Let’s travel!

Travel is really limited in the days of SARS-CoV-2 but we still have mail, and lots of great small distilleries across Canada doing interesting new things! Artisanal gins have become my COVID obsession and I hope to share this with you. The blog posts will allow for comments and I really do hope to hear from you!

When I started exploring Canadian artisanal gins in May, I started as locally as I could, in Ontario, but as I’m beginning to recognize and figure out how to access the range of these gins, I’m now organizing myself East to West, but also prioritizing distilleries that provide free or inexpensive delivery. (Please let me know if you know of such places, and they’ll go to the top of my list!) So, my first gin review is of Kazuki Gin from Sheringham Distillery on Vancouver Island.

I’m in Ontario where the LCBO, so I understand, provides the world’s largest liquor monopoly, and this can be good and bad. This means access to lots of interesting things but it makes certain things impossible to get. Crème de violette is a case in point. I will never be able to make an Aviation cocktail properly without it! I suppose we can order by the case — here, the power of the monopoly, but I don’t see that in my future.

Despite the lack of crème de violette — and crème de mûre for a traditional bramble (though it looks like I could make my own) — there are all sorts of interesting flavours to sample in the recently surge of artisanal gins across Canada. As many of them aim to capture the character of their region, sometimes going so far as to use only local or even on-site ingredients, it’s like having regions of Canada travel to you! In the case of Kazuki, that means a pan-Pacific taste of Japanese cherry blossoms and green tea, to excellent effect.

This second post marks my official launch, and I’ll be filling this site gradually with reviews of Canadian artisanal gins, other reviews, and some commentary. Book yourself in!