Tips and trends for today's party drinks

Soeur de Cassis
Cassis Mona & Filles
One of our food editors recently returned from a trip to Quebec City. When he was there, he visited Cassis Mona & Filles in Île d'Orléans. While Doug raved about the beautiful location and the quality of their product, it was the description of two sisters carrying on and modernizing their family business that piqued my interest.

Sisters Catherine and Anna continue in the tradition of their father, Bernard Monna, in producing Crème de Cassis liqueur. This family operation is producing their quality product from varieties of blackcurrants cultivated on their own five hectares. The sisters have also expanded their product line by adding jellies, mustards and syrup, all made from their own fruit.

The state of agriculture in Canada is currently in flux. I have had many conversations lately with various industry professionals and all seem to agree that farmers need to take a more entrepreneurial role in marketing their products and that new avenues and markets need to be opened up for the fantastic Canadian products that come from our land. Catherine and Anne seem to be doing a good job of just that.

I also hear they have a great recipe for Sangria!

Shot Glasses Revisited
Remember shot glasses? Not the utilitarian versions used in boat races at University or versions with tourist logos emblazed – "Greeting From Sunny Jamaica," – but those delicate little glass vessels that, in our house, are pulled out Christmas morning after church. My dad pours three or four different liqueurs, amaretti in this one, drambuie – my mother's favourite in another, a little anisette and a couple of brandies to toast our celebration before the major cooking starts for the day.

I was helping my grandmother move last week and she was offering up items she no longer used. Included in them was a fantastic cut-crystal tray designed to hold six petit crystal cylinders and a small decanter to be passed to guests with a bit of sherry, or set out decoratively on a sideboard tea table. They tickled me just seeing them and made me want to have a party, just so I could use them.

I had a second shot glass run in the same week at a Vodka tasting for U'luvka Vodka. This Polish version of the shot glass was specifically for vodka and had the unique distinction of not having a base to set your glass down. The mythology behind the bottomless glass went something like this: the Royal Court would use such glasses in times gone by and since it was impossible to put the glass down it was necessary to continue to drink until all the bottles of vodka were empty. Since the court could not function on days proceeding the revelries, due to their hangover state, the king declared that the state alchemist must create a libation that would keep the Polish economy from grinding to a screeching halt – hence the vodka in question was born, smooth as silk and hangover-less.

I can't vouch for the lack of hangover (at $69 a bottle, I could hardly afford to put it to the test)! However, it did make a mighty fine Martini. And aren't the shot glasses lovely, I feel another party coming on….

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