I laugh thinking of how rhubarb used to invade our gardens back home, only to now see it land in my grocery cart at what works out to about a dollar a cup. This rhubarb season seemed longer for whatever reason, particularly when I find it again on Canada Day, infused into a gin cocktail mixed up by my friend Blaine.

Deliciousness knows no bounds when it comes to rhubarb gin. Collective Arts Distilling launched its flagship Artisanal Dry Gin and seasonal Rhubarb and Hibiscus Gin in 2019 in the LCBO, and also in Chicago, New York and Connecticut later that year. Both gins have won silver awards at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

Blaine treats his to just a splash or two of Fever Tree Tonic, lots of ice, a few fresh blueberries and—here’s the kicker—a sprig of garden-grown rosemary to stir it all up. He calls it a Forest Gin.

Needless to say, my Forest Gin didn’t last long. It feels both refreshing and special, like you have to hold out a pinkie and baby it a bit to let the ice melt. And it tastes like the garden but, say, a really fancy English one with croquet hoops.

TRY: THE CAIPIRINHA

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Made by Victoria Distillers for the Fairmont Empress Hotel, Empress 1908 Gin is infused with the now-trending butterfly pea blossom, a perennial herbaceous plant, native to Asia. The petals lends both a distinctly blue hue and an earthy tinge to the gin, like you’re having a drink in the garden (like you do). But the real fun is that the gin turns purple when it comes in contact with anything acidic, so both citrus and the quinine in tonic water alter the pH level. Ta-da! An instant bartender parlour trick.

The backstory gets even better. The butterfly pea’s plant name is Clitoria ternatea—yes, because it looks like a clitoris. (The irony here is not lost on me, believe you me.)

Named after the grande olde dame and the year she opened, Empress 1908 is micro-distilled in copper-pot stills using eight botanicals—the pea blossom, the hotel’s signature tea, juniper, grapefruit peel, coriander seed, cinnamon bark, rose petal and ginger root. The result is elegant, slightly exotic and definitely not shy.

This is a shot of a most recent Empress 1908 tasting at the award-winning Notch8 in the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, a grande dame in her own right.

EMPRESSGIN.COM
THINGS TO DO: ON VANCOUVER ISLAND

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My interest in gin began years ago, when I mixed drinks at my parents’ card parties in the 1970s: gin fizzes, gimlets and rickeys. A martini for me is always gin-based unless otherwise specified—I’m that committed. Being invited to the opening of the new home of Bombay Sapphire at Laverstoke Mill south of London a few years ago was like a reward, a pilgrimage—one I still talk about, especially when I’m trying to impress other gin aficionados. (This always works.)

But England doesn’t have the market cornered when it comes to gin any more as things turn out, particularly small-batch gin: A trip to Ireland proved very much otherwise.

This truth comes out in Belfast, while spending a full Saturday afternoon with Taste & Tour, a food and drink touring company that takes you “off the eaten track” to experience the top food and drink establishments in the city centre with a couple of different walking tours, including a Whiskey Walk and a Gin Jaunt. Basically, they walk people around town getting them drunk. A simple but fun business model—and they do well by it: The Jaunts sell out weeks in advance. I soon see why.

“There’s a real fascination with gin at the moment,” says Taste & Tour founding director Phil Ervine. “Gin is a fascinating spirit category, as no two gins are the same. There are so many different styles to explore, from London Dry and Old Tom to New Western and Plymouth Gin.”

THINGS TO DO: IN NORTHERN IRELAND
TASTE TO TRY: SHORTCROSS GIN

Hello, Doug? It’s me, gin. The tour takes us to five different locations where we taste very generous pours of seven different gins in three hours, starting off in one of Belfast’s oldest pubs: the Victorian gin palace that is the Crown Liquor Saloon. We learn first about the pub (built in 1826 and restored to the tune of half-a-million pounds) and then embark on the gins, softening the first one with a Fever-Tree tonic, which I immediately dislike. The second tasting, a wet martini at Rita’s nightclub around the corner, provokes a few grimaces at the cocktail’s potency but our group’s general volume increases. I’m shocked how many people admit to never having tried a martini before, but I guess that’s the whole point.

At the third stop, I have to wave away the tonic and win kudos from Phil for just drinking the local Jawbox Gin on the rocks. It’s delicious, with fresh citrus notes balancing flavours of juniper and pine. The founder of this Belfast distillery, Gerry White, is on hand to provide a bit of context, including background on the name, which is taken from the old Belfast communal sinks in the poorer parts of town, around which neighbourhood gossip was readily shared.

Farther along our tour, Boatyard Double Gin from Enniskillen in the southwest corner of Northern Ireland lights up everyone’s eyes—mind you, we’re five in, so the lights were kinda already on and we are all really, really good friends by now. Boatyard has an even more pronounced juniper taste with a floral tinge. One of the organic botanicals is sweet gale, a type of wild myrtle that grows on the distillery property.

The last magnificent example comes in a shelf-worthy blue-glass bottle. Distilled in Drumshanbo in the Republic of Ireland, Gunpowder Irish Gin has a citrusy, tea-like taste, with one of the more noticeable botanicals being something called gunpowder tea, a type of Chinese tea that is rolled into a tiny pellet. And yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus—Gunpowder has made its way to the LCBO.

VISITBELFAST.COM
DISCOVERNORTHERNIRELAND.COM

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