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Canadian sips from coast to coast

By Christine Sismondo

One of Canada's foremost mixologists distills our regional brews and ladles out the recipes

Toronto's premier mixologist decants the shaken and stirred history of Canadian cocktails from Samuel de Champlain to the Bronfman family.

East Coast

On Canada's East Coast, rum has always been king.

Canadian Maritimers know a good thing when they taste it. They began drinking Demerara rum when it arrived from Guyana as payment for their salt cod exports to the West Indies in the 1650s. Since then, they've never looked back. In New Brunswick, a small-batch distillery known as Rosswog Farm Distillery (later renamed Winegarden Estate) produced a high-quality variety of white rum, while Newfoundlanders bottled their own award-winning varieties: Cabot Tower and Old Sam.

Rum making might have just remained a quiet local tradition if it hadn't been for the American soldiers stationed in Gander and St. John's during WWII who judged the local Newfoundland rum their favorite.

Avalon Blue
2 oz Demerara rum
sugar (1 tsp)
blueberries (6 fat ones)
6 or 7 mint leaves
½ oz fresh lemon juice
soda water

Muddle sugar, blueberries, lemon and most of the mint in the bottom of a Collins glass. Add ice and rum, and fill with soda water. Garnish with remaining mint leaves.

Ontario and Quebec

It's a little known fact that beer was one of the many orders of business for the first Quebec settlers. Mistrusting the water supply, Samuel de Champlain beckoned the Récollet priests from France to instill the taste of the old country in the new, untamed land.

Great beer remains the area's pride and joy, and while the rest of the world is reviving cocktail hour, folks in Ontario and Quebec still enjoy the tradition of going out “for beers.” There are a myriad of new tastes to explore all over Quebec's Eastern Townships region and Ontario, including wheat beers, framboises (raspberry) and traditional pale ales.

To spice up a light lager, try a Mexican-inspired Michelada concoction:

Lower Canada Chelada
Rim your beer glass with rock salt.
Add the juice of a full lime, salt, pepper, chili pepper, an ounce of Clamato and a few dashes of hot sauce.
Fill the glass with ice and beer.

Alberta
 
Timing is everything with whiskey. Producers have to know exactly how long to age it, precisely when to bottle it and even when to ramp up production – just in case.

Samuel Bronfman, owner of the Seagram distillery, had perfect timing in the early 1930s when Prohibition was near its end. Bronfman sensed the tide was turning and took a risk by increasing the production of his finely aged whiskeys. When the law was repealed, he was ready to roll and even had an American distribution network on standby. What's more, Seagram's had become good at making whiskey – really good. And quality whiskey in the Prairie provinces and Rocky Mountains has only become better since.

Alberta has been distinguishing itself for the past several decades with spectacular rye whiskeys like Alberta Springs and Tangle Ridge, made from 100-percent rye grain. Unlike the spicy American rye whiskeys, they are known for a faint toffee finish and floral notes.

Canadian whiskeys are often given as a traditional holiday gift, but a slew of talented mixologists has recently been using the drink as a cocktail base for spirited recipes like this one:

Alberta Alley-oop
1 ½ oz rye whiskey
1 tsp orange marmalade
½ oz ginger liqueur
½ oz fresh orange juice
1 orange

Shake all ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker and strain into a chilled martini glass.
Serve with an orange twist.

West Coast

In the sunny Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, vintners have been working hard to keep up with the demand created by grape-loving travelers coming to explore Western Canada's highly touted wine region. Although ice wines were invented in Germany, Canadians are now the largest producers of this unique artisanal wine; its signature sweetness is the result of the grapes being left to freeze on the vine.

When the temperature falls to 14°F (-10°C), the grapes are quickly picked and pressed. Since the ice is trapped in the press, all the extracted juice is sweeter and more intense. Vintners have to be keenly aware of the timing; if left on the vine to get any colder, the entire harvest will be ruined.

Ice wine is typically enjoyed with dessert but is also excellent on its own, so it may come as a surprise to hear that it is Canada's most re-gifted alcohol. A number of West Coast culinary leaders have been experimenting with it as an ingredient for food and cocktails, but for the host or hostess who isn't entirely sure how to serve it, try this for refreshment:

Victoria's Secret
2 oz ice wine
1 oz elderflower cordial
½ oz Chambord
1 lemon

Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Photo credit: Don Weixl, Thompson Okanagan Tourism