Made With Love – Montreal Regional Finals 2017: Tea, Coffee, U Frost and Other Cocktail Trends

There was a whole lot of alcohol shaken, stirred, foamed and frozen at Montreal’s Made With Love 2017 regional finals last Monday evening at the SAT on St-Laurent. The event featured heaps of mixologists at kiosks on two floors, plus the outdoor winter-y terrasse (shout out to the bartender from Grand Marnier who wasn’t even competing but stuck it out at the frigid outdoor booth, serving my friend’s favourite cocktail of the night – she was a bit dismayed when he couldn’t accept her dog tag).

(P.S. This is what was in the Grand Marnier cocktail, for those who want to make it at home, preferably indoors, near a fireplace. Citric acid is like lemon juice in that it adds sour to a drink, but it doesn’t add a lemony flavour):

“Dog tag?” you ask.

Yes, that’s how the People’s Choice Award works. Everyone gets a dog tag when they come in and they award it to the maker of their favourite cocktail. Two winners go on to the national finals in the spring. There’s also a team of judges going from station to station, judging the drinks based on presentation, ingredients, taste and a couple other criteria that I tried to snoop the score sheets to see, but failed miserably.

I sure made my friend laugh when all 5-feet-and-six-inches of me kept trying to look over the shoulder of a six-foot judge, though.

Other highlights for my friend involved watching me eat four to six cajun chicken tacos with spicy mango chutney but avoiding the cilantro sour cream (above), which paired with my favourite cocktail of the night, the Tequila Maria from Alain Henley of Le Pourvoyeur next to Jean-Talon Market. One of the incredibly friendly mixologists on the team took pity on me when I cried that half the drinks there had tea, coffee or kombucha in them, and I couldn’t drink caffeine.

She actually made me a from-scratch tea-less version of her Tequila cocktail with pure mango purée, honey syrup, smoked pasilla peppers and pineapple and star anise bitters, which came served in a half grapefruit. That’s a crazy thing to do – make a custom cocktail – when there are hundreds of people getting impatient while waiting for their regular cocktails. You’re working for dog tags, so every person who has to wait is a potential dog tag lost.

But, the cocktail. was. awesome. And I gave her my dog tag, not because I felt guilty for taking her away from her other customers and making her go out of her way – even if she offered – but because it really was my favourite drink of the night. I have a thing for crushed ice. I have another thing for mangoes. And I have a third thing for anything served in fruit. Ding ding ding.

Unfortunately, the drink was inconsistent. My friend’s was bitter, she said, and one I tried again later (to compare) wasn’t sweet enough either. It needed more mango. I imagine consistency was also on the judge’s scoresheet, or maybe they got a less sweet batch.

And the winner was…

…the Ungava Three Ways by Isaac Bédard.

My favourite cocktail didn’t win, but my second favourite did – well, it won the People’s Choice Award:

Isaac Bédard winning cocktail recipe

Ungava Three ways

Gin Ungava
Clementine and sage syrup
Lime juice
Egg white

Test tube:
Gin Ungava
Matcha syrup
Ginger syrup and Aloes
Lime juice
Coconut milk
Matcha powder

Garnish: Orange zest and sage leaf
Food pairing: Alcoholic sorbet with U Frost machine

This Year’s Cocktail Trends

U Frost machines were all the rage. They make à la minute ice cream. A couple teams took advantage of this, meaning there were spoonfuls of boozy ice cream at a number of stations.

Another trend in cocktails this year was foams – egg whites, like in classic sours drinks (e.g. whisky sours), aquafaba (the same effect, but made using the brine from a can of chickpeas, hence vegan and no risk of getting sick from the eggs) and écume, translated as “froth.” See below.

That bucket of pink froth was made of sour cherries and orange bitters. My guess is it was made with a siphon, which can whip pretty much any purée into a foam, not just the milk in your morning latte. It was served on top of the “Hard Times Manhattan” cocktail by Maximilien Jean from Le Royal, the speakeasy behind Le Rouge Gorge on Mont-Royal. I think he made his own vermouth for the cocktail, too. See recipe below:

I couldn’t eat the crunchy almond and cherry pit food pairing, unfortunately, because of the butter, but I did ask how much cyanide was in the cherry pits. Not much, he said. You’d have to eat a lot. Based on my indulgence in the tacos, sometimes I’m thankful for lactose intolerance.

Here’s how it looked in the finished drink. I chose the one with the most sour cherry froth:

The judges’ favourite was one I couldn’t try because of the coffee it contained. It was called L’Oro Cristobal by Antoine Vendette of Barraca Rhumerie Montréal. I did eat two of the food pairing, though.

L’Oro Cristobal

Flor de Cana Gran Reserva 7 years old
Corn, coffee, smoked kaffir lime leaves syrup
Caffeinated citrus cordial
Wormwood bitter
1642 ginger soda

Garnish: Kaffir lime leaf and smoked coffee bean
Food pairing: Cacti ceviche, smoked plantain, roasted pepper & dehydrated corn

My third favourite cocktail was very different from the rest. It got third place in the People’s Choice competition: Doesn’t look like much, but it was a rich, creamy, vegan horchata called “L’Almendra” with homemade almond milk, smoked and spiced lemon juice, vodka, pepper and chestnut syrup by Julie Bélanger Cateysson of Ludger.

The hand-squeezed almond milk was rich enough, but she added olive oil to give it a silken texture and a chestnut cream for sweetness. I find Cirka vodka already pretty sweet, so it was a great combo. I’d drink this with or without the booze over the holidays for sure.

And here are some more photos, to give you an idea of the cocktail creations and the party ambiance:

I love Campari and Les Miels d’Anicet is my favourite raw, unpasteurized honey producer in Quebec, but in this cocktail by Samuel Beaulieu of Grumman’s 78, the honey completely overpowered everything else. It’s a great flavour, but too much is too much. It takes a lot of power to beat out sea buckthorn, a high anti-oxidant orange berry (it’s what’s in the cork-topped bottles on the left below).Miracle Cocktail, a popup cocktail bar from New York, was on site with a festive whipped cream, hot chocolate-y option and their holiday menus:

And one more video for the road:

Until next year, drink responsibly! And even then, continue to do so, please.