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Spirits and Cocktails

Guest Post – Victoria Distillers: “Phun” with Gin

July 31, 2018

A huge thanks to Bill Wittur for this latest guest post on Victoria Distillers, as I continue to manage a too-hectic schedule!

It’s late spring in Victoria, BC. Thousands of cherry trees are in full bloom and the sea air inspires outdoor time.

Victoria is also home to a vibrant craft alcohol trade and Victoria Distillers has been leading the charge for a decade. They started in 2008 as Victoria Spirits under the ownership of Bryan and Valerie Murray, but in 2015 they were purchased and the name was changed to Victoria Distillers. They are one of Canada’s oldest small-batch producers. Their original production site was more rural, but they expanded and moved to Sidney (close to the airport and ferry terminal) in 2015. This move made the distiller a more serious operator and tourist destination, worthy of a pit stop on the way to Victoria.

Victoria Distillers produces a wide range of products, but their ‘signature’ product is the Empress Gin.

Purple: The Colour of Royalty

Historically, the colour purple has been used as a sign of royalty for a number of crowns and leaders. It’s hard to believe, but at one point, British legislation actually existed that forbade the wearing of purple outside the royal family.

Eventually, folks figured out how to reproduce the colour and dye easily, making them very rich as the colour’s popularity spread.

In an effort to pay respects to the royal family, the Empress Hotel in Victoria created a ‘high tea’ program, featuring the purple tea produced by the Asian ‘Butterfly Pea’ flower.

If you’re visiting Victoria, the afternoon tea may cost a bit of coin (roughly $75 per person – book ahead), but it’s a fun way to feel spoiled and indulgent when you visit British Columbia’s capital city.

The Empress Gin: A Tradition Continues

If you haven’t guessed already, what makes the Empress purple – and very unique – is the use of the butterfly pea as a key ingredient after the base product is made.

The first launch of the gin was mid-2017, in collaboration of the Empress Hotel. The gin is made as a combination of a classic London dry gin, but with some elements of ‘new world’ influence and unique botanicals. Ingredients include the Fairmont Empress Blend (black) Tea, juniper, grapefruit peel, coriander seed, rose petal, ginger root and cinnamon bark – in addition to the butterfly pea.

The formula has generated substantial accolades and attention, with sources like Wine & Spirits Magazine declaring it ‘one of the tastiest gins of the year’ and a growing list of medals.

Source:

The gin is ‘steeped’ (just like tea) in the butterfly pea after being distilled. The steeping also adds light nuances in flavour, including more earthy notes than you might expect with a gin and delicate violet notes.

Interestingly, the butterfly pea flower is sensitive to pH, making it variations in the final colour of a cocktail possible, depending on what you mix it with.

Enter … Phun With Gin

I have fun with gin on pretty much any day, but when I spoke with Jason at the main bar at Victoria Distillers, we decided to do a little science experiment with the gin to see what would happen to the colour with different ingredients.

The changes were very interesting!

The neutral – or base – spirit is a luscious indigo purple colour.

When you increase the level of alkalinity, the colour changes to a pale blue. On a simple level, you can add water, but another ingredient common to gin cocktails is a little bit of cucumber muddled in with the gin. To get the most extreme result, you can add milk, but that would result in a pretty gross combination (picture curdled milk).

Next, we added ginger to another sample of the gin. A ‘gin gin’, if you will. The chemical composition of the gin changed it from a bright purple to nearly clear.

Squeeze in a little grapefruit or citric acid via tonic water and the gin changes to a pink shade!

Introducing: The Sidney Sipper

Jason and I (well, more Jason) created an outstanding cocktail that I’ll label the ‘Sidney Sipper’.

Here’s the recipe:

  • Muddle 1 teaspoon grated ginger, 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary and 1 teaspoon Elderflower syrup (or Grenadine)
  • 2 oz Empress gin
  • 3 oz of your favourite tonic water (I suggest Fentiman’s)
  • Shake ingredients together
  • Strain over crushed ice in a medium sized tumbler

More Information

Victoria Distillers is in a small town named Sidney on Vancouver Island, just a short drive from both the ferry terminal and Victoria airport. If driving from Victoria, it’s about 20 minutes north of Highway 17.

