We are inching our way across this vast country and happy to report that Victoria Gin has now flooded the SAQ! Find yourself a bottle here.
Anna and Phil were in Montréal for an intimate launch last week at Restaurant Jane on Notre Dame. We were delighted to launch at Jane – a place that shares our commitment to quality and “keeping it real”. We were also delighted by the local response.
Merci Québec et longue vie à l’esprit moderne de Victoria!
The International Indian Film Academy Awards are coming to Toronto this month and the Fairmont Royal York will be welcoming international delegates, fans, and cinema royalty in style.
Among other treats, and as featured in the Hindustan Times(!), their Library Bar will be shaking up a Raj Kapoor in celebration.
Raj Kapoor
2 oz Victoria Gin
1 oz dry vermouth
1 oz lemon juice
1 oz simple syrup
1/2 teaspoons fresh grated ginger
Shaken on ice and strained into a chilled martini glass. Garnished with crystallized ginger and slivered red jalapeno.
Catch Raj at the Bar, and other Royal York IIFA events, June 22-26.
We had an outstanding time at the Island Chefs’ Collaborative Food Fest last Sunday. Three Cheers for local food, farms, and firewater!
… and Family: Valerie, Bryan & Anna at The ICC Food Fest
We spent the afternoon muddling ourselves delirious with a mountain of beautiful cucumbers from Sun Wing. As requested, here is the recipe so you can muddle your own:
The Butchart Garden** (aka, Sun Wing Delight!)
2 oz Victoria Gin
2 oz fresh pressed apple juice
2-3 pieces of cucumber
1/2 oz elderflower cordial
+ a dash of bitters, if you like
Muddle cucumber, add remaining ingredients, and shake with ice. Strain & garnish with a slice of cucumber or a flower.
A sea of ICC oysters & a Butchart Garden **first created and named by Vancouver’s Shangri-la Hotel for Vic Gin
[We have other swank, but totally doable, cocktails here.]
Meanwhile, in Toronto, Tipicular Fixin’s was spoiling guests at Toronto Taste.
For their Rhubarb Caramel Lemonade, the Team used rhubarb from a farm in Innerkip, Ontario, and edible flowers from the Under Ground Organics farm in Millgrove, Ontario. They looked and tasted beautiful.
[& Kudos to Carmen from Charelli's for the first couple of pics.]
… and pickles leeks(!) for the Oakville’s Girls Night Out event. Tipicular Fixin’s Whitney and Trevor have graciously agreed to share their dynamo cocktail recipes here.
Rhubarb Lemonade
1 oz Victoria Gin
1 oz lemon juice
1 oz rhubarb syrup
10 dashes twister & bitter
Place ingredients in a shaker filled with cracked ice. Shake vigorously and strain into your favourite martini glass.
If you’re feeling energetic, Whitney suggests hitting your local farmers’ market for an edible organic flower garnish – and for the rhubarb for your homemade syrup, of course.
Moonstone #3
2 oz Victoria Gin
1/4 oz pickling liquid
1 Tipicular Fixin’s pickled Wild Leek
Place Gin and pickling liquid in a shaker filled with cracked ice. Shake and strain into a martini glass or coupette. Garnish with a pickled wild leek.
Every cocktail has a story. Trevor shares:
The wild leeks we picked ourselves from a forest on my Aunt’s 100 acre farm in Midland and we then pickled them earlier in the week. It was a ton of work, but loads of fun. We garnished our Victoria Gin Classic Martinis with them and the crowd loved it. Some asked that we add some of the pickle juice to make Dirty/Gibson Martinis and we decided to name it Moonstone #3, Moonstone Road and Line 3 is where the farm is located in Midland, Ontario.
Thanks for sharing your creativity and for making us shine, you two!
Victoria Gin will be at Oakville Girl’s Night Out on May 25th, in the capable hands of Trevor Burnett.
Trevor mixes love at our 2010 Toronto Cocktail Competition
Join Trevor at the Oakville Conference Centre for Vic Gin samples and an evening of fashion, food, drink, and entertainment… all while raising money for the Mississauga Food Bank. Details here.
There’s nothing like political turbulence to make us want a drink. Knowing you’ll agree, we hope you’ll join us for a post-election nip of Victoria Gin, and copious other bites and sips, at Ottawa’s premiere gourmet event, Bon Appetit.
