cocktails: a-z

5:32*

*the exact time Prohibition was repealed on December 5th, 1933

2 oz Victoria Gin
1/2 oz St Germain Elderflower Liqueur
3/4 oz Meyer lemon juice
2 dashes grapefruit bitters
2 dashes lemon bitters
1 inch of cucumber, muddled

Shake with ice and double strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Top with grapefruit foam.

Created by Gavin MacMillan of Bartender One.

Alchemist’s Brew (Ha-Ha)

makes 1 litre

2 tbsp Alchemist’s Brew herbal tea
3 cups boiling water
1 cup Victoria Gin
3 tsp honey
juice of 1/2 lime

Boil water and pour over tea.  Steep for 10 min and strain over honey.  Cold option: Refrigerate until cold & combine chilled tea with chilled gin and fresh lime juice.  Shake with ice.  Hot option: Add gin and lime juice.

Created by Silk Road Tea.

The Aviation

2 oz Victoria Gin
1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
1/2 oz marachino liqueur
1 dash crème de violette

Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice.  Shake  and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Barbed Wire

2 oz Left Coast Hemp Vodka
3.5 oz pressed rhubarb (freeze chunks of fresh rhubarb, thaw & blend)
0.75 oz simple syrup (dissolve sugar in equal parts water and cool)
A few healthy dashes of twisted & bitter cocktail bitters
A splash (or squeeze) of fresh orange juice

Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice.  Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with an orange twist and a mint sprig.

Brooklyn Queens

served hot

1 750 ml bottle of Victoria Gin
1 pineapple (peeled & chopped)
300 ml Madeira
300 ml sweet vermouth (preferably Carpano Antico Formula)
200 ml late bottle vintage port ( Talylor Fladgate works well)
200 ml fresh squeezed lemon juice
200 ml organic honey (plus more to taste)
3 cinnamon sticks
2 cloves
10 orange zests
1 star anise

Combine ingredients in a non-reactive saucepan. Mix well. Simmer for at least 20 minutes.  Be careful never to boil.  Serve in teacups.

Created by Rob Montgomery, and the winner of a special jury award at our cocktail competition in Toronto.

The Butchart Garden (aka, Sun Wing Delight!)

2 oz Victoria Gin
2 oz fresh pressed apple juice
2-3 pieces of (Sun Wing) 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.

Created by Vancouver’s Shangri-la Hotel for Victoria Day, 2009

Capital Assets

1 1/2 oz Victoria Gin
1/2 oz Oaken Gin
1/8 oz Black Grouse Scotch
1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
1 oz St-Germain
4 oz Driftwood White Bark Ale
4 dashes twisted & bitter orange bitters
Sprig of rosemary for garnish

Combine & shake all ingredients (except ale!) on ice.  Strain into glass with three large ice cubes.  Top with ale & stir.  Garnish with rosemary.

Created by Solomon Siegel from Veneto in Victoria, in celebration of Tales of the Cocktail Vancouver.

Catalan 75

1 oz Victoria Gin
1 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz simple syrup
one dash grappa cherry syrup
3 oz Codorníu Cava Clasico

Shake first four ingredients over ice.  Strain into large flute.  Top with Cava and garnish with a lemon twist.

Created by Chris McDonald, Chef at Cava Restaurant, for our FIFA cocktail face-off

The Classic Martini

1 1/2 oz Victoria Gin
1/2 oz Noilly Prat vermouth
dash of twisted & bitter

Stir with ice, strain and garnish with a lemon twist.

Dill Fling (aka, Olympic Gold)

2 oz Victoria Gin
1/2 oz cane sugar syrup
1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
1/2 oz egg white
fresh dill sprigs
2-3 pieces cucumber

Muddle dill and cucumber in shaker.  Add ice and shake.  Strain into cocktail glass and garnish with smoked salmon.

Created by the Four Season’s Hotel to celebrate the Vancouver Olympics.

Dill Pickled

1 1/4 oz Victoria Gin
1/8 oz Grand Marnier
3/4 oz white cranberry juice
1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
dash of dill puree

Shake with ice.  Strain.  Garnish with a cucumber slice.

Created by Jeff Sansone, at Canoe Restaurant & Bar in Toronto

Dutch Old Fashioned

2 oz Victoria Gin
2-3 lumps of unbleached sugar
a few dashes twisted & bitter
a few Griottines (primo brandied cherries)

Muddle ingredients and stir together on ice.  Strain over fresh ice.  Garnish with a wheel of orange in the drink.  Rub lemon peel on the rim and dropped in with a cherry.

