Category Archives: Cocktails

Drink of the Week: High Stick Cosmo

Usually when bottles arrive at my doorstep they are shaped like bottles. Not so my new “bottle” of High Stick Vodka, a Canadian wheat vodka packaged in a cylinder of hand-blown glass shaped like a hockey stick. Arriving at Alberta liquor stores just in time for the Olympics, this newcomer in what some might argue is an over-saturated vodka market aims to be “perfect in an ice-cold shooter or mixed as a martini, Bloody Mary or a White Russian.”

High Stick Vodka gives new meaning to the phrase, "He shoots, he scores!"

High Stick Vodka gives new meaning to the phrase, “He shoots, he scores!”

Let’s be honest though. Vodka is vodka, right? It may be made from all-natural ingredients and filtered 18 times (!) in an artisan distillery, but the reason we’re going to buy High Stick Vodka is because we’re Canadian and it comes in an almost life-size glass hockey stick. It’s freakin’ cool. In fact, it’s “mount as the centrepiece on the top shelf of my home bar” cool. Or, “throw an Olympics bash and do shooters from the end of the hockey stick” cool. Forget about that other vodka in the skull — this one comes in a hockey stick!!

Since shooters won’t appeal to everyone at your Glad I’m Not In Sochi Party, why not shake up some Cosmos? They’re boozy, yummy and festive and happen to be just the right colour to cheer on Canada. Now, if only someone would make a sombrero-shaped tequila bottle…

A Cosmo tasty and red. Important considerations when cheering on Team Canada.

A Cosmo is tasty, and red. Important considerations when cheering on Team Canada at the Olympics.

High Stick Cosmo

  • 1-1/2 oz High Stick Vodka
  • 1/2 oz Cointreau
  • 3/4 oz cranberry juice (since there are now, like, 45 different kinds of cranberry juice, I accidentally purchased one with lime)
  • 1/4 to 1/2 oz lime, to taste (I only used 1/4 oz, see above bullet)
  • Orange twist garnish

In a cocktail shaker filled with ice combine all ingredients and shake. Fine strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with the orange twist.

Drink of the Week: Stoli Sticki Sweet & Tart Spritz

Over the past couple of years honey has come into its own. I’ve used it to sweeten tea, salad dressings and now cocktails by making a honey syrup. But why stop there? Spirits makers have started using it to flavour booze. First there was Jack Daniels with Tennessee Honey, then came honey-flavoured beer and Bols Honey Liqueur. Finally vodka — not wanting to miss a single opportunity to try on a new flavour (pickle-flavoured vodka, anyone?) — has raided the hive.

Stolichnaya recently unveiled its Stoli Sticki honey vodka and sent me a bottle so I could sample it. As you may recall, I am not a fan of flavoured vodkas. I do, however, absolutely  love Dawa cocktails, a Kenyan refreshment made with vodka, limes and honey, so I figured at the very least a bottle of Stoli Sticki would come in handy with the Dawa.

Stoli Sticki Sweet & Tart Spritz

Stoli Sticki + Cointreau + lime juice + soda water = a refreshing Stoli Sticki Sweet & Tart Spritz.

But I also like to try new recipes, so I set about looking for something that would mix well with honey vodka. First I made the Stoli Sticki Sweet & Tart (honey vodka, Cointreau, lime juice), but even with this drink’s 1:1:1: ratio I found the Stoli Sticki’s honey taste too overpowering and a tad artificial. So I remedied the recipe by adding soda water to create a spritz and a more palatable cocktail. Behold: the Stoli Sticki Sweet & Tart Spritz! Best for: long summer afternoons on a hot patio (or failing that, long winter evenings stuck inside with the children). Enjoy!

Stoli Sticki Sweet & Tart Spritz

Much better with soda water. Tart, fizzy and goes down a tad too quickly.

Stoli Sticki Sweet & Tart Spritz

  • 1 oz Stoli Sticky
  • 1 oz Cointreau
  • 1 oz lime juice
  • Top soda water
  • Orange wheel garnish

Add Stoli Sticki, Cointreau and lime juice to a cocktail shaker. Add ice and shake, then strain into an ice-filled rocks glass and top with soda water. Garnish with an orange wheel.

— Recipe adapted from the Stoli Sticki Sweet & Tart

Drink of the Week: Pisco Sour

Sours are my favourite category of drinks because they’re tart, frothy and pack a memorable punch in a short glass. They’re also easy to make because they follow a standard formula: spirit + citrus + simple syrup + egg white = sour. I’ve written about the whiskey sour, tequila sour, vodka sour, apricot lady sour and Cointreau sour, and now I bring you Peru’s and Chile’s national cocktail: the Pisco Sour.

El Gobernador means the governor in Spanish. Yep, this pisco is boss.

El Gobernador means the governor in Spanish. Yep, this pisco is boss.

Pisco is South America’s version of brandy. It’s made from distilling fermented grape juice from grapes grown in specific regions of Chile and Peru. I’m writing all about the spirit, and its cocktail muse, the Pisco Sour, in an upcoming Calgary Herald column, but here’s a sneak preview. I love this version from El Gobernador,  a premium Chilean pisco new to the Canadian market.

Super frothy and delicious. Omyomyom.

Super frothy and delicious. Omyomyom.

Pisco Sour

  • 2 oz El Gobernador pisco
  • 1 oz lime juice
  • 3/4 oz simple syrup
  • 1 egg white

Add ingredients to a cocktail shaker and dry shake to emulsify egg. Add ice and shake again. Fine strain into a chilled martini or coupe glass.

— Recipe courtesy El Gobernador