There are some things that just make me want to weep for my gender. Most reality TV, for instance. But lately, it’s the realm of booze that’s got me so depressed — what we drink, the way we drink it and how marketers sell it to us. Seriously, what’s wrong with us? Have we no tastebuds at all?

I’ve been obsessing about that ever since I wandered by the B.C. Hospitality Exposition Tradeshow yesterday at the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre to judge a cocktail competition hosted by Sortilege, a Quebec maple liqueur. And even though I was judging the men’s half of the contest — the women compete this afternoon — I walked away with some pretty confused thoughts about the ladies.

Read the rest of this entry »

Take that, Toronto! And you, too, Montreal! Absolut, the stylish Swedish vodka, has just launched its first ever Canadian-city-inspired bottle: Absolut Vancouver, a limited edition bottle that not only evokes the West Coast city, but also supports the local arts.

The bottle, which retails for $25.95 exclusively in B.C., was designed by local illustrator and graphic artist Douglas Fraser and features a bold yellow and blue sea plane soaring above Vancouver’s skyline.

“It is an honour to partner with Absolut to create something special for Vancouver,” Fraser said in a press release. “This city is unique and contemporary and I designed the bottle to reflect that.”

Vancouver joins Absolut’s long-running “Cities” campaign, which already includes Absolut New Orleans (2007), Absolut Los Angeles (2008) and Absolut Boston (2009). And the folks at Absolut are pretty jazzed about adding us to that list. They describe Vancouver as “exciting, cosmopolitan and naturally stunning” as well as “a hotbed of cultural and creative talent.” Aw, shucks.

And that’s why they’re encouraging local artists: Up to $120,000 from the bottle’s proceeds will go towards a new Vancouver arts project, which will be decided depending on what actual artists have to say. They’ve been asked to submit proposals describing how they would support Vancouver art with that kind of money. The top proposals will be posted online at www.absolutvancouver.ca, where Vancouverites can vote for their fave. The winner will be announced in 2010.

Hey, we’ll drink to that!

Winners of the Pacific Northwest Bartending Competition, held Sunday at The Art of the Cocktail in Victoria, were . . .

1st place: David Wolowidnyk of Vancouver’s West Restaurant

2nd place: Danielle Tatarin of Vancouver’s Lumiere / db Bistro Moderne (and soon to join the Keefer Bar in Chinatown)

This was a tough one as the essential ingredient each bartender had to use was the quintessential Northwest cedar. Yes, a tree, and moreover, a tree that becomes toxic when cooked. Kudos to the competitors for finding such creative ways of incorporating it, from cedar-planked tuna sashimi garnish to cedar jelly, cedar tea, smoked cedar syrup and gin-infused cedar berries. Overall, the judges (Thirsty Traveler Kevin Brauch, Don Julio global ambassador and Michelin-starred mixologist Brian Van Flandern, Chicago mixologist and author Bridget Albert, and me) were impressed by the creativity and the cocktails.

But two drinks definitely stood out: Dave’s variation on a hot toddy and Dani’s molecular aperitif. Of course, this brutal competition administered by Art of the Cocktail’s executive mixologist Shawn Soole wasn’t just about the drinks — the bartenders also had to take a written test (I saw it, and it was not easy) and a blind taste test in which they not only had to identify the spirit, but got extra points for identifying the brand.

That should put to rest any idea that these guys are just doing this job while waiting for something else to come along — this is pretty serious stuff.

And now here’s Dave W’s recipe for a Gin Cedar Skin:

3 oz hot water infused with uncharred cedar
1 tsp cedar jelly
3/4 oz simple syrup flavoured with clove and allspice
1/8 oz Fee Brothers Whisky Barrel Bitters
2 oz Victoria gin infused with charred and uncharred cedar
1 zest of orange (for garnish)

Place water, jelly, syrup and bitters in a small pot and heat well. Add gin. Pour into tempered glasses. Garnish by breaking a small coin of orange zest over the drink and dropping it in. Serves 1.

The Refinery's Lauren Mote shakes things up at Victoria's Art of the Cocktail.

This weekend was a smash hit (and, in the case of everyone who was partying with Thirsty Traveler Kevin Brauch at 3 a.m. Saturday night, a pretty smashed one, too — Sunday at Victoria’s Art of the Cocktail, a fundraiser for the Victoria Film Festival, was a very, very quiet day).

Thirsty Traveler Kevin Brauch hijacks Jeffrey Morgenthaler's seminar — and his Plymouth gin.

Aside from the seminars and the competition, there was all sorts of cool stuff going on in the tasting hall. Here are some of the highlights:

• Frank Deiter was there from Okanagan Spirits with his new Taboo Gold, which he describes as an absinthe for “true absintheurs.” It’s available now at the LDB for $65 (his regular Taboo is abut $50). Plus he was allowing tastes of a secret new product he’s working on that will generate some serious excitement when it hits markets, likely sometime nest summer.

• Ron Cooper brought his amazing “single village” mezcals, which should be available in the next few weeks at the Strath in Victoria and, hopefully, throughout the province soon after that. (BTW, if you haven’t visited this great little booze boutique, it’s well worth the trip to the Island because they have all sorts of things you can’t get anywhere else in B.C., like Giffard Creme de Violette and Luxardo maraschino liqueur.) Anyway, Del Maguey mezcal is nothing like the worm-in-the-bottle rotgut you nay have experimented with back on that college road trip. This is a smooth, gorgeous, slightly smoky spirit, like a fine scotch only instead of the vanilla and toffee notes of whisky, you have those unique herbal qualities of agave. Fantastic stuff.

