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Cocktails, Wines & Spirits

Whisky Bars in Metro Vancouver

Buck the expensive plane ticket and catch a “flight” at one of these spots if you’re looking to imbibe in the finest whiskies from around the globe. From sophisticated lounges to laid-back bars, Metro Vancouver has something to offer anyone seeking a sip of whisky—whether that’s a rare find, a creative cocktail, or a familiar dram. Let’s explore. Skye Avenue Kitchen & Lounge Housed in the former Central City Taphouse spot, Skye Avenue Kitchen & Lounge draws inspiration from Scotland’s Isle of Skye—which is known for its rich whisky culture. Here, you can find elevated and contemporary Canadian cuisine (think high-end burgers, wagyu beef carpaccio, truffle fries, and more) along with a diverse selection of whiskies from around the globe. On “Whisky Wednesdays,” you can find a selection of whisky flights ranging from $25 to $200, and a few whisky-based cocktails for $10 each. We think the Penicillin is worth…

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Cocktails, Wines & Spirits

Copperpenny Distilling: Local Favourite, Global Winner

Located in the heart of Shipyard’s Brewing District on Esplanade, Copperpenny Distilling stands out not only for its tantalizing and zesty gins, but also for the master medals they’ve received!  By Avneet Takhar  Having started up in 2021, Copperpenny Distilling has had a steady upward trajectory of success. In midst of the pandemic, they got creative and started their own line of craft hand sanitizers, and had a vendor stand at Lonsdale Artisan Farmers Market.  But it was a year later that owners, Jennifer Kom-Tong and Jan Stenc began to really reap the rewards of their hard work. They officially opened the distillery just after Christmas. This came complete with a tasting room and bar seats to sip cocktails and enjoy gin oysters with, in partnership with Fanny Bay Oyster Company.  And they also happened to be awarded with: Global Gin Masters 2022 by the Spirits Business (presented in London,…

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Cocktails, Wines & Spirits

Langley’s Roots and Wings Distillery and BC Distilled Festival

Rebekah Crowley, owner/distiller, walks us through the steps to create their signature spirits. By Catherine Dunwoody As one of the numerous Metro-Vancouver-based craft distilleries participating in the BC Distilled Festival, Roots and Wings Distillery is the first of its kind in the Fraser Valley. I chatted with Rebekah Crowley about the process of making their small batch artisan spirits. Proud of their farm-to-table approach and ingredients grown right on their farm, Crowley and partner Head Distiller Rob Rindt have created over forty unique and flavorful spirits in their six years in business. “Every Saturday we start a new batch, be it vodka or whiskey base, they all begin the same way,” says Crowley. “We take the potatoes (for vodka) and corn or rye and corn (for whiskey) and add it into our 500-gallon mash still. Then we heat it with a mix of water and enzymes until it reaches 90…

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Recipes

Recipe: Mainland Punch

By Mainland Whisky INGREDIENTS Mainland Corn Whisky (1oz) Fresh lemon juice (2oz) Gingerale (2oz) 100% blackberry juice (.5oz) INSTRUCTIONS Dry shake* whisky and lemon juice. Pour over ice. Add ginger ale to fill. Float blackberry juice and garnish with an orange twist. *Dry shake = To shake the ingredients in a cocktail shaker without ice. Surrey’s newest distillery opened their doors in December 2019. Their whisky honours traditional moonshine practices, with spirits that are hand-crafted, made in small batches and never chill-filtered. Mainland Whisky’s unique recipes highlight BC organic corn and barley.  Currently, Mainland has 3 whiskies available for tasting and purchase: Corn Whisky, Cinnamon Whisky and Wild Rose Whisky Liqueur.  Pick up a bottle and then put your bartending skills to the test with this recipe for their Mainland Punch. Mainland Whisky 107 – 3425 189 Street, Surrey

