How to build a beautiful summer bar
Light spirits, citrus and more make the perfect drink experience
Jeffrey Van Horne and Matt Boyle are award-winning bartenders who have turned their passion for flavour into a thriving catering and consulting business known as The Clever Barkeep in Dartmouth.
With summer here, we asked their advice for building a home bar to make the most of summer cocktail flavours.
When mixing up cocktails at home, make sure the ingredients you are using are quality, fresh and, whenever possible, in season. There is no replacement for fresh juice and cocktails made with in-season local fruit.
Five tips for building your summer bar:
1. Light spirits: Summertime is typically when bartenders turn to lighter spirits, because they pair well with the bounty of fresh fruit, vegetables, herbs and botanicals that are in season. Make sure you have your main spirit categories covered which include gin, vodka, 100 per cent agave tequila and white rum.
2. Low-alcohol sippers: European-inspired aperitif and spritz-style cocktails are quintessential summer sippers. These are low-alcohol cocktails that often include a bitter or vermouth. Bubbles and bitter liqueurs are our favourite aperitifs, mixed with soda water or sparkling wine. Try adding Campari, Aperol or Cynar into the mix with an olive or slice of citrus.
3. Fresh citrus and balancing flavours: If you love Margaritas, Sours or Collinsstyle cocktails, they all have one ingredient in common; citrus juice. To balance the tartness of fresh citrus, most recipes call for simple syrup - but you can also use fruit, citrus or herbal liqueurs (such as Cointreau, Grand Marnier, St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur, or a local berry liqueur). These are also perfect ingredients to incorporate into your favourite cocktail.
4. Vermouth: For those who can’t get enough of classic-style cocktails, it’s always great to have a quality vermouth on hand. Better quality ingredients make better quality cocktails. Sweet or rosso vermouth mixes well with aged spirits like bourbon, rum or scotch. Dry vermouth plays well with unaged spirits. Remember that vermouth is a fortified wine, so make sure you keep your open bottles tightly sealed in the fridge to avoid oxidation.
5. Bitters and ice: You can’t have a cocktail without bitters and ice. The only way to misuse bitters is to forget to use them. You can find bitters at participating NSLC stores like The Port, or your local grocery store. The more ice the better, as this means your cocktails will be colder and less diluted. Begin making ice ahead of time and storing it in clean freezer bags to keep any odours away.