Cocktails from Justin Taylor for the Holidays

We wanted to be sure you were covered for your Holiday entertaining this year so we’ve asked some of the best “mixologists”, sommeliers and bar managers to help us out. With Christmas so close we’ve also mixed up our days. Enjoy!

Justin Taylor, Bar Manager

Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar

“VAN DUSEN SOUR”

This refreshing cocktail brings to mind the most beautiful flowers of the summer. Its floral aromas, and intriguing depth is bound to please and stimulate the palate.

TOOLS

Boston shaker

Jigger

Hawthorne strainer

Fine mesh strainer

GLASSWARE

Coupe

INGREDIENTS

2.0 oz Okanagan Spirits Aquavitus

0.5 oz St. Germain elderflower liqueur

0.5 oz Galiano

0.5 oz lime juice

0.5 oz lemon juice

0.75 oz egg whites

METHOD

Chilled coupe glass

Combine all ingredients in shaker

Add ice and shake for 15 seconds

Double strain to coupe glass

GARNISH

Peychauds bitters,

Add 3 drops to egg white foam and use an olive pick to design flower

“PROFESSOR SUZUKI”

As Bar Manager of Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar, the highly anticipated new restaurant located in the iconic Sutton Place Hotel, Justin Taylor loves incorporating local ingredients in his signature cocktails. Justin’s ‘Professor Suzuki Cocktail’ — a nod to Vancouver’s own David Suzuki — features wildflower honey from the Honeybee Centre in Surrey, alongside a variety of other ingredients from right here in British Columbia. This refreshing drink is perfect for a summer afternoon spent on a patio, with a scenic view of the Pacific Ocean and the North Shore mountains as your backdrop.

TOOLS

Boston shaker

Jigger

Hawthorne strainer

Julep strainer

GLASSWARE

Coupe

INGREDIENTS

2.0 oz thyme-infused Long Table vodka (to infuse: place a few sprigs of
thyme in your bottle of vodka)

0.25 oz Okanagan Spirits Sea Buckthorn Liqueur

0.25 oz Okanagan Spirits Cranberry Liqueur

0.5 oz unsweetened cranberry juice

O.5 oz honey water (1 part water, 1 part honey)

0.5 oz lime juice

METHOD

Chilled coupe glass

Combine all ingredients in a shaker tin and add ice

Shake for 15 seconds and double strain to coupe glass

GARNISH

Garnish with a fresh sprig of thyme.

Gerard

Ingredients:

•1.5 oz Macallan Gold

•0.5 oz Maraschino

•0.25 oz Fernet Branca

•3 dashes Bittered Sling Suius Cherry

Method:

Combine all ingredients and stir in a mixing glass with ice for 20 seconds. Strain mixture into an old fashioned glass over fresh ice. Garnish with a cherry.

Justin Taylor
Bar Manager, Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar

Renowned mixologist and cocktail architect Justin Taylor has been a fixture in the industry both in Toronto and Vancouver for the better part of two decades. But it was during his seven-year stint as Head Bartender at YEW Seafood + Bar at the Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver that Justin truly began stirring up the Vancouver bartending scene with a heady mix of encyclopedic knowledge of spirits, panache, wit and hospitality.

After beginning his odyssey behind the bar in Vancouver at 21, Taylor took on head bartending, management and mentoring roles at Toronto’s The Underground at York University, the Boathouse Bar and Grill and Centro Wine Bar before returning to the West Coast in 2007.

Taylor poured himself top-shelf finishes at both the 2011 Giffard Iron Bar Competition and the 2011 Giffard International Cocktail Challenge in France, where he proudly represented his country. Taylor’s “Blowing Smoke Up Yer Kilt” cocktail also helped earn him the coveted bartending crown in the Season Three finale of the Bittered Sling Bistro competition held in Vancouver in 2013.

“I always strive to produce not only simple, high-quality cocktails that are easy to execute, but create locally inspired drinks,” says Taylor. “As a bartender I love telling stories, and to be able to connect a guest to our city through the glass is priceless.”

Twitter: @blvdyvr @taylormixology

Instagram: @blvdyvr

Facebook: /blvdyvr

Web: boulevardvancouver.com