LCBO Food & Drink Early Summer 2020

Soda

s h o p p e

Amp up your cocktails with fresh new flavour twists from uniquely flavoured sodas.

In the corner-store fridge and on the supermarket shelf, you can find a dizzying array of interesting sodas these days, including tart kombucha, fruit-flavoured soda water and old-timey pop in retro bottles. We tasted dozens, new and old, and selected a quintet of great flavours for refreshing early summer cocktails.     Many offer mix-in-the-glass convenience like the Rebujito, a revelatory Spanish Highball of bone-dry sherry and sparkling lemonade. There is also a modern spin on a Spritzer with zesty Sauvignon Blanc and a splash of passion-­ fruit soda water. Or try our New Age version of a Rye and Ginger, where Canadian whisky meets ginger kombucha.     If cherry soda is your thing, you are going to want to make the Black Cherry Blues with bourbon, muddled citrus and Angostura bitters. And to celebrate the season’s blooms, shake up a Pink Gin Fizz, which gets its blush and complexity from grenadine and rose-flavoured lemon soda.

By Eric Vellend | PHOTOGRAPHY BY james tse

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FOOD & DRINK EARLY SUMMER 2020