Touted as Ottawa’s “best cocktail party of the year”, Gin will be flowing on May 3rd at Aberdeen Pavilion as over 2,000 guests indulge to raise money for hunger and poverty relief. Sounds ‘win-win’ to us.
Now get out there and earn your drink – Vote!
The Fairmont Royal York is always shaking up something smashing and local. Their P.S. Victoria is a stunner, which we’d enjoy ‘post’ or ‘pre’ just about anything.
Things shake down at the Library Bar
P.S. Victoria
1.5 oz Victoria Gin
0.25 apricot brandy
0.25 fresh Ontario apple juice
Château des Charms Brut
Shake first three ingredients on ice and pour into a champagne flute. Top with brut and garnish with a slice of Ontario Gala or Red Delicious apple & a dried apricot.
Thirty Queens agree: This is the place to be.
Because we know looking at counter tops makes you want to drink and because we love new friends, Vic Gin is appearing again at the National Home Show in TO… this time supported by the talents of Trevor Burnett and Whitney Munro of Tipicular Fixin’s and by the lovely Julie Dores.
In case you can’t make it to the Show or in case you want to relive the magic whilst engaged in your pre-spring projects, we’ve provided Whitney’s incredible recipe here. Another killer tea cocktail.
We’re not the only ones who love Whit, Trev & this cocktail (see lower left)
The Empress
Prep time 30 min. Ready in 3 hrs (or by the time your counter is installed)
1 oz Victoria Gin
1 oz orange blossom oolong tea syrup*
3/4 oz fresh lemon juice
1/4 oz fresh tangerine juice
10 dashes twisted & bitter
sorrel mist (optional)
sorrel flower garnish (optional)
Prep glassware by misting or rinsing with sorrel tea (see below).
In a large shaker add Gin, tea syrup, lemon & tangerine juice, and bitters. Shake over ice & strain into glass. Garnish with a sorrel flower.
*orange blossom oolong tea syrup
Yields 2 cups & can be stored in the fridge for several weeks.
2 tsp Herbal Infusions’** orange blossom oolong tea***
2 cups water
2 cups sugar
Bring water just below boiling, add tea, remove from heat & steep for 15-20 mins (the duration makes the tea slightly bitter). Strain tea. Return to medium heat & add sugar. Stir until dissolved, cool to room temp & refrigerate for at least an hour.
**Herbal Infusions is a local tea shop & a Tipicular Fixin’s fave.
***As a substitute for the tea, a plain oolong could be used with the zest of 1 large orange & few drops of orange blossom water.
Sorrel flowers can be found fresh around the holidays, but are available all year dried. They can be found at Asian and West Indian grocers and are a member of the Hibiscus family. The flowers can be bloomed in hot water over night, making a bright red liquid and a perfect mist for the glass. We used an atomizer but it could just as easily work as a rinse — simply add 1/4 oz to the glass & swirl the liquid in the glass.
Thanks to Whitney, Trevor, and Julie for being so wonderful and to our pals at the Toronto Wine & Spirit Fest, who coordinate the essential Home Show libations and invited us back to the Show this year.
It seems Feb 26th is “Open wide, Ontario” day, with three concurrent pourings of Victoria Gin in the LCBOs of Oakville, Ottawa, and Toronto. Come have a taste and stick your face in our botanicals!
In Oakville: 321 Cornwall Drive at Trafalgar, 11-5
In Ottawa: 275 Rideau Street at King Edward, 12-4
In Toronto: 10 Scrivener Square at Yonge & Summerhill, 11:30-3:30
Can’t wait that long? Here’s where you can find a bottle in Ontario.
The Refinery’s wildly talented Lauren Mote will be at the BCL at 39th & Cambie today for 6 cocktail demos. Among the cocktails, she’ll show participants how to make the Provencale. Here’s a sneak peek:
Provencale
1.5 oz Victoria Gin
0.75 oz lemon juice
1 oz lavender syrup
2 dashes bitters
Soda
Build over ice in a collins glass. Garnish with a lemon slice.
Ever-glamorous Lauren Mote at our ‘09 Vancouver cocktail comp
If you’re in Vancouver and can get tickets, it is the place to be! 5:30-6:30 & 7:00-8:00. Tickets $10 on-site.
If you miss the show today, you can catch Lauren at the Refinery, where you can always enjoy an hour in Provence. It’s on the cocktail menu.
