LCBO Food & Drink Autumn 2020

Fresh sips Stock your home bar and con­ tinue your solo-sipping education with these new-to-the-LCBO releases, featuring some of the best, most unique and exclusive spirits from around the world.

Tropical Thunder Made from different agave varieties than those used in tequila, mezcal gets its signature flavour from cooking the plants over smoke. Mezcal Agua Santa ( LCBO 14660, $63.75) has clean, fresh tropical fruit notes and earthy spice, with soft smokiness from oven- roasting the agave over oak and pine wood before distillation. Old English Style While London dry-style gin has no sweetness, some flavoured gin is sweetened just enough to make it delightful over ice, with a squeeze of citrus. Tart and crisp Whitley Neill Rhubarb & Ginger ( LCBO 11868, $44.65) is one in a series of popular flavoured gins that has taken the U.K. by storm! Try it with a lime wedge. A Global Rum Rums by Plantation barrel-age in the Caribbean then move to France, getting special treatment there from casks and master blenders. Plantation Barbados Rum Single Amburana Cask ( LCBO 15022, $86.50) spends time in barrels made of a South American wood that layers decadent nut and cocoa hits on top of the rum’s caramel, banana and cinnamon flavours.

Refresh your palate

with an orange wedge between mezcal sips.

Return of the green fairy Absinthe’s scandalous reputation comes from 19th-century bohemians who consumed it to excess. Today, levels of thujone, a psychoactive chemical found in traces of absinthe’s key ingredient, wormwood, are strictly regulated. Dillon’s Absinthe ( LCBO 493098, $69.95), an Ontario take on the European alpine recipe, uses wormwood, lemon balm and hyssop grown in a Beamsville, Ont., “absinthe garden.” Grapefruit brightens the signature anise flavour of this brilliantly clear, bright green spirit. High in alcohol (this one is 67.5 per cent!), absinthe must be consumed with ice-cold water: slowly drip 5 oz of water into 1 oz of spirit—if you like, through a sugar cube atop an absinthe spoon—and watch it louche (turn cloudy and opalescent)—a mark of quality.

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AUTUMN 2020 FOOD & DRINK