one of those magazines there must be something that would inspire me to write. The first issue I pulled out was from the summer of 2004 and had […]

Cocktails

Protonic Cocktail

A good name for a cocktail is essential, especially if you want to get it into a bar or publication. Part of the fun, if you can call it that, is creating a name with a meaning. The problem with that is people just don’t get the connections and then the name gets lost to time. Well, the Internet has […]

Cocktails

The Bull

Some days I like an ice cold beer. It is easy to make, especially when it is a twist top. Most of the beer I stock is microbrew because I like flavour. After I had come home today, I went to the fridge and popped the top off of a J.R. Brickman Pilsner and headed to the computer to read […]

Cocktails

Burnt Island Cocktail

This drink was wholly inspired by an aged whisky barrel. When creating a new drink, the inspiration should come from something, and not just the random mixing of fruit juices, which is happening too much lately. Whisky can be intimidating to a new drinker, partially because they usually buy the cheapest stuff and secondly because the modern palate is geared […]

Cocktails

Hussar Sour

Bullets and grenades was what I was thinking when I whipped up this cocktail. As samples arrive on my desk, they sometimes gather into little groups. The Bulleit Bourbon and Zwack bitters were hanging out, which looked like they were plotting a coup or something. For those in the dark, Zwack is a Hungarian company that makes a range of […]