LCBO Food and Drink Early Summer 2016

TREND SPOTT ING

Common edible tree species in Ontario EVERGREENS

Look for these trees in forests—and on menus—near you. All can be harvested throughout the year except spruce tips, which appear during a two-week window between late April and early June (though they do keep well in a container in the refrigerator for up to two months).

White pine Steep needles for a vitamin C–rich tea to drink or for making a pine simple syrup for cocktails.

White cedar Traditionally used fresh by local indigenous peoples to make tea, the leaves can also be dried.

Balsam fir Wrap needles or branches around whole fish, then wrap again in foil be­ fore cooking on the grill or a campfire.

White spruce Fresh tips have a lemon-like fla­ vour and can be chopped finely for use in fish dishes or salads.

bitters and cocktails Notes of spruce, fir and pine add a fresh spin to classic cocktails, Michelle says, and different trees—and seasons— will vary the taste.

Whether you start with an infused spirit or an ever­ green-flavoured Simple Syrup (recipe page 164) or an appropriate type of bitters like the seasonal Apothecary Bitters Elder Growth ($25, thecraftybartender.com), made with Douglas fir tips, there are numerous applications for tree flavours. Michelle suggests using infused gin or vodka in a basic Martini, garnished with a length of lemon zest, and she is a fan of using these flavours in a classic Sour, be it whisky, vodka or

[ HOW TO USE ]

Spirit Infusions Turn your pine needles or spruce tips into an infusion to liven up cocktails, suggests Michelle Hunt of the Martini Club. Add about 1 cup (250 mL) of fresh-picked greenery, branches removed, to 750 mL of vodka, Canadian or Irish whisky or a standard gin, and infuse, tasting daily, then straining when ready. “In about a week’s time you’ll have a beautiful-tasting spirit.”

gin. Layer if you like, she adds—like a Whisky Sour made with fir-infused whisky and fir bitters, too.

30  FOOD & DRI NK EARLY SUMMER 2016