Details about the Empress Gin can be found here: http://www.empressgin.com/

To collect more information about Victoria Distillers, visit their website: https://victoriadistillers.com/

They also provide a number of cocktail recipes: https://victoriadistillers.com/cocktail-recipes-2/

A huge thanks to Bill Wittur for his report on Victoria Distillers! Learn more about Bill on his website: BillWittur.com

Book Reviews, Craft Beers and Brews

The Best Beer in the World: One Man’s Global Search for the Perfect Pint

March 29, 2016
Mark Dredge's The Best Beer in the World Book showcases the best beer from around the world.

Today, I’m happy to hand the blog over to my husband, Shawn Davidson, who was kind enough to review The Best Beer in the World by Mark Dredge for me. A newly minted beer student, Shawn is the perfect person to tackle this review (and he’ll be handling even more craft brew coverage moving forward).

The Best Beer in the World by Mark Dredge appeared in our mailbox at just the right time for me, as I‘m currently looking into making a career transition into the beer industry. I found this book to be a good way to begin my formal education, as I started reading it just before starting my first beer course at a local college.

The Best Beer in the World is full of educational and historical facts, lots of great tasting notes and descriptions of the adventures (including a couple quite drunken ones) that Dredge has taken around the world while looking to discover his favorite beer. I found the chapter on Belgian brewing particularly interesting and coincidentally read it two days before Belgian brewing history was covered in my class. The chapter helped me gain a small understanding of Belgian brewing and I felt a lot more informed while in class. One fact this book and my class truly drove home is that one chapter in a book or a three hour class will only give you a very small understanding of Belgian brewing history. It’s an extensive topic that I look forward to learning much more about.

This is a book I will keep handy for its insight on many of the world’s great beers and especially as a guide to assist in my travels. Dredge went to several destinations I hope to visit and several that I have visited and will again. For example, I’ll be in Amsterdam for the third time this summer and the book’s “City Guide” will definitely enhance my beer experience and provide some new experiences. I visit Germany every year; but this summer will be my first time driving through southern Germany and visiting Munich. Dredge’s section on Munich made me look even more forward to visiting and the book’s “City Guide” will certainly come in very handy with our planning.

Dredge is very knowledgeable about beer history, brewing and tasting. Several times I was fascinated that his tasting notes could be as in depth on his twelfth or fifteenth beer of the day as with his first or second. I guess, as with wine, it comes with experience but unlike wine there seems to be much less spitting in the world of beer!

As well as being very informative and educational, this book was a lot of fun to read. You get a real sense of the adventure Dredge was on as you read about the places visited and the beers tasted. Of course, with the amount of beer consumed in order to write this book there were some epic hangovers—and  he didn’t shy away from describing a couple. One in particular sounded absolutely horrifying considering the environment he was in and the amount he described consuming the day before. But he had a job to do and got right back to the task at hand.

Does Dredge choose a “best beer in the world” or even a personal favorite? Well, you’ll have to read the book to find that out! He shows passion and respect for all kinds of beer while writing and you definitely get a sense that I.P.A’s and pilsners are right at the top of his list. He gets quite in depth with lagers (quite the write-up on Budweiser!), and many craft beers and definitely shows appreciation for the English ales of his home country.

Dredge really drives home the fact that great beer is not simply what’s in the glass. It’s so much more than that. The people you’re with, the history and being where the beer is made all factor in. Everything from what’s going on in your life at the time to the weather can be huge factors in deciding what a great beer is or if it’s one of your favorites. This was a concept I could relate to and agree with. Dredge goes on to describe a “holiday” beer that is truly one of his favorites, even though most locals think it’s terrible and hate it with a passion!

The biggest and perhaps only change I would make here is adding more Canadian content. He mentioned Montreal, which was great (no mention of Unibroue?), but he spent a lot of time spent on the U.S. West Coast without a visit to Vancouver for its many brewpubs and microbreweries. A very small complaint and I hope he has the chance to visit some of the Canadian craft brewers for a future edition of this book.

Overall a great read that I would recommend to anyone from total beer enthusiasts to those looking for a fun introduction to beer.

What do YOU think is the best beer in the world? Share your thoughts in the comments or on social.

*I received a review copy of this book, but all opinions are my own.