Cocktails

🍸 Batch Basil Gin Smash (makes ~8)

Single-serve ratio, so you can scale it any direction: 2 oz gin / ¾ oz lemon / ¾ oz simple syrup / basil.

THE BATCH (a pitcher, ~8 drinks):
- 2 cups (16 oz) gin
- ¾ cup (6 oz) fresh lemon juice
- ¾ cup (6 oz) simple syrup ← the one you made
- ½ cup (4 oz) cold water (stands in for the dilution you'd get shaking each glass)
- 1 big handful fresh basil

Make the gin + lemon + syrup + water base ahead and keep it COLD in the fridge.

THE BASIL — the one honest trick: don't muddle basil into the whole pitcher hours early, it turns dark and bitter. Instead, right before guests arrive, muddle a big handful of basil in the bottom of the pitcher, pour the cold base over, stir, and strain into a clean serving pitcher. Serve over fresh ice, a slapped basil leaf + a thin lemon wheel in each glass.

(Freshest version if you'd rather: keep the base cold and shake each ~4 oz portion with a few basil leaves to order — brightest green, most aromatic.)

EMPRESS AVIATION
The purple gin was MADE for this cocktail.

2 oz Empress 1908 Indigo Gin
1/2 oz Giffard Creme de Violette
3/4 oz fresh lemon juice
1/2 oz Luxardo Amaretto (sub for maraschino -- adds almond warmth)

Shake with ice. Strain into a coupe.

The Aviation is already a purple cocktail. With Empress gin it's DOUBLE purple. Violet on violet. The lemon juice will shift the butterfly pea flower colour -- watch it change as you add it. Victoria gin in a cocktail invented in 1916. The city and the drink were made for each other.

If you want it more floral, add 2 drops orange blossom water.

THE LAST WORD
A Prohibition-era cocktail. You have GREEN CHARTREUSE. Use it.

3/4 oz Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin
3/4 oz Green Chartreuse
3/4 oz Luxardo Amaretto (sub for maraschino -- nuttier, sweeter, still works)
3/4 oz fresh lime juice

Shake all ingredients with ice. Strain into a coupe. Garnish with a lime wheel.

Equal parts again. The Chartreuse is the star -- 130 herbs from French monks. Herbal, sweet, complex, strong. The gin adds tea-smoke depth. The lime keeps it honest.

Classic version uses Luxardo Maraschino, but the Amaretto substitution makes it nuttier and rounder. If you ever find a bottle of Luxardo Maraschino, buy it.

THE LAVENDER BEE
The most Robyne cocktail that has ever existed.

2 oz BC Bee Champion Craft Gin
3/4 oz fresh lemon juice
3/4 oz homemade lavender syrup
Top with soda water

Shake gin, lemon, and lavender syrup with ice. Strain into a glass over fresh ice. Top with soda. Garnish with a sprig of dried lavender from the deck.

Your gin has a bee on it. Your lavender grew on the deck. This drink is Colwood in a glass.

Protein: 0g. Obviously.

The Square Peg — gin, lemon, prosecco, pineapple habanero syrup. Invented on a Penticton patio, Monday June 30 2026. Robyne made it up on the spot and named it herself.

The Negroni swap: Empress Gin, Amaro Nonino, Cinzano Rosso. Deep amber. Orange twist. Ice. She made it and it was good but sweeter than the Campari original, which I had called. The Campari bite does real work.

🥃 OLD PAL

A Negroni with the sweetness taken out — or a Boulevardier gone dry. Three things in a glass and nothing dressed up. Harry MacElhone's Paris, 1920s, named for a rich American expat.

INGREDIENTS
- 1 oz Bearface (the barefoot)
- 1 oz dry vermouth — the cold one
- ¾ oz Campari
- Lemon twist

INSTRUCTIONS
1. All three into a mixing glass, fill with ice.
2. Stir 30 seconds. Count it.
3. Big cube in a rocks glass, or straight up in a coupe.
4. Express a lemon twist over the top and drop it in.

