OpenTable
/ Local Gin, Revived Classics, and a Garden-to-Glass Mentality: Vancouver’s Hottest Cocktail Trends
Vancouver is at the vanguard of Canadian cocktail culture. The seaside metropolis on the western edge of British Columbia prides itself on offering drinkers world-class options that run the gamut from the classic to cutting edge. We spoke with three of the city’s most well-respected bartenders about Vancouver’s hottest cocktail trends to discover what is exciting them right now.
Gin Blossoms
Cocktail menus are rich with gin, much of it locally produced. A favourite with mixologists is Sheringham Distillery’s Seaside varietal, which features kelp as one of its botanicals. “You can taste the coast in it,” says Christopher Enns, bartender at The Lobby Lounge at the Fairmont Pacific Rim and a part of the opening team at Botanist’s cocktail lab upstairs. “If you have a Seaside gin martini with oysters, it’s just an exceptional pairing.”
Over at Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar, head bartender Gavin Hobbs makes a cocktail with the gin, along with fresh elderflower shrub, lemon, honey, and caraway-forward akvavit. It’s shaken and served in a coupe with a lemon twist.
Brice Peressini, lead bartender of Victor, loves Empress 1908 gin infused with butterfly pea blossom. When it’s combined with citrus juice or tonic, it changes color to lend cocktails a vibrant violet hue. He showcases the shade shifting spirit in the Emperor’s Sour along with lavender syrup, lemon juice, and crème de violette.
Other local gins that are exciting the bartenders include Long Table Distillery’s cucumber gin and Central City’s Queensborough Dry Gin.
Garden-to-Glass
“We’re seeing a lot of vegetal flavors in drinks,” says Enns.
Botanist features the Can’t Beet A Root incorporating carrot, yellow beet, and kale; Poetry In Motion showcases rhubarb (yes, it’s a vegetable); the mezcal-fortified Garden of Qarth utilizes fennel, and Candy Cap Magic (pictured above) includes a rye infused with wild mushrooms. Meanwhile, the Lobby Lounge’s Little Ninja, Benzaiten, and Kaijū all feature cucumber, while the Dreamland has shishito peppers.