Canada tour

Hi,

Well let me tell you that I am quite annoyed as I have just wrote this once already, but the connection dropped and lost it all so have to start again. I could do better with my time...

Anyway.

Just spend a week in Canada doing coast to coast in 5 days and 4 cities, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto. Firstly, I am very pleased as for the first time it was not 6 million below 0 and quite warm which I did not think was possible.

I had an interesting week out there, the reason for my trip is the Pour Masters' program.

Here is a quick explanation of the PM program. This program was put in place to support the best of the Canadian trade and help them develop with the support of Global. My role in this as it is the 3rd year, is to visit the market and do brand training as well as cocktail training. To keep them excited about the programme, we have a competition and the finalist gets a trip to Paris/London. You have met the first winner at the conference last year, David Wolowydnik.

Now was then the first edition and had to try 49 cocktails this year with the help of guys at Montgomery. When I try all cocktails from those different cities, it is a great opportunity to assess the trends in one market and compare city vs city.

So now, I want to share with you my learnings from Canada.

First of all, I would like to say how nice all the trade are in that market, none of that bartenders arrogance thinking they know it all. In every city you will go, they will always be extremely warm and welcoming. Then, there has been a considerable improvement from the first year. The first year the cocktails were very sweet and did not seem to have structure nor balance. Now things are on the rise...

Vancouver has a very close bartending community. They all seem to be hanging out together and know each other very well. They all pretty much see David as the best mixologist in town (if such a title nowadays still exists). However, David is that good. Highly recommend you watch him entertain the guests (at his restaurant called West), he has class, knows his craft and inspires the city. I can see a very strong appreciation for classics which gives them a great foundation for creating cocktails. I wonder if the vicinity to Seattle and Portland could influence that somehow? Would this explain why I find them quite creative in flavour matching but better in twisting classics? And that is the flavour of the day it seems. . This year's cocktail submissions on the other hand had a lot of cucumber and sake, those 2 flavours came back regularly and was interesting at times and not delivering at others.

Calgary is only a short distance from Vancouver in Canadian standards: 10 hours' drive or 1 hour's flight. There are influenced by Vancouver, but the cocktails there are in their infancy. The demand from customers is growing which challenges the bartender and that gets his creative juices flowing which is a good thing. There is still a lot of work to be done there, need to really make sure that they understand cocktail structure for example. Cocktails there were also somewhat sweet and in some cases missing character.

Montreal has on a few guys that are potentially great bartenders. A gentleman from Vancouver called Brad is working there and he seems to have shown the Matrix to a few of them. Those have developped a great hunger for it and are educating themselves on the subject. I feel though sometimes, their execution lets them down and they fall short. I feel on the other hand, there is more creativity in flavour matching in Montreal than Vancouver but for now, Vancouver is more polished. There were in Montreal a few disasters, in the submissions, but the flavours that came back were fresh kiwi, Grey Goose La Poire and Melon liqueur. Not sure on the melon liqueur...but remember the Canadian palate is also quite sweet.

Toronto is in between, quite creative, and I will say that Frankie Skolarik from Barchef is strongly influencing that. He was Pour Master for the first 2 years and has now opened his new bar. If you happen to be in the neighbourhood, do pay him a visit, quite an experience! Or Google it, or simply wait until Trevor films it next week and edits it. The rest of the Toronto bar scene is a bit all over the place, some guys were telling me classics are starting to interest a few, and some don't and do just very bad drinks. I am not sure of the appreciation of good cocktails in that city by customers there are a few places but for a city as Toronto do I suspect not enough or do I expect too much? and that is strange as the food on the other side is quite amazing. Some of the cocktails though were using ingredients I have not seem before on the Canadian bar scene such as homemade rhubard syrup.

Here you go a little (sorry if its long) view of the Canadian bar scene. I have to say I am glad of their improvement, but the road is looooooooong before the London standard can be reached.

Ciao for now...

dimi