NOTES
- ¾ oz Campari, not a full ounce. Bearface is triple-oaked and brings its own sweetness, so pulling the Campari back a touch still lets the bitter arrive first — which is the whole point of the drink.
- Bearface over rye on purpose. Canadian, 42.5%, carrying enough wood to stand up to Campari. Jameson would have vanished — Irish is grassy and Campari walks straight over it.
- Dry vermouth, NOT sweet. Swap in Martini Rosso and you've made a Boulevardier, which is the comfortable version of the same drink.
- No juice, no round edge, nothing hiding anything. A Canadian whisky in a drink named for a broke American in 1927.

Verdict: "OK winner winner." And, the same evening: "I am surprised how much I like the booze forward bitter drinks."

🍒 BLOOD AND SAND — GEOFF STYLE

The house version, not Craddock's. Her new favourite, and the one Paul orders by name.

INGREDIENTS
- 1½ oz Glenmorangie
- ¾ oz cherry liqueur (Maple Leaf Spirits, Penticton)
- ¾ oz sweet vermouth — the cold one, Martini Rosso
- ½ oz orange juice
- ¼ oz lemon
- 2 oz soda, to top
- Orange twist, if you're bothering

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Everything but the soda into the shaker.
2. Shake hard.
3. Strain into a highball packed to the rim with cubes.
4. Top with 2 oz soda. Twist over.

NOTES
- The 1922 original is equal parts all the way across — ¾ · ¾ · ¾ · ¾ — and it is sweet as hell, because Prohibition scotch needed covering up. Here the scotch is UP and the juice is DOWN. That's the whole correction, and Death & Co's book makes the same three moves independently.
- The ¼ oz lemon is in no pre-war printing of this drink. Two kitchens ninety years apart both reached for acid on a flabby recipe. If it's still too round for you, another ¼ oz.
- The soda and the highball are the reason Paul said "I could definitely have a few of these." It takes a dense little coupe drink and makes it long. Don't skip it — it's the shape of the thing now.
- Delicate floral Highland malt is exactly right, not a waste. This is the classic scotch-for-people-who-don't-drink-scotch, and an Islay in here would be a bonfire in a cherry.
- The Penticton cherry liqueur finally has a job. Nothing else on the shelf uses it.

First made 2026-08-12. "Oh my God, Jeff that is so good." The one I warned her she probably wouldn't like.

🍒 NO OCCASION

An Old Fashioned built around a bourbon that cost too much to get into Canada — so it gets stirred, not shaken, and drunk on an ordinary Sunday. Named for the house rule: don't keep things for good.

INGREDIENTS
- 2 oz bourbon
- 0.25 oz honey-rosemary syrup (start low — honey syrup is heavy and rosemary is loud)
- 2 cherries in syrup, plus 1 bar spoon of their syrup
- 2 dashes Angostura (optional)
- A pinch of Maldon — 3 or 4 flakes
- 1 kumquat, and a rosemary sprig if there's a bush

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Bourbon, honey-rosemary syrup, cherry syrup, bitters and the salt into a mixing glass.
2. Fill with ice and stir for a full 30 seconds. Count it — that's the dilution.
3. Strain over one big cube in a rocks glass. Cherries in.
4. Cut a kumquat in half. Pinch one half skin-side-down over the surface so the oil sprays across the top, then drop it in whole. Do not peel it.
5. Slap a rosemary sprig once against your palm and add it.

NOTES
- Stirred, and no citrus in the body. Shaking aerates and dilutes fast and lemon flattens the top notes — both are great for covering a cheap spirit and a waste when you aren't. This is the build where you actually taste the whiskey.
- The salt isn't seasoning. A few grains in a spirit-forward drink suppress bitterness and lift the aroma. Real bartender's move, almost nobody does it at home.
- Kumquat is the right citrus here, not a substitute for orange. Kumquat peel is the sweet part — so you're spraying sweet oil over the top instead of the bitter orange kind. Never peel a kumquat, for a drink or for eating.
- Slap the rosemary. It ruptures the oil cells. That's the whole difference between a garnish and an aroma.
- Honey-rosemary syrup and the 2:1 demerara are interchangeable at a pinch. The honey one is rounder; demerara is cleaner.

Named 2026-08-02. "I don't keep things for good. Life is for living."

MAPLE OLD FASHIONED
The most Canadian cocktail that has ever existed.