Created by Steve Da Cruz for our FIFA cocktail face-off.

The DV 15 Cocktail

1  1/2 oz Oaken Gin
8 drops Peychaud’s Bitters
1/2 oz  fresh lime juice
1/2 oz simple syrup
1 1/2 oz sparkling wine

Shake first four ingredients with ice. Pour into a champagne flute and top with sparkling wine. Garnish with a twist of lime.

Created for Dance Victoria’s 15th Anniversary Gala, September 2011.  A variation of the French 75  with our Oaken Gin.

The Empress

Prep: 30 min. Ready in 3 hours.

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.  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 oolong tea**
zest of 1 large orange
a few drops of orange blossom water
2 cups water
2 cups sugar

Bring water just below boiling, add tea, zest, and blossom water.  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.

Created by Tipicular Fixin’s for the National Home Show in Toronto

French 75

1 1/2 oz Victoria Gin
1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
1/2 oz simple syrup

Shake with ice.  Pour into a champagne flute.  Top with sparkling wine.

* This cocktail has great proportions to play with.  Try grapefruit juice instead of lemon or some cordial instead of simple syrup

GINgle Bell Martini

2 oz Victoria Gin
1/2 oz grand fir syrup, or to taste*
sweet fir rim

Dampen the rim of a martini glass with a lemon wedge / Put sweet rim mix (see below) on a saucer and roll the damp rim to coat
Gently shake Vic Gin and fir syrup (see below) on ice / Strain into martini glass & enjoy!

*We also used 1/4 oz of the grand fir syrup, with some of our twisted & bitter.

Grand Fir syrup:
1 cup white sugar
1 cup water
10 grams or approx 30 cm fresh fir bow*

Steep ingredients over medium heat for approx 15 mins (to dissolve sugar) / Shut off heat, allow to cool, then strain

Rim:
Dry some fir bows (you won’t need much) in the oven for 45 mins at 250 / Allow to cool / Pick needles off branch and pulverize them either with a mortar & pestle or coffee grinder / Mix 1 part fir to 4.5 parts sugar

The Hartland

1 oz Victoria Gin
1/2 oz pear liqueur
1/2 oz Montenegro Amaro
1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
1-2 dash grapefruit bitters
cava or other sparkling wine

Shake Gin, pear, amaro, lemon juice, and bitters with ice. Strain into a flute and top with cava.  Garnish with a twist of lemon

Created by Solomon Siegel.

The Hunting Party

1 oz Oaken Gin
3/4 oz  Dubonnet
3/4 oz Amaro Montenegro

Stir and serve over ice with an orange or lemon twist.

Created by Katie MacDonald of Veneto in Victoria.

Imperial Splendour

1 1/2 oz Victoria Gin
2 1/2 oz strongly brewed earl grey tea, chilled
1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
1/2 oz Cointreau
2 dashes twisted & bitter orange cocktail bitters

Combine ingredients and shake on ice. Strain into your finest china.  Garnish with an orange slice and a frozen marmalade cube (heat marmalade with equal parts water to dissolve before freezing).

Created for our Queen Victoria Look-a-like Competition.

The Last Word

1 part Victoria Gin
1 part green chartreuse
1 part lime juice
1 part maraschino liqueur

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Moonstone #3

2 oz Victoria Gin
1/4 oz pickling liquid
1 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.

Created by Tipicular Fixin’s.  Trevor shares the cocktail story here.

The Olde Vic

1 1/2 oz Victoria Gin
1/2 oz Campari
1/2 oz burnt earl grey syrup*
3 dashes twisted & bitter

*for syrup, heat 200ml water & 200ml sugar until dissolved. Add 2 tea bags & boil for 5 mins. Let cool & remove bags.

Combine ingredients in mixing glass with ice.  Stir until chilled. Strain over new ice in an old fashioned glass & garnish with lemon peel.

The winning cocktail from our  2010 Toronto Cocktail Competition, created by Moses McIntee

Pre-Prohibition Martini

1 oz Victoria Gin
1 oz sweet vermouth
dash of Twisted & Bitter, orange bitters

Stir with ice, strain, & garnish with a marachino cherry.

The pre-prohibition martini mixed gin with sweet vermouth — a surprise to many martini lovers.  Not too long after the availability of sweet vermouth, a dry French vermouth was introduced. Now people could order their martinis ‘dry’.  This didn’t mean less vermouth, it meant using dry vermouth instead.

