Some of Canada’s most talented mixologists have come together for the 2013 Grey Goose Pour Masters competition. After exciting competitions in Calgary and Vancouver, it’s now time for Toronto’s best bartenders at some of our favourite young professional (YP) establishments to showcase their talent in the art of the cocktail. The competition takes place today at Berkeley Field House, where Notable.ca along with Grey Goose Global Ambassador Ludo Miazga and world-renowned celebrity mixologist Marian Beke from Nightjar in London will decide on the best cocktail made with Grey Goose Cherry Noir. With summer patio and BBQ season – both synonymous with cocktails – now in full swing, we thought we would get a little more insight from our Pour Masters in advance of today’s big competition. Here’s what some of the Grey Goose Pour Masters had to say on everything from the creative inspiration behind their cocktails to what makes a good cocktail, and what they are most looking forward to with the 2013 Grey Goose Pour Masters Competition… along with their cocktail recipe. Stay tuned for the results!
Pour Master: Manny Contreras
Establishment: Buonanotte
Cocktail: G&C Noir
Ingredients: 1 ¼ oz Grey Goose Cherry Noir, ½ oz House made Triple Sec, 1 oz peach juice, 5 cherries, 1 bottle Grey Goose Original, 750 ml simple syrup, 5 oranges
Methodology: Boil the orange and simple syrup and take the syrup out of the fire and add the GG vodka. Dry the orange for 24 hours in the dehydration machine. The triple sec is base on GG.
What is the best thing about your job?
The best thing about my job is that I get to make different drinks for people to enjoy. I love discovering new flavors and mixing them together to make something different and creative that nobody has tried.
Where does your creative juice come from?
My creative juices come from travelling. Over the years I have worked in countries with exotic herbs and fruits. This has inspired me to make colorful, fresh, exotic and delicious drinks that satisfy people with all different taste palates.
What makes a good cocktail?
With my experience I find that balance is the most important thing in making a good cocktail.
What is the first ingredient that comes to mind when you hear Cherry Noir vodka cocktail and why?
Citrus, because it makes a balance with the cherries.
What are you most looking forward to about being part of the 2013 Grey Goose Pour Masters Competition?
The thing that I am most looking forward to is being a part of an amazing competition, where I can show off my knowledge of mixology. I also want to put my drinks to the test and see if I can become the new Pour Master for Grey Goose.
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Pour Master: Oliver Stern
Establishment: Toronto Temperance Society
Cocktail: MariLou
Ingredients: 1 oz Grey Goose Cherry Noir, 1/2 oz Cointreau, 1/2 oz Dolin dry, 1/2 Ontario cherry/ Niagara cider vinegar shrub
Method: Stir, coupe, lemon zest
What is the best thing about your job?
I love being creative, meeting new people and making them happy by making them perfect cocktails.
Where does your creative juice come from?
Probably for cooking with my father
What makes a good cocktail?
You can taste each ingredient, and they are all balanced
What is the first ingredient that comes to mind when you hear Cherry Noir vodka cocktail and why?
Black Cherry’s, its in the name
What are you most looking forward to about being part of the 2013 Grey Goose Pour Masters Competition?
I am looking forward to chatting with the other bartenders and learning new things (a trip to New Orleans would be nice too!
Pour Master: Wes Galloway
Establishment: Weslodge
Cocktail: Cherry Valance
Ingredients: 1 ¼ oz Grey Goose Cherry Noir, 1 oz homemade pinot noir dessert wine, 1 scant tsp acid phosphate, 10 drops ‘elemakule tiki bitters’, 8 drops ginger/vanilla tincture, 1 swath of orange peel (garnish)
Method: Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass. Add ice and stir briefly before straining the liquid into a room-temperature cocktail glass. Express oils from the orange peel over the drink, coat the rim of the glass with it and discard. Enjoy.
What is the best thing about your job?
The people. A lot of people will say this, but there is something special about meeting thousands of people per year. One cannot say that about many careers.
Where does your creative juice come from?
I am most content as a person and most fulfilled when I am creating something. That sentiment is carried across a variety of interests. Being inspired somehow, taking an idea from conception to reality, and perfecting the finished product… I love it. The sad part is falling out of love with your creations, as I tire of them quickly thereafter.
