Posts Tagged ‘Cocktails’

Everyone loves a wedding with an open bar.

I am certain the upcoming nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton will be such.

While most of us won't be attending in the flesh and drinking their fine royal liquor, it would be fun to quaff a cocktail or two while watching the event on TV or online on April 29th. And if you're drinking one of these 4 creations by the royal mixologist himself - Angus Winchester - then it's kind of like you're part of the scene!

According to the press release:

Winchester created four royal wedding cocktails for Canadians to toast the royal couple, drawing inspiration from the classic Victorian wedding adage 'something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue.'  Recognizing the royal family's affinity for gin, Winchester chose Tanqueray Gin as the featured wedding spirit due to its strong royal heritage that dates back to the 1700s, when the Tanqueray family received royal recognition by King George II as royal family goldsmiths.

"Affinity for gin"? ME TOO. I must have royal blood. Cheerio!

Here are Winchester's 4 fun new cocktails, created just for William & Kate:

"The Blushing Bride"

Something old...
This classic drink, documented in the famed Savoy cocktail book, embodies everything we love about Kate:  it is fresh and lively with an understated elegance, and the grenadine twist makes it a true "blushing bride".

The Blushing Bride
¾ oz Tanqueray Dry Gin
¾ oz Triple Sec
½ oz Orange juice
½ oz Lemon juice
½ oz Grenadine
Shake all very hard and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with Flamed Orange Zest

"The Newlyweds"

Something new...
An original cocktail hand-crafted for Prince William and Kate, this drink is served in a long glass to represent the couples' long life together, featuring the King of Fruit, the pineapple - so termed for its crown of leaves.

The Newlyweds
1-1/2 oz Tanqueray Dry Gin
1 oz fresh lemon juice
1 oz simple syrup
3 chunks fresh pineapple
1 small slice fresh ginger
Soda
Muddle fruit and add remaining ingredients, except the soda. Shake hard and strain into tall ice filled glass. Add fizz and garnish with pineapple leaf and pineapple wedge.

"Yin and Yang"

Something borrowed...
"Borrowed" from world-renowned female mixologist, Audrey Saunders, this cocktail is intended to demonstrate equality in marriage featuring equal part ingredients with a touch of spice (important in all good marriages).

Yin and Yang
¾ oz Tanqueray Dry Gin
¾ oz Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth
Dash Orange Bitters
Stir all together and strain into chilled cocktail glass, garnish with orange twist

"Colour Me Royal"

Something blue...
In honour of the sentimental sapphire engagement ring worn by the much beloved late Princess Diana, this eye-catching drink sparkles when it forms a brilliant blue ring on the bottom of the glass, also predicting blue skies ahead for the happy couple.

Colour Me Royal
3/4 oz Tanqueray Dry Gin
1/2 oz Maraschino Liqueur
½ fresh lemon juice
1 bar spoon Blue Curacao
Shake all ingredients (except Blue Curacao) hard and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Slowly pour Blue Curacao down the inside of the glass to lie at the bottom

Cheers to William & Kate, and to all the newlyweds across Canada this year. If you're not keen on the cocktails above, make sure to visit our sister site ThatstheSpirit.com where you can search through over 3000 cocktail recipes.

Will you be watching the royal wedding on April 29th?

Cameron Bogue's fine martini - a classic!

“Vancouver is an awesome city”, said Cameron Bogue. Awesome, I agree, for many reasons, but for the engaging bar manager at the chic DB Bistro Moderne, the appeal is Vancouver’s strong cocktail culture. “Vancouver has cocktails you won’t find anywhere else in Canada. It’s light years ahead of any other city in in the county.” If anyone knows, it’s Cameron who’s travelled the chic cocktail cities of the world looking for new trends and ideas.
    But how so? Why Vancouver and cocktail culture? Standing in front of a sparkling array of a good hundred bottles and behind the real zinc bar that gives authenticity to the word “bistro” in the restaurant’s name, Cameron went on to explain that Vancouver’s one of the young west coast cities where fresh ingredients are a given and where there’s no lack of unusual (“crazy” is the word he used) ingredients. Like the city’s history, the crowd’s young, curious and hip, up on the latest trends in ingredients like bitters, tequila, glasses and syrups. Cocktails are a way of getting together with friends, “avant et apres”.
    But what sets DB (the initials from chef proprietor Daniel Boulud) apart from other bars is its meticulous attention to details. Cameron is very specific about glasses (he likes Riedel): utensils (strains martinis with a julep strainer, shaken drinks with a finer screened hawthorn strainer): ice (likes slow-frozen that doesn’t melt quickly diluting drinks and leaving shards floating on top): juices (freshly squeezed) and syrups (personal creations). And he chooses liquor for its quality and value, not for being the “it” brand of the moment, or simply the most expensive.

Bottles of house-made syrups

    So when Cameron sets out to make a martini, you know you’re in the hands of an expert. First, a bit of martini heritage. At its creation well over a century ago, a martini was sweeter because both gin and vermouth were then sweeter. (The "dry" in martini, I've learned, was to specify the newly available dry vermouth.)

“A martini”, Cameron said as he arranged ingredients behind the bar, “is the quintessential cocktail and  should be made with gin, vermouth and bitters.” For gin, it’s Beefeater because it is made with the original 7 botanicals, and he matches the gin with Noilly Prat dry white vermouth, also for its botanicals. 

    The correct ratio is 5 parts gin to 1 vermouth, and the secret of a superb martini every time, is measuring. There’s no eyeballing, or sloppy free pours when Cameron or his staff are behind the bar. Using bar jiggers, Cameron measured out 2-1/2 oz gin and 1/2 oz vermouth with a touch of Angostura Bitters into a 16-oz cocktail mixing glass, added some serious cubes of ice. Then he took a Riedel martini glass out of the freezer, used a neatly trimmed strip of lemon peel (sans bitter pith) to quickly rub the inside of the glass and the outside along the rim – where lips would touch the glass, gave the soon-to-be-martini a good stir, capped the mixing glass with a julep strainer and poured the prefect martini into the aromatized martini glass."Never shaken", added Cameron, "it dilutes the martini."  One sip, and...so crisp, a perfect martini.No wonder a classic martini is a cocktail icon.

    Cameron is the master of many drinks, other well made classics like the Mojito and Margarita and new creations, the Garden Daisy, for example, that incorporates carrot juice and fresh basil leaves for a refreshing vodka drink, or the Fong named for a Vancouver man-about-food-and-cocktails, Nathan Fong.

Straining the Garden Daisy

The Garden Daisy in a Riedel martini glass. The slight flair on the top makes for elegant sipping.

To make one of Cameron’s cocktails, the recipe for the Mojito is below. The Mojito, he claims is responsible for creating the cocktail craze, so strong in Vancouver, and, elsewhere, doing its best to catch up to Vancouver's awesome reputation.

Mojito

12 mint leaves
1-1/2 oz white rum
3/4 oz fresh lime juice
1 oz simple syrup (1 part granulated sugar to 1 part water, boiled, cooled and refrigerated)
soda water
. Place mint and rum in the bottom of a tall glass and gently bruise the mint with a wooden muddler. Add the lime juice, simple syrup and crushed ice. Stir. Top up with crushed ice and a splash of soda water. 

Satisfies one.