LCBO Food & Drink Holiday 2025

SCOTCH & SHORTBREAD

Peated Scotch + Cheddar & Pistachio Shortbread Coins

Whisky and Cookies in One Former Scotch brand ambassador Beth Havers created Toronto-based Aunt Beth’s, cookies that incorporate a drop of whisky in every crumb. Her Scotch-inflected confections include Campfire on Islay (Laphroaig single-malt whisky flavours a chocolate-chunk and marshmallow cookie) or The Jura Oatlander (Jura single-malt in an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie). Cute red boxes of a half or whole dozen cookies make the ultimate add-on gift to a bottle of whisky, when you don’t quite have time to pop homemade dough

in the oven yourself. auntbethbakes.com

WHY IT WORKS

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMES TSE (COOKIES WITH BOX)

When malted barley is dried over fires smoked with Scottish peat, the char acter of the particular vegetation that makes up regional peat bogs can give each whisky smoky campfire notes, beachy driftwood or sharply medicinal tones. A savoury cheese shortbread with rich nuts is perfect to balance smoke and char’s light astringency.

Glen Scotia Campbeltown Harbour Single Malt Whisky LCBO 45594, $79.95

Ardbeg Smokiverse LCBO 45282, $188.10 Peat freaks flock to Ardbeg, the Islay

Highland Park 18 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky LCBO 500231, $299.95 From the far-north Orkney Islands, this iconic single-malt masterfully combines heathery smoke with sherry influence, lending plenty of dried fruit and potpourri-like floral notes on the long finish.

distillery that layers on peat smoke with a wild seaside character: this whisky’s flavour has been vividly described as “smoked bubblegum.”

From one of only a few dis tilleries in the Campbeltown region, this single-malt Scotch has just a wisp of peat smoke behind juicy stone-fruit and creamy custard notes.

48

———————— HOLIDAY 2025