• Victoria Spirits’ master distiller Peter Hunt was there showing off their new “Twisted & Bitter” bitters, which should be available in Victoria in the next couple of weeks.

• Diageo’s Richard Prideaux was there with the full range of Grand Marnier products except for the one thing we’re all waiting for — the new Navan, which was supposed to be in B.C. this month but won’t be arriving till the new year. They’ve reformatted the vanilla liqueur to make it much less sweet, with about 30 per cent less sugar. So, no more hangover in a glass, just luscious, sexy vanilla flavour. We can hardly wait.

And those are only a few highlights of a great weekend of tasting and learning new stuff and meeting some of the most passionate people in the business. All in all, it was a great event, and we can only hope that it will be back next year, bigger and better and even boozier!

A Dark

So, no royal sightings, but plenty of great cocktails. If you love spirits and mixed drinks, Victoria, B.C., is where you need to be this weekend for The Art of the Cocktail, a two-day fundraising festival for the Victoria film fest.

Some of the best mixologists in North America are here, people like Bridget Albert and Jeffrey Morgenthaler and Brian Van Flandern, all sharing their tips, techniques and inside knowledge about making great drinks. Plus there are all sorts of reps from both international producers like Belvedere, Hendrick’s, Don Julio and Tuaca, as well as the local Victoria Spirits, Okanagan Spirits and Schramm vodka. If you’re in or around Victoria, try to drop by for the afternoon tasting and cocktail competition — I’ll be judging, and it sounds like it’ll be a fairly lively contest!

Meanwhile, here are a few highlights:

• The personality of the festival is definitely Thirsty Traveler Kevin Brauch, an inescapable presence who’s been leading the rest of the bartenders on hangover-inducing pub crawls, bouncing in and out of other presenters’ sessions, jumping into other media interviews, and having a grand old time in general. Highly entertaining for the rest of us.

• It’s been great to see so many women involved, from festival organizer Kathy Kay to international bartending sensations Bridget Albert and Charlotte Voisey, as well as local mixologists Lauren Mote and Dani Tatarin, not to mention that more than half the people in any session I sat in on were women. You go, girls! Seems the days of spirits being a man’s world are over.

• The trendy spirit of 2010? According to Portland’s Jeffrey Morgenthaler, it’s going to be Mezcal, which is already taking New York by storm.

• What are we drinking? Dark ‘n’ Stormys. With Fever Tree and Fentiman’s craft ginger beer here, as well as Morgenthaler’s seminar on making your own ginger beer, it’s all about the spicy soda, best served with a glug of dark, molassessy rum. As Morgenthaler said at the first session yesterday as he poured us a round of Dark ‘n’ Stormys: “I think it’s a great morning beverage.” Couldn’t agree more.

• Where are we drinking? When they close the tasting hall, it’s back to Clive’s, where the festival’s executive mixologist Shawn Soole is manning the bar each night after pulling a full shift at the festival. If you haven’t been to his bar in the Chateau Victoria, you should plan a special trip to the Island just to check it out — this is a gorgeous bar, with terrific cocktails.

Lots more to come, but now I have to head off to brunch, then back to festival. Cheers!

Thirsty Traveler Kevin Brausch will be one of the presenters this weekend at Art of the Cocktail.

This weekend is the inaugural Art of the Cocktail in Victoria, B.C., and it should be a great fest. It’s a fundraiser for the Victoria Film Festival and organized by a pair of cocktail maniacs, film fest director Kathy Kay and Shawn Soole, the very passionate bartender at Clive’s in the Chateau Victoria.

There are cocktail-themed dinners, a grand tasting room and seminars led by pros like Portland’s Jeffrey Morgenthaler, the Wormwood Society’s Gwydion Stone, Hendrick’s ambassador Charlotte Voisey, Thirsty Traveler Kevin Brausch and loads of others, including Vancouverites Lauren Mote and David Wolowidnyk.  Oh, and of course there will be a cocktail competition on Sunday, and I’ll be one of the judges at that.

If you haven’t already planned to come to Vancouver Island for this, you still have time to book your BC Ferry, Helijet or Harbour Air trip over — this should be a great event and one not to miss.

Heck, as it turns out, even Charles and Camilla will be in town on their grand Canadian tour. They’ll be touring the Legislature right around cocktail hour this afternoon — I think we should invite them down the street to Clive’s for an Aviation or two, don’t you think?

Head for the hills! Next weekend is Cornucopia, Whistler’s annual festival of food, wine and crazy good times. If you’re heading up there — and you should be — come and check out the seminar I’m leading on Saturday, Nov. 14, from 4:30 to  6 p.m. (as in, cocktail hour). It’s all about classic cocktails, the tips, tools and techniques, and I guarantee it’ll be a fun and lively session, with lots of good stories and a couple of recipes to take home with you. I’ll have Kerren Bottay helping me out, because he’s a lot better at actually making drinks than I am, tho I spin a pretty good yarn, and everyone will get a chance to taste three great classics, including my current fave, the 20th Century Cocktail. Tix are only $50, and worth every penny.

For more info, and to find out about the other events, go to the Cornucopia website at www.whistlercornucopia.com.