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Adult Beverages

Metro Vancouver’s Most Summery Cocktails

By Brittany Tiplady Let’s be honest: cocktails are to be enjoyed all year-round. But there’s something special about sipping on a spritz, sour, or mojito during the sweet, sweet summer heat. Because we respect the beauty of a good, seasonal cocktail (especially when the spirits are made locally), we’ve rounded up seven spots across Metro Vancouver that are shaking up seasonal cocktails. Southern-Italy Spritz Lineup What: Aperol Spritz, House Lambrusco Spritz, Cocchi Americano Spritz, White Peach Moscato Spritz, Marrow Vermouth Spritz, Blood Orange Cynar Spritz. Where: Savio Volpe Savio has gotten extra creative with this ultra-refreshing, super unique, almost-feels-like-you’re-on-the-beach-in-Southern-Italy spritz lineup. But truly, there’s no one else we trust more to do it. There’s only a few weeks to celebrate and indulge in #summerofspritz at Savio Volpe, so run don’t walk. BC Bramble What: Wallflower Gin, fresh lime juice, simple syrup, crème de cassis. Where: Odd Society Spirits A thing…

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Adult Beverages

Double Gold Medal Winner: Surrey BC’s Central City Queensborough Gin

By Catherine Dunwoody This year, Central City Brewers + Distillers was the only Canadian brand to take home a double gold medal at the recent 2017 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, beating the likes of Bombay Sapphire Gin, Tanqueray and other worldwide heavy hitters in the gin category. Which spirit took it home? Central City’s very own Queensborough Gin that’s what, and we couldn’t be more proud of them as a Surrey, BC company. “We are very proud of this award as we’ve been working diligently on our gin since we launched our distillery in 2013. The high alpine juniper and the expertise of our distiller, Stuart McKinnon, made all the difference,” says Darryll Frost, president and founder at Central City Brewers + Distillers. Queensborough Gin is a premium, handcrafted small batch dry gin, rooted in a 17th century traditional London Dry recipe with a modern day Canadian twist. Notes…

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Recipes

Recipe: Mojito

By Dylan Williams, H2 Rotisserie & Bar at The Westin Bayshore Vancouver INGREDIENTS Cuban rum (2 oz) Lime (1/2, quartered) Demerera sugar cubes (2) Mint with stems (a handful) Soda water (a splash) DIRECTIONS Muddle limes and sugar together with a splash of soda water in shaker tin. Add rum and mint to tin and shake hard with ice. Double strain to remove used lime and mint.

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Recipes

Recipe: Bohemian Sour

By Tacofino INGREDIENTS Torres Brandy (1 oz) Becherovka (½ oz) Lemon juice (1 oz) Spiced fig syrup (½ oz Egg white (1) Nutmeg (garnish) DIRECTIONS Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker and dry shake. Shake once again over ice and fine strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with nutmeg.

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Recipes

Recipe: Spicy Moscow Mule

By James Lester and Richard Klaus, Sons of Vancouver Distillery INGREDIENTS Vodka Vodka Vodka by Sons of Vancouver Distillery (1oz) Spicy Chili Vodka by Sons of Vancouver Distillery (1/2oz) Dickie’s Ginger Beer (3oz) DIRECTIONS Put the alcohols in a shaker with ice and shake until condensation is found on your shaker. Strain onto fresh ice, preferably in a copper mule mug. (You can also try it as a martini.) Top with 3oz of Dickie’s Ginger Beer and enjoy! For more about Sons of Vancouver Distillery, read our article here. Header image by Kathy Mak

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Cocktails, Wines & Spirits

Behind the Craft Spirits at Sons of Vancouver Distillery

By Kathy Mak The local craft spirit movement has been gaining momentum for the past five years in Greater Vancouver thanks to a burgeoning breed of small-format distilleries that produce atypical products for a thriving cocktail community.  Nowhere is that truer than at the Sons of Vancouver Distillery, based on Vancouver’s North Shore. This self-proclaimed really, really small batch distillery has won over fans and followers with their grassroots energy and well-crafted roster of artisan products – a vodka, a chili-infused vodka and an amaretto liqueur. The dynamic duo behind Sons of Vancouver are James Lester and Richard Klaus who met during trade school. They are part of a breed of new artisan distillers shaping the craft cocktail landscape in British Columbia.  These two enterprising friends and business partners are not ones to chase conventional dreams.  When they started their adventure as one of a few local early-adopters in craft…