The Prickly Pear

1 oz Victoria Gin
1 oz  scotch whisky
2 1/2 oz pear juice (or nectar)
1/2 oz  simple syrup (optional)
1/3 oz fresh lemon juice

Combine ingredients with ice and shake well.  Garnish with a slice of pear.

Provencale

1 1/2 oz Victoria Gin
3/4 oz lemon juice
1 oz lavender syrup
2 dashes bitters
soda

Build over ice in a collins glass.  Garnish with a lemon slice.

Created by Lauren Mote and available at The Refinery in Vancouver

P.S. Victoria

1 1/2 oz Victoria Gin
1/4 apricot brandy
1/4 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.

Created by the Fairmont Royal York’s Library Bar.

Raj Kapoor

2 oz Victoria Gin
1 oz dry vermouth
1 oz lemon juice
1 oz simple syrup
1/2 teaspoons fresh grated ginger

Shake on ice and strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with crystallized ginger and slivered red jalapeno.

Created by the Fairmont Royal York Hotel for the International Indian Film Academy Awards.  More here.

The Ramos Gin Fizz

1 1/2 oz Victoria Gin
1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
1/2 oz fresh lime juice
1 oz cream
1 fresh egg white
a dash orange flower water
1 tbsp powdered sugar
soda water

Shake all ingredients, except soda, first without ice.  Then add ice and shake, and shake, and shake!  Pour into glass of ice and top with soda.

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.

Created by Tipicular Fixin’s and showcased at Toronto Taste.

The Rialto Cocktail

60 ml  Victoria Gin
15 ml  Giffard Lichi-Li liqueur
10 ml fresh lemon juice
15 ml Silk Road Lapsang Souchong syrup*
2-3 dashes Bitterman’s Xocolatl Mole bitters

*To make Lapsang Souchong syrup, brew very strong Lapsang Souchong tea (steep over an hour) and then make a 1:1 simple syrup using the tea instead of water.

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.  Garish with a piece of very dark chocolate

Created by Solomon Siegel for Art of the Cocktail 2011

Rinky Drink #3 – (the ultimate drink for the rink!)

1 oz Navan Vanilla Liqueur
1 oz Sortilege Maple Whisky Liqueur
2 dashes twisted & bitter orange bitters
4-6 oz cinnamon infused mulled apple cider (warm)

Garnish with a blood orange wheel and a cinnamon stick

Created by Kevin Brauch, February 2010

Royal Blue Moon (aka, something old, new, bubbly, and blue)

(makes two, for a nuptial toast)

4 oz Victoria Gin
2 dashes of crème de violette
2 oz dry vermouth
2 dashes of twisted & bitter, orange bitters
bubbly

Shake Vic Gin, crème de violette, vermouth, and bitters on ice.  Pour into champagne glasses & top with bubbly.

The Royal Cypher

2 oz Victoria Gin
2 oz aloe vera
2 oz fresh ruby red grape fruit juice
4 slices cucumber
3 dashes bitters
1/2 oz fresh lavender simple syrup

Muddle cucumber in shaker.  Add ice and stir.  Strain into martini glass

Created by Elan Marks for our 2010 Toronto Cocktail Competition.

The Royal Jelly

served hot

Darjeeling tea
Victoria Gin
black currant or raspberry jelly (avoid raspberry jam unless you like the seeds in your teeth)

Place a teaspoon of jelly in the bottom of a teacup with the spoon. Pour hot tea over the teaspoon, followed by an ounce or two of Gin.  Slowly stir the jelly into the tea and enjoy.

Created by Daniela at Silk Road.

The Royal Treatment

1 1/2 oz Victoria Gin
4 oz white cranberry juice
sparkling wine
kiwi slices
some raspberries
some blackberries
6 mint leaves

Add ice to a wine glass, add Gin, juice, and top with sparkling wine.  Add fruit and mint.  Stir, drink, love.

Created by Elizabeth Savage for our 2010 Toronto Cocktail Competition.

Shiso Lovely

2 oz Victoria Gin
2 oz pear nectar
2 shiso leaves
1/4 cup chopped cucumber

Muddle shiso and cucumber.  Add Vic Gin and pear juice and shake on ice.  Garnish with half a shiso leaf.  Shiso-licious!

