Earlier this month a note from the late Queen Mum to her assistant asking him to “pack the gin” sold at auction for $32,000 US. Dorothy Parker’s relationship with the spirit is more associated with speakeasies and bathtub stills. Originally medicinal in origin when first created in Holland in the 17th century, by the 20th century, gin was a flavourful and unique beverage consumed by sophisticated people, the most notable of them women.

During the 30 Years War, British troops took a liking to the “Dutch courage” and brought it back to Britain with them where distillers continued to sell it for medicinal purposes, and individuals made it at home, with estimates of 1/3 of all homes at the times creating their own gin, which was said to be very bad. The spirit was popular among the poor, including children, and was the cause of rampant addictions and alcoholism. King Charles 1 passed the gin act which regulated producers, created a better quality product and used surplus corn and barley grown by English farmers.

Continue reading Sunday Sips - Pack the Gin »

It took a while in coming, but you know summer has arrived when the urge to consume prettily coloured drinks in scarcely used glasses overtakes cravings for the staid go-to’s of less sunny months. But what to indulge in when the cupboard’s shelves only offer a bottle of Absolut? For inspiration, look to the Drinks Show, now its in fifth year of celebrating all things shaken and stirred, at the Exhibition Place’s Queen Elizabeth Building tonight and tomorrow. Put on by the Martini Club, Toronto’s cocktail institution, the Show is a lesson in drinking by the numbers—50 booths with 65 brands offering samples of 100 handcrafted cocktails at $2 a pop, plus $20 admission. From my experience the past two years, this results in a three-hour trip down alcohol memory lane, where the flavours and styles from my own personal drinking history mix with the next big thing, and introduce people to about 8,000 of their new best friends doing the exact same thing.

“Cocktails are all about sophistication, style, fashion and sex,” says Michelle Hunt, co-founder of the Martini Club. “On the entertainment side, cocktails step up to the plate. And it’s no longer about quantity versus quality—people really want to know what’s inside their drinks.”

Continue reading Drink Up at the Drinks Show »

For the sake of full transparency, I feel compelled to offer the fact that I have not consumed a pre-mixed bottled beverage since my 19th birthday. Someone had the bright idea that we should all have our own 2-litre bottle of kiwi cooler (which we pronounced “kewwwwwllerrr” for some reason) to celebrate my coming of age. After passing out halfway through my own birthday party, I awoke to discover that, like the fuzzy navel before it, kiwi cooler was dead to me.

Which was probably a good thing, and which I did not lament. It was 1987 and we worshipped the Absolut bottle like the good little clubkids that we were.

As the years passed, I watched the “party zone” section of the LCBO grow in size. The colours got brighter, the flavour combinations more unique, and I noted the advent of bottled mixed drinks such as rum and cola with a nod to a good idea but no interest in actually buying or drinking such a thing.

Continue reading Sunday Sips - Twist and Serve »

“If you were to ask me if I’d ever had the bad luck to miss my daily cocktail, I’d have to say that I doubt it; where certain things are concerned, I plan ahead.”
- Luis Bunuel

So what the hell is grenadine anyway?

That heavy sugar syrup that sits in the bottom of a tequila sunrise, masking the taste of the tequila and orange juice, has a long and varied history. Not that it’s evident from the cheap and nasty stuff most bars stock – along with other store bought horrors such as lime bar mix and bitters. There just has to be something better. The cocktail can be more than that.

Christine Sismondo, author of Mondo Cocktail, is hoping, along with her business partner Sue Ketcheson, to change the perception of mixers and also the culture of the cocktail. The two are launching In Our Cups a consulting and concoction business that should change the way Torontonians perceive the mixed drink.

Continue reading In Their Cups »