THE GRINCH THAT STOLE 2020

After a year behind the bar at the Bearfoot Bistro, it’s starting to feel like home for Kim Jones. “I love it here!” she says with a laugh. Originally from Scotland, Jones is having fun tasting her way through B.C.’s craft spirits. “It’s so interesting that they use local products and ingredients; for instance, the Wayward Distillery make their gin and vodka from honey, and I quite like Rebel Vodka from Kelowna, which is made from apple; they have such a cool story. They make their spirits from their orchard!” Despite her nation’s famous love of whisky, Jones admits that she’s much more of a gin girl, “but I’ve had little samples of the ones we have here, and they’re [all] pretty good!”

As a self-confessed gin lover, Montis Distilling’s Alpine Gin was a natural choice for Jones’s spirited riff on a Bijou cocktail, “The Grinch that Stole 2020.” Made with coniferous tree tips foraged from Whistler, Montis is the only craft distillery in Whistler and is located in Function Junction, just 8 kilometres south of Whistler Village. “The Negroni is one of my favourite cocktails. I love those equal-parts drinks, and the Bijou is made from gin, sweet vermouth and Green Chartreuse. Our Grinch [cocktail] is gin, Green Chartreuse, dry white vermouth and Fernet Branca. I round that out with lavender bitters, shake it and serve it in a rocks glass with a beautiful big cube of ice stamped with the Bearfoot Bistro logo and garnish with fresh-picked spruce tips.” And how does this gloriously Grinchy creation taste? “It’s quite booze-forward but beautifully herbaceous too. The spruce tips garnish, and lavender bitters give it a beautiful foresty-floral note.”