2 oz Bearface Triple Oak Canadian Whisky
1/2 oz Maple Liqueur
2 dashes Angostura
1 dash Top Shelf Cardamom Bitters
1 dash Angostura Cocoa Bitters

Stir (don't shake) with ice in a mixing glass. Strain into a rocks glass over one big ice cube. Express an orange peel over the top, drop it in.

Bearface. Maple. Cardamom. Cocoa. This tastes like a cabin in October. The maple liqueur replaces the sugar cube. The cocoa bitters add depth. The cardamom makes it smell like something baking.

Paul's drink. On the deck. After dinner.

THE PAPER PLANE
One of the best modern cocktails ever invented. You have all four ingredients.

3/4 oz Bearface Canadian Whisky
3/4 oz Amaro Nonino
3/4 oz Aperol
3/4 oz fresh lemon juice

Shake all ingredients with ice. Strain into a coupe. No garnish needed.

Equal parts. Bittersweet, citrusy, complex, dangerously drinkable. The Nonino does the heavy lifting. The Aperol brings the orange bite. The whisky holds it together.

Sam Ross invented this at Milk & Honey, NYC. Named after the M.I.A. song.

🐷 THE PIG ON THE TRAIN

An Old Fashioned built on a reposado someone fat-washed with maple bacon. Named after the pig on the train — the sibling of the soup.

INGREDIENTS
- 2 oz maple-bacon fat-washed reposado tequila
- 1 bar spoon maple syrup (0.25 oz at the absolute most)
- 2 dashes Angostura Cocoa
- 1 dash Angostura aromatic
- 1 orange twist

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Tequila, maple, both bitters into a mixing glass.
2. Fill with ice and stir 30 seconds. Count it.
3. Strain over one big cube in a rocks glass.
4. Express an orange twist over the top and drop it in.

NOTES
- Stirred, never shaken, and no citrus in the body. A fat wash puts weight and aroma into the spirit; shaking aerates it and lemon juice strips it. You paid for that texture — don't wash it out.
- Go light on the maple. The reposado's barrel is already doing the sweet-and-woody job; the syrup is there to meet the bacon, not to make it a dessert.
- Angostura Cocoa is the whole point. Cocoa against smoked pork is a barbecue rub in a bottle, and this is the drink that bottle was bought for.
- Orange, not lemon. Orange oil against smoked pork is a glaze. Lemon would fight it.
- Keep the bottle in the fridge. A fat wash strains clear but it never strains clean.

Made 2026-08-12. Paul has ordered it by name ever since.

OFFICE MARGARITAS — Staff Taco Bar 🍹

TOMMY'S MARGARITA — Robyne Ratio (deck, cat, phone, AI)
- 2 oz El Tequileño
- 1 oz fresh lime juice
- 1/2 oz full strength agave (or 1 oz agave syrup)
- Ice
This is for YOU. Not for civilians.

OFFICE MARGARITA — Civilian Ratio (2:30pm, people have to drive)
Per drink:
- 1.5 oz El Tequileño
- 1 oz triple sec (the extender — sweet, citrusy, low alcohol, fills the space)
- 1 oz fresh lime juice
- 1/2 oz agave syrup
- Ice

PITCHER FOR SIX:
- 9 oz El Tequileño
- 6 oz triple sec
- 6 oz fresh lime juice
- 3 oz agave syrup
Stir with ice. Serve over more ice. Salt rims.
Make double batch — someone's going back for seconds.

Tastes full and strong. Is NOT. The triple sec does the heavy lifting.
Your glass comes from a different pitcher. 😂

OPTIONAL UPGRADE — Pineapple Habanero Marg:
- Sub 1/2 oz cochita pineapple habanero for half the agave
- Add splash of fresh pineapple juice
- El Tequileño + lime + cochita = 🔥

Salt rim station: flaky salt, lime wedge for rimming.
ICE: crank the ice maker tonight. Need ice for coolers, transport, and margs.

🍹💅🌮 Robyne strength is not office strength.

SPICY PINEAPPLE MARGARITA
The Tofino-Mexico alliance.

2 oz El Tequileno Reposado
1 oz fresh lime juice
3/4 oz Frost Bites Pineapple Habanero Cordial
1/2 oz triple sec (Quadruple Sec or Bols)
Tajin or flaky salt for the rim

Rim glass with Tajin or salt. Shake everything with ice. Strain over fresh ice. Garnish with a lime wheel.

