Gibson’s Finest Canadian Whiskey Iron Bar Competition

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of accompanying Rebecca to the Iron Bar Competition for Gibson’s Finest Canadian Whiskey. The Vancouver event featured four of the city’s best mixologists – the four known for creating unique, and extremely original cocktails. We had Justin Tisdall from Boneta, Frank Palter from Fairmont Waterfront, Ryan Cheverie from Hamilton Street Grill and Sophie Taverner from the Cascade Room.

Every city across Canada that has a CFL team will host a competition which will feature cocktails made from Gibson’s Finest Canadian Whiskey and a top-secret ingredient, revealed immediately before the bartenders have to create their cocktail. The judges for the Vancouver Event were Raj Taneja from Urban Mixer, Michael Schratter from 24 Hours and Jay Durant from Global Television.

We were greeted with signature cocktails from all four bartenders.

The first round of signature drinks – the Justin, the Sophie & the Frank.

After our introductory round of drinks we were taken upstairs for a crash course in Canadian Whiskey.

There are only a few regulations in the Canadian Whiskey (aka Rye) industry. The alcohol must be a minimum of three years old before it can be bottled and sold. The rye the alcohol is made from must be grown in Canada, it must be distilled on Canadian soil and bottled in Canada. Other than that, you’re basically good to go.

Gibson’s Finest Canadian Whiskey has three ages; Sterling (on the left)  is a blend of approximately 5-8 year old Canadian Whiskeys. Sterling is an “entry level” rye and doesn’t have an age declaration on it.

The 12 year old rye  is much smoother and is a noticeable step up from the Sterling. Personally, this was my favourite.

The Rare 18 year old  smells more woody (from the casks) and nutty than the others, because it’s been aged longer in either a sherry cask, a bourbon cask or some other refill. This aging mellows out the spirit and makes it smoother across the board.

Back downstairs, and we were ready to get underway. Each bartender got their choice of the secret ingredient (the first was Ginger – fresh, candied, or ginger beer; the second was oranges, fruit, Contrineau, marmalade or juice; the third was lemon – fresh, juice, and Santa Cruz lemonade) and seven minutes to create a custom drink.

The judges kindly passed the drinks back to us so we were able to try some of them out. One of my favourites was Ryan’s, which Raj said tasted like a “Shirley Temple with a kick”.

At the end of it all, Justin from Boneta won the competition, was presented with an oversized cheque for $500, and a trip to the Grey Cup in Montreal to compete nationally.

Justin’s signature drink for the competition was one of my favourites. To make it at home:

2 oz Gibson’s Rye
1/5 oz Amaretto
1/4 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
2 oz apple cider infused with Orange Dulce Tea
Finely chopped Bird’s Eye Pepper

Combine in a martini shaker over ice. Garnish glass with cinnamon, paprika and sugar rim and serve.

(image source, me on Flickr)