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Adult Beverages

Central City Brewers + Distillers Go Rogue with Craft Whisky Launch

By Kristi Alexandra When you’re known for producing some of the nation’s best beer, having twice won the title of Canadian Brewery of the Year, you might think you’d stick to the winning formula. But ambition does not elude the key players at Surrey’s Central City Brewers + Distillers, who released a small batch premium whisky at the end of January. Brewmaster Gary Lohin, along with head distiller Stuart McKinnon, created one of only a handful single-malt whiskies in British Columbia. Aptly named Lohin McKinnon, the 43 per cent alc. per vol. craft spirit is aged in select oak barrels in small batches. While whisky-making might seem like a misnomer for a company known best for its beers, the duo maintains the process is not so different. “Brewing and distilling really isn’t that far apart so it’s a natural progression for us to start distilling,” says McKinnon. “The distilling process…

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Cocktails, Wines & Spirits

Elegant and Intoxicating: An Ode to Classic Cocktails in Vancouver

By Sonu Purhar Fancy infusions, liquid nitrogen and inventive ice… these days, it’s par for the course to find your coupe filled with a (damn delicious) work of art – but let’s not forget from whence they came. Yes, I’m talking about The Classic Cocktail. As with any historical certainty, no one is certain when and where the cocktail originated. What we can agree on is that these stimulating brews traditionally consisted of spirits, sugar and bitters. By the mid-1800s, liqueur had joined as the fourth horseman. And shortly thereafter, the first genuine “cocktails” were born, including our friends the Sazerac, Old Fashioned and Manhattan. If it weren’t for these forerunners, you’d be sipping on bitter bathtub gin. But even now, centuries later, it’s surprisingly difficult to find a really good classic cocktail. Contrary to popular belief, they aren’t easy to make. And that’s reason #562 Vancouver is the best…

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Cocktails, Wines & Spirits

Locally made Amaro Uses Vancouver’s North Shore Ingredients

by Catherine Dunwoody Canada’s premier craft and micro-distillery festival, BC Distilled, showcased 27 BC-based artisan distilleries to nearly 500 fans of locally made gins, whiskies, liqueurs, vodkas and more this April. Clearly the show-stealer was The Woods Spirit Co.’s homegrown Amaro. If you’re the cocktail-culture type, or familiar with this Italian herbal liqueur because it’s been around for centuries (respect!) – you’ll likely be aware that Amaro in Italian means ‘bitter’ and brands like Aperol, Campari and Fernet-Branca are a few well-known names. Amari (that’s plural Amaro, folks) tend to be sipped straight up after dinner, soothing digestion with their balance of herbal, botanical, elixir-like properties. And in the land of classic cocktails? A Negroni would not be a Negroni, nor a Sprtiz a Spritz – without Amaro. Joel Myers and Fabio Martini, co-owners of The Woods Spirit Co. tell us the secret to their Amaro recipe is found on Vancouver’s…

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Cocktails, Wines & Spirits

Distinctive Distilleries and Sippable Spirits

By Nikki Bayley B.C. is at the heart of the craft distillery boom in Canada with more distilleries in the province right now than in the rest of Canada put together – and the majority of them are based in the lower mainland, using local ingredients to create craft gins, vodkas, and a dizzying range of fruit-based liqueurs. From the internationally award winning Long Table Distillery’s Cucumber Gin, made with locally-grown ‘cukes to the B.C. black currents in Odd Society Spirits’ Crème de Cassis, the focus is on delicious west coast and valley flavours. Alex Hamer founded the BC Distilled Festival to showcase and celebrate B.C. distilleries to a wider audience. After launching in 2014, the event throws open the doors each year to hundreds of local distillery fans who can sample spirits from the 22 distillers in attendance, “If you’re at all interested in tasting local spirits, the lower…

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