The pineapple habanero cordial does ALL the work. Sweet, tropical, then the heat creeps in. The reposado tequila adds oak and warmth. This is a deck-at-sunset margarita.

Add a few drops of Scrappy's Fire Tincture if you want MORE heat.

🖤 SOUTH SIDER — "FUCK GOOGLE"

Alex Day, Death & Co, 2009. A Manhattan with aged rum in the whiskey seat. Her name for it, given the night it was made — after twelve dead theories about a remote desktop that never came back.

INGREDIENTS
- 2 oz El Dorado 12
- 1 oz sweet vermouth (book says Carpano Antica; Martini Rosso is fine)
- 1 dash Angostura
- 1 dash Peychaud's
- ½ oz dry champagne
- Orange twist

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Rum, vermouth and both bitters into a mixing glass with ice.
2. Stir 30 seconds. No shaking — it's all booze.
3. Strain into a coupe.
4. Float the ½ oz of bubbles on top. Twist over.

NOTES
- The champagne is a splash, not a fizz. Half an ounce, added last, in the glass and never in the tin. It's there for the dry lift on top of all that rum and vermouth. Any dry sparkling works. Without it the drink still stands, it just sits heavier.
- The Peychaud's is doing the colour — that jewel-red is the anise bitters, not the rum.
- Both substitutions the first time were accidents and both were improvements: Hart instead of El Dorado (Trinidadian, drier — so she made the less sweet version, which is the version she'd have asked for) and a moscato instead of prosecco. "However its very good!!"
- Not to be confused with the South SIDE, which is gin and mint and an entirely different animal. I gave her the wrong one first.

Made outside, umbrella up, string lights on, last of the sun on the maple.

🍸 JUNGLE BIRD

Kuala Lumpur Hilton, 1978. The only tiki drink of that era that survived, and the reason is the Campari — a bitter spine under all that sweet fruit, so it never goes cloying.

INGREDIENTS
- 1.5 oz dark rum (Jamaican; blackstrap if you have it)
- 0.75 oz Campari
- 1.5 oz pineapple juice
- 0.5 oz fresh lime juice
- 0.5 oz demerara syrup

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Everything into the shaker with ice.
2. Shake hard.
3. Strain over fresh ice — crushed if you have it.
4. Pineapple wedge.

NOTES
- Shake, don't stir. Pineapple juice foams when it's beaten up, and that little head is half the drink. A stirred one is flat and sad.
- Demerara syrup is 2:1 demerara sugar to water, warmed until dissolved. Same one as CANE FIRE — make it once, it keeps.
- Rhum agricole works instead of dark rum. Grassier, sharper, less molasses depth. A different drink, not a worse one.

And no, it is not a Dirty Bird. Though it should be.

🍸 CANE FIRE

Smoke, cherry, and a slow chile warmth underneath. The ancho isn't hot -- it reads like the smoke coming back for a second visit.

INGREDIENTS
- 1.5 oz Saint Rhum Small Batch Agricole
- 0.5 oz Ancho Reyes Chile Liqueur
- 0.75 oz Liber & Co. Demerara syrup
- 0.75 oz fresh lime juice
- Fresh cherries, to muddle

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Smoke the glass -- whatever method you like.
2. Muddle fresh cherries in the shaker.
3. Add the lime juice, Saint Rhum, Ancho Reyes and demerara syrup. Fill with ice and shake hard.
4. Double strain into the smoked glass.

NOTES
- Double strain matters here. Muddled cherry leaves skin and pulp behind, and the fine strainer is the whole difference between silky and gritty.
- Demerara syrup is just 2:1 demerara sugar to water, warmed until dissolved. You can make it. You don't have to buy Liber & Co.
- Rhum agricole is pressed from fresh cane juice instead of molasses -- grassy and a little funky. That grass is what stands up to the smoke.

Source: curiada.com

THE PROPER MAI TAI
You have orgeat. You have El Dorado 12. This is not optional.