What makes a good cocktail?
That is different for everybody, and a person could give a million stock answers for that one (balance, fresh ingredients, yada yada yada), but for me, it’s the successful combination of flavours and to what degree one was successful in their attempt.
What is the first ingredient that comes to mind when you hear Cherry Noir vodka cocktail and why?
Baking spices. Cherry cola is delicious.
What are you most looking forward to about being part of the 2013 Grey Goose Pour Masters Competition?
Competing with other talented individuals. I enjoy competing. Meeting Marian Beke in person is an added bonus.
Pour Master: Nishan Nepulangoda
Establishment: Blowfish Restaurant
Cocktail: La Vie Est Belle
Ingredients: 2 ½ oz Grey Goose Cherry Noir, ½ oz cherry heering, 1 ½ oz lime cordial (Canadian honey, fresh lime, kaffir lime leaf), 2 ½ barspoons French black cherry jam, 7 cherries (3 red, 4 black)
Method: Muddle cherries, add remaining ingredients to shaker, dry shake, transfer carbonating system, add ice, pump c02, and shake well. Strain into rocks glass with block ice. Garnish with red cherries.
What is the best thing about your job?
The thing I enjoy most about my job is interacting with people, it’s the social aspect that I really enjoy; the nightlife and everything it has to offer. I also very much enjoy working with my team.
Where does your creative juice come from?
I have been fortunate enough to work all over the world, in the Middle East and Asia, and was very lucky to have learned a great deal while I was there. I have worked with some amazing chefs with a wide range of backgrounds and experience.
What makes a good cocktail?
Taste, balance and creativity.
What is the first ingredient that comes to mind when you hear Cherry Noir vodka cocktail and why?
A fantastic blend of sweet and sour, two of the most important elements of a balanced cocktail.
What are you most looking forward to about being part of the 2013 Grey Goose Pour Masters Competition?
As a winner from 2012, I look forward in participating again in 2013. It was such an amazing experience last year and I can’t wait to see what they have in store this year!
Pour Master: Clayton Cooper
Establishment: Soho House Toronto
Ingredients: Fresh muddled champagne grapes, fresh pressed Ontario McIntosh apple juice, ½ oz fresh limejuice, ½ oz Grey Goose Original, 1 ½ oz Grey Goose Cherry Noir
Method: Grapes will be muddled in a tin; all other ingredients will be added and vigorously shaken and strained into coupettes.
What is the best thing about your job?
For me, the answer is threefold: The first part is creating delicious drinks that people love. The second part is this great opportunity to play the role of the host. That can mean keeping the party going, showing people a great time or simply providing someone with a much-needed set of empathetic ears. The third element, and possibly my favourite part, is the feeling of surfing this beautiful wave of organized chaos in a busy bar. When you’re prepared and the drinks, music, customers and planets align, there is no better feeling.
Where does your creative juice come from?
I’m an artist and a creative person so it comes naturally to me. That said, without the great mentors, technique, knowledge of spirits, history and practice, I’d simply be fumbling in the dark. I’ve always loved that quote by Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker: “You’ve got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.”
What makes a good cocktail?
Balance of flavours certainly helps. The right start and the right finish as well. Food and drink are quite subjective so it’s key to take time and place into account.
So most importantly, a good cocktail means choosing the right drink for the right person at the right time.
What is the first ingredient that comes to mind when you hear Cherry Noir vodka cocktail and why?
Growing up in Canada, I associate cherries with summer holidays and harvest so I immediately think of fresh apples.
What are you most looking forward to about being part of the 2013 Grey Goose Pour Masters Competition?
It’s such a great opportunity to meet, work with and learn from people whose work I admire. The competitors this year all have quite different styles so it should keep things interesting in the competition end of things.
I admire both Marian and Ludo’s work immensely, so I’m also looking forward to getting feedback and inspiration from them.
