Tag Archives: vodka 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: Tomatini

I spent a lunch hour earlier this week at a vodka tasting with Bob Nolet, an 11th generation distiller from Holland who’s best known in Canada for producing Ketel One vodka. I know what you’re thinking: “Vodka for lunch? How Mad Men. Sign me up!” Believe me, there was a little bit of that going on — especially since I tasted three different vodkas and got halfway through a vodka cocktail before any food arrived. Plus, Nolet was accompanied by Jenner Cormier, a Ketel One spokesman/bartender who just won the World Class Canada Bartender of the Year title. He is also easy on the eyes in a Don Draper kind of way.

Over the course of the tasting Nolet and Cormier sold me on the charms of this small-batch, pot-stilled spirit and I was eager to try it at home by shaking up some fall cocktails. Intrigued by the idea of muddling a tomato (a first for me), I opted for the Tomatini, created for Ketel One by a bartender from Dubai.

A vodka drink with muddled tomato and white balsamic vinegar.

A vodka drink with muddled tomato and white balsamic vinegar.

As I measured white balsamic vinegar and vodka into my cocktail shaker I imagined that the end result would taste of boozy gazpacho, a tonic both strong and savoury. Alas, no. The recipe also calls for sugar syrup so, in combination with the vinegar and tomato (remember: it’s a fruit), my drink was too sweet for my liking and I recalled Nolet’s and Cormier’s words of caution: that cocktails from Asia and the Middle East (e.g. Dubai) are often sweeter. Doh!

I quickly dispatched the Tomatini and used the lovely Ketel One to muddle up my favourite vodka cocktail, a Dawa. But in the spirit of fall, I bring you the Tomatini (feel free to adjust the sugar and vinegar according to taste).

My attempt at the Tomatini doesn't look quite as nice, does it?

My attempt at the Tomatini doesn’t look quite as nice, does it?

Ketel One Tomatini

  • 1.5 oz Ketel One Vodka
  • 1/3 oz white balsamic vinegar
  • 1/4 oz simple syrup*
  • 1 ripe red tomato
  • Pepper Grinder

Cut the tomato into 8-10 chunks and muddle in a cocktail shaker. Add the balance of ingredients with lots of ice. Shake vigorously and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with black pepper.  

*To make simple syrup, add 2 parts of sugar and 1 part of water to a small saucepan.  (1 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of water is a good starting point). Gently heat until it starts to boil, stirring until the sugar is completely dissolved. Cool and refrigerate. 

— Recipe created by Jimmy Barrat, Zuma Restaurant, Dubai

Drink of the Week: Vodka Martini

It’s Father’s Day on Sunday, which means there will likely be a Dad in your life (your father, or the father or your children) who wants nothing more than to chillax in his Dad Chair and toss back a couple stiff drinks. So why not put in a little effort and shake up a vodka martini?

Why a martini, you ask? Because it’s boozy and means business, and our favourite manly man (that would be James Bond) drinks his vodka martinis shaken — not stirred — just like the Luksusowa recipe, below.

Happy Father’s Day!

This manly martini is heavy on the vodka and features three olives.

This manly martini is heavy on the vodka and features a snack: olives. Image courtesy Luksusowa.

Vodka Martini

  • 2 oz Luksusowa vodka
  • 1/4 to 1/2 oz dry vermouth
  • Crushed ice
  • Olive, onion or lemon twist garnish

Sparingly atomize the inside of a martini or rocks glass with the dry vermouth (less vermouth equals a martini that is drier. Gently shake (or stir, if you must) Luksusowa vodka with the crushed ice in a stainless steel shaker, or glass pitcher. Immediately fine strain into the glass. Garnish with the olive, onion or lemon twist.

— Recipe courtesy Luksusowa