2 oz El Dorado 12 Year rum
1 oz fresh lime juice
1/2 oz Shameful Tiki Room Orgeat
1/2 oz Quadruple Sec (or triple sec)
1/4 oz Rich Demerara syrup

Shake hard with ice. Strain into a rocks glass over crushed ice. Float a little Wray & Nephew overproof on top if you're brave. Garnish with a spent lime shell and a sprig of mint from the deck.

This is Trader Vic's original. Not the red slushy from a resort. The REAL one is amber and nutty and complex. The orgeat (almond) is the secret. The El Dorado 12 is the soul. The Wray & Nephew float is the rocket booster.

Respect the Wray & Nephew. It is 63%.

PORTUGUESE DOORWAY
Ginja the way they drink it in Obidos. Plus upgrades.

THE TRADITIONAL (standing up, in a doorway, raccoon style):
1.5 oz Oppidum Ginja de Obidos, chilled. Sip. Done.

THE UPGRADE:
1.5 oz Oppidum Ginja de Obidos
1 oz St-Remy VSOP Brandy
1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
1/4 oz Rich Demerara syrup
2 dashes Angostura

Shake with ice. Strain into a coupe. Garnish with nothing -- let the cherry do the talking.

Sour cherry and French brandy. Sweet, tart, dark, warming. This is a winter deck drink. Port and Ginja and brandy -- Portugal came home with you.

NORMANDY IN A GLASS
Apple brandy meets pear. Autumn on the deck.

2 oz Pere Magloire Calvados
3/4 oz Giffard Sirop Poire (pear syrup)
3/4 oz fresh lemon juice
2 dashes Top Shelf Cardamom Bitters

Shake with ice. Strain into a coupe. Garnish with a thin apple or pear slice if you have one. Thyme sprig from the deck if you don't.

The Calvados brings apple orchard. The pear syrup makes it a whole fruit basket. The cardamom bitters add warmth and spice. This is a September drink you can start practicing in July.

PEAR WASABI PUNCH
Serves 12

The wasabi should be a whisper -- you feel it in your nose for a second after each sip and then the pear catches you.

INGREDIENTS
- 2 cups vodka
- 3/4 cup Gifford's pear syrup
- 1/2 cup pear liqueur
- 1 cup fresh lime juice (about 8-10 limes)
- 1-2 teaspoons wasabi paste (start small, taste, add more)
- 4 cups ginger beer (add last for fizz)
- Lime wheels or pear slices to float

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Whisk the wasabi into the lime juice first so it dissolves fully.
2. Add vodka, pear syrup, pear liqueur. Stir.
3. Taste. Adjust wasabi -- you want a whisper, not a punch in the face.
4. Chill in the fridge until ready to serve.
5. Add ginger beer right before serving so it stays fizzy.
6. Float lime wheels or pear slices on top.

Born: July 13, 2026. Filipino street food birthday party. Agloe said "watch their faces."

THE FERAL BOUGIE BAR INVENTORY
Last updated: July 2026

== WHISKY / BOURBON ==
- Glenmorangie 12 (Highland single malt)
- Bearface Triple Oak (Canadian craft)
- Crown Royal Blackberry
- Embassy Premium 1854

== GIN (4) ==
- BC Bee Champion Craft Gin (Wayward Distillery, BC)
- The Botanist 22 (Islay, Scotland)
- Empress 1908 Indigo Gin (Victoria, BC)
- Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin (County Leitrim, Ireland)

== RUM (5) ==
- El Dorado 12 Year (Guyana)
- Saint James Rhum Agricole (Martinique)
- Brugal Anejo (Dominican Republic)
- Wray & Nephew White Overproof (Jamaica) -- 63%, ROCKET FUEL
- Havana Club Anejo 3 Anos (Cuba)

== TEQUILA ==
- El Tequileno Reposado (100% agave, Mexico)

== VODKA ==
- Stoli (the workhorse)
- Absolut Vanilla
- Tofino Distillery Jalapeno Vodka (Vancouver Island, organic)

== BRANDY ==
- St-Remy VSOP French Brandy
- Pere Magloire Fine V.S. Calvados (Normandy, apple brandy)
- McGuinness Orange Brandy