Pour Master: Moses McIntee
Establishment: L’Eat Group (Paese)
Cocktail: Cerises de Dijon
Ingredients: 2 oz Grey Goose Cherry Noir, 3/4 oz maple syrup (local), 1 demitasse spoon of Dijon Mustard (French), 12 leaves of parsley, 1 oz lemon juice. Garnish – 1 cherry, 1 parsley leaf
Method: Add all ingredients into a Boston shaker tin – add cubed ice, shake and pour all ingredients into a Collins glass. Top with crushed ice. Garnish with a cherry and parsley leaf.
Pour Master: Rob Montgomery
Establishment: Miller Tavern
Cocktail: Thirty-Three and a Third
Ingredients: 45 ml GG CN, 45 ml whiskey (high rye content), 45 ml B&B, 2 dashes aromatic bitters
Method: Stir over ice, strain into chilled coupe. Garnish with surprise
Pour Master: Robin Wynne
Establishment: Fynn’s of Temple Bar
Cocktail: Vimy Ridge Cup
Ingredients: 2.5 oz GG CN, 0.5 oz St. Germaine, 3 oz Henry of Pelham Catherine Cuvee Rose, 0.5 oz chamomile syrup, 3 drops lavender vanilla bitters
Method: Add the GG CN, St. Germaine, Chamomile syrup, lavender bitters into a shaker and with ice. Strain into “victory cup,” top cocktail with cuvee rose. Enjoy and toast to Canadian-French history.
Pour Master: Adrian Stein
Establishment: Mistura
Cocktail: Belle de Provence
Ingredients: 70 ml GG CN, 35 ml Homemade Creme de Cassis (fortified with Grey Goose), 100 ml cucumber water (Ont cucumbers), 8 dashes of homemade cherry/lavender bitters (Grey Goose as base spirit), 70 ml Cremant D’Alsace Rose, 35 ml fresh lime, 25 ml of St. Germain Elderflower. Garnished with a cucumber stuffed Grey Goose marinated cherry
Method: 70 ml GG CN, 35 ml Homemade Creme de Cassis (fortified with Grey Goose), 100 ml cucumber water (Ont cucumbers), 8 dashes of homemade cherry/lavender bitters (Grey Goose as base spirit), 70 ml Cremant D’Alsace Rose, 35 ml fresh lime, 25 ml of St. Germain Elderflower. Garnished with a cucumber stuffed Grey Goose marinated cherry
Pour Master: Ayana Miller
Establishment: Jacob’s Steakhouse
Cocktail: Bitter Sweet Endings
Ingredients: GG CN, Banyuls infused with Ontario ice wine tea, sumac berry juice, egg white. Garnish – black cherry, pure cocoa powder, orange twist
Method: In a chilled martini glass pour 1 oz of Banyuls infused with Ontario ice wine tea (avoid coating the sides of the glass). In a martini shaker add the egg white of one egg, shake without ice to create froth. Add 1 1/4 oz of GG CN, and 3/4 oz of sumac berry juice to martini shaker and ice, shake vigorously. Strain and layer on top of Banyuls in martini glass.
Pour Master: Remata Clingen
Establishment: Cafe Belong
Cocktail: Mon Crabby Cheri
Ingredients: 1.25 oz GG CN, 0.5 oz wild ginger simple syrup, small spoon crab apple jelly, 0.5 oz French vanilla ice cream, 0.5 oz champagne. Garnish frozen black cherries
Method: 1.25 oz GG CN, 0.5 oz wild ginger simple syrup, small spoon crab apple jelly, 0.5 oz French vanilla ice cream, 0.5 oz champagne. Garnish frozen black cherries
Pour Master: Troy Gilchrist
Establishment: Harbour 60
Cocktail: Back to the Old House
Ingredients: 1.5 oz GG CN, 0.5 oz Cointreau (French), 0.75 oz fresh pressed lemon juice, 2 bar spoons Rhubarb jam (Ontario), 1 quail egg
Method: Combine first four ingredients into cocktail shaker; stir so that jam properly mixes with other ingredients. Add quail egg, firstly dry shake ingredients then add ice and vigorously shake. Double strain into coupe glass. Cut a Rhubarb stalk in half lengthwise. Using a vegetable peeler, peel a ribbon the length of the stalk. Place the ribbon into the glass, suspending a portion of it above the drink using a skewer.