Spicy Mandarin Sparkle

makes 1 litre

3 tbsp Spicy Mandarin tea*
1/2 cup Victoria Gin
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups freshly squeezed mandarin juice
2 cups chilled sparkling white wine or champagne

Add tea leaves to gin.  Wait 20 minutes and then strain.  Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Peel mandarin oranges, and squeeze with a citrus press.  Combine tea-infused gin with mandarin juice.  Shake over ice and pour into a pitcher.  Gently stir in sparkling white wine or champagne, to keep bubbles.  Serve immediately in champagne flutes.

*Earl Grey, green teas, and other black teas also work well in this recipe.

Created by our pals at Silk Road Tea.

The Triple Lutz

1 oz Victoria Gin
1 oz Crystal Head Vodka
1/2 oz lemon juice
3/4 oz Chef’s whiskey maple syrup
3 muddled blackberries
Muddle blackberries and mix all ingredients in a glass shaker.  Add ice.  Shake and double strain into a chilled martini glass.

Top with ice wine foam:

5 1/2 strips bloomed gelatin
4 oz ice wine
2 oz fresh lemon juice
5 oz simple syrup
10 oz hot water

Mix ingredients and chill. Add to whipped cream canister. Charge with spark whip.  Discard spark whip and add another, shake, and top onto cocktail. Foam should have a consistent density which undisturbed should stay up over 15 minutes.

Created by the Fairmont Chateau Whister for the 2010 Olympics.  Details here.

Tung Ting Fizz

1 oz Victoria Gin
1 oz tea infused Noilly Pratt Dry Vermouth*
3/4 oz lime juice
1 oz simple syrup
2 oz sparkling water
1 egg white

Combine ingredients and shake hard for 1-3 minutes to froth egg white. Pour in collins half-filled with ice and top with soda. Optional: drop 3 dashes bitters on top in a triangle — with a straw in the centre it should look like a flower.  Some people like their cocktails to go from light-heavy — So stir in bitters as required.

*For tea vermouth combine 7 tsp or 7 tea bags of oolong tea with 1L vermouth.  Allow to “bloom” for 3-5 hours in fridge. Strain out tea.  It is ready to use and has a fridge  life of 30-60 days. Over time dry vermouth will lose acidity. 60 days later it’ll still taste great but not as fresh and potent as day one.

Created by Lauren Mote and available at The Refinery in Vancouver

The Vesper Martini

3 oz Victoria Gin
1 oz vodka
1/2 oz lillet blanc

Stir with ice, strain, & garnish with lemon twist.

Bond: You know, I think I’ll call that a Vesper.
Vesper: Because of the bitter aftertaste?
Bond: No, because once you’ve tasted it, that’s all you want to drink.

Vic Gin Martini

2 oz Victoria Gin
dash of Twisted & Bitter, orange bitters

Stir with ice, strain, & garnish with a twist of lemon.

Victoria’s Flip

makes 2

4 oz Victoria Gin
1 oz Solera Cream Sherry
20 ml fresh lemon juice
4 dashes of bitters
2 oz fresh plum juice
2 oz reduced plum juice*
one free range egg yolk
fresh nutmeg

Combine ingredients in a Boston shaker.  Add ice and shake vigorously for about 30 seconds.  Fine strain and serve in a steamed cocktail glass.  Garnish with freshly ground nutmeg.

*Reduced plum juice: combine 1 litre of water with two packages of dehydrated plums (available at most Chinese grocery stores).  Boil and reduce by 1/3.  Remove from heat.  Fine strain.  Chill.

Created by Wendy McGinness and our Vancouver competition winning cocktail.

Victoria’s Secret

2 oz Victoria Gin
1 egg white
1 1/2 oz lemon juice
1 pinch fresh coriander
1/2 tsp fresh ginger
1/2 oz maple syrup
1 pinch fresh ground pepper

Muddle ingredients and shake with ice. Strain into martini glass.  Garnish with pepper.

Created by Barchef’s Frankie Solarik for Vic Gin’s Toronto launch, May 2009

The Violet Petal

2 oz Victoria Gin
1/2 oz Noilly Prat dry vermouth
1/4 oz  Giffard Violette (use a light hand as Violette can dominate)
Absinthe rinse (the Doctor uses a mister)

Stir ingredients over ice and strain into a vintage cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Created by Robin Kaufman at Uva in Vancouver

2 oz Victoria Gin
3/4 oz Martini Bianco vermouth
4 dashes liquor Strega