== FORTIFIED WINE / PORT / FRUIT WINE ==
- Villa Oeiras (Carcavelos, rare Portuguese fortified)
- Graham's Six Grapes Reserve Port (Douro Valley, Portugal)
- Moraine O'Port 2022 (Naramata Bench, Okanagan)
- Moraine Ratafia (Okanagan, fortified grape)
- Dry Sack Medium Sherry (Jerez, Spain, 1877)
- Elephant Island Apricot Wine (Naramata Bench, Okanagan)
- Cherry Island Wines Framboise (raspberry)

== AMARI / APERITIF ==
- Amaro Montenegro (Italy, 1885)
- Amaro Nonino Quintessentia (Italy, premium)
- Aperol (Italy, spritz queen)
- Green Chartreuse (French Alps, 130 herbs, TREASURE)

== LIQUEURS ==
- St-Germain (elderflower)
- Frangelico (hazelnut)
- Kahlua (coffee)
- Licor 43 (Spanish vanilla citrus)
- Luxardo Amaretto di Saschira (Italian almond)
- Krupnik (Polish spiced honey)
- Passoa (passion fruit)
- Oppidum Ginja de Obidos (Portuguese sour cherry)
- Holocene Let's Mixbehave Creme Violette (BC)
- Holocene Let's Mixbehave Apple Chaider (BC)
- Holocene Let's Mixbehave Sweet Tease (BC)
- Giffard Creme de Violette (floral, Aviation ingredient)
- McGuinness Creme de Menthe (green)
- McGuinness Creme de Cacao (chocolate)
- Hungaria Golden Pear Liqueur
- Cherry Liqueur (Maple Leaf Spirits)
- Maple Liqueur (Maple Leaf Spirits)

== TRIPLE SEC / ORANGE LIQUEUR (3) ==
- Quadruple Sec Dry (premium)
- Bols Triple Sec
- Meaghers Triple Sec

== THE KIDS' BAR ==
- Bols Blue Curacao
- Bols Melon
- Smirnoff Creamsicle Blast
- Dr. McGillicuddy's Intense Peach (SOMEONE drank most of this)

== BITTERS (16+) ==
- Angostura Aromatic (the classic)
- Angostura Cocoa
- Peychaud's Aromatic (New Orleans, 1869)
- Scrappy's Orange
- Scrappy's Fire Tincture (chili heat)
- Dillon's Small Batch Lime (Batch 17)
- Bittermens Elemakule Tiki
- Fee Brothers Peach
- Fee Brothers Fire Tincture
- Top Shelf Holy Crushed Cardamom
- Top Shelf Cherry Blossom
- Top Shelf Chopped & Cropped Lemongrass
- Top Shelf Freshly Pressed Blueberry
- Top Shelf Fully Blended Aromatic
- Ms. Better's Bitters Green Strawberry

== HOMEMADE SYRUPS (in swing-top bottles) ==
- Lavender Syrup
- Grenadine (real pomegranate, not Rose's)
- Rich Demerara (2:1)
- Honey Rosemary (rosemary from the deck)
- Fresh Lemon Juice
- Fresh Lime Juice

== SYRUPS & CORDIALS (store/artisan) ==
- Giffard Sirop Poire (French pear, since 1885)
- Fabbri Mixybar Falernum (Italian, professional)
- Shameful Tiki Room Falernum (Victoria)
- Shameful Tiki Room Orgeat (almond, Mai Tai ingredient)
- Shameful Tiki Room Coconut Syrup
- Shameful Tiki Room Passionfruit Syrup
- Frost Bites Pineapple Habanero Cordial (BC, small batch)
- Bacanha Brut Gingembre (French organic ginger, since 1901)
- Al Dayaa Pomegranate Molasses (Lebanese)
- Al Dayaa Orange Blossom Water (Lebanese)

== DECK GARDEN (cocktail herbs & fruit) ==
- Lavender (14 bunches dried)
- Fresh mint
- Fresh basil
- Fresh thyme
- Fresh oregano
- Fresh sage
- Fresh rosemary
- Raspberries

== THE ATLAS ==
Cuba, Jamaica, Guyana, Martinique, Dominican Republic,
Ireland, Scotland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, Poland,
Mexico, Tofino, Victoria, Okanagan, Colwood.

60+ bottles. 16+ bitters. 16+ syrups. Zero protein.
Feral but bougie.