This series spotlights the overlooked spirits and modifiers that deserve more than a supporting role, showing how one bottle can inspire three simple, mixable cocktails. No elaborate prep or multi-day infusions; just clever builds you’ll actually want to make. Whether you’re experimenting at home or behind the bar, consider it a reminder that every bottle has more to give.

This edition features Taylor Fladgate 10 Year Old Tawny Port, a fortified wine bottled at 20 per cent ABV and made from traditional red grapes grown in Portugal’s Douro Valley. Blended from Ports aged an average of ten years in seasoned oak, it layers ripe berries and fig with nuts, butterscotch, chocolate and fine oak.

The Flavour Files explore how familiar flavours appear across the drinks world and the memories they carry with them. This edition finds the taste of a 1990s and early-2000s childhood hiding in Canadian whisky, from banana candies and bubblegum to Cocoa Puffs and pecan pie.

Inside the Glenfarclas Family Cask Series, where the date on the bottle may also be one of your own.

Born in the bodegas of southern Spain, the solera system transformed aging into an ongoing conversation between past and present. Today, rum and whisky producers are borrowing the same idea, although not always in quite the same way.

Drawn entirely from one chosen harvest, vintage Champagne offers a taste of a year that will never unfold in quite the same way again.

From the sweet concoctions that masked poor-quality gin in the 1920s to the rise of the three-martini lunch in the 1950s to the indulgent excess of the 1980s that gave us the Long Island Iced Tea, each decade is defined by a signature cocktail that reflects the culture of its era.

Each 18-year-old whisk(e)y is a liquid snapshot of decisions made nearly two decades before it reached the glass. For this edition of the Flavour Index, we gathered 18 whiskies from around the world, each aged for 18 years. Together, they reveal just how little an age statement tells us about what is actually in the glass. Some are bright and delicate; others rich and dark. Some lean toward cereal and grain, while others show the influence of oxidation and extended maturation.

Karen Tartt of Clear Spirit & Mind, asks what happens when bartending’s favorite shortcut to freshness is off the table. The answer is not less flavor, but a more expansive way of building it.

Every glass of whisky begins in a field. In Ontario, that story starts with corn and the conditions that help it thrive. Ask Dana Dickerson, Director of Market Development and Sustainability for Grain Farmers of Ontario, what shapes the province’s grain, and she points to soil, climate, drainage, and geology. Here, the relationship between land and flavour isn’t simply language borrowed from wine. It is the growing environment that shapes the corn long before that grain becomes the whisky in the glass.

In London, many Martinis land around £20–30, which for a Canadian reads more like $40–60 CAD once the dust (and gratuities) settle. When a drink edges into that territory, expectation shifts. You’re no longer just ordering a cocktail. You’re buying into a standard. A promise that something about this Martini will justify the price, whether that’s the liquid itself, the way it’s made, or the way (and where) it’s delivered.

We went looking for that answer inside some of London’s most iconic bars. Not to rank them, but to understand what’s actually being paid for. Because once you strip the Martini back to its essentials, there’s nowhere to hide. No sugar, no citrus, no distraction. Just spirit, dilution, temperature, and intent. And at this level, every one of those decisions shows.

Since pioneering Elementally Aged® BEARFACE Triple Oak in 2018, Faustinelli has continued to push boundaries through the brand's Wilderness Series releases. But with BEARFACE BEAR-BON™ Charred Barrel Whisky, he has done something categorically different. He has dismantled his own framework and rebuilt it from the ground up — questioning every assumption that underpinned the BEARFACE story so far…

In this edition of The Flavour Index, we explore 20 gins with a range of styles and approaches, mapping how different botanical choices and production techniques influence their character. This is not an exhaustive list, but rather a starting framework for understanding how flavour is built in gin.

Liquor shelves are brimming with brightly coloured bevies, but not all food dyes are alike. While most major distilleries use artificial colouring for its intensity and stability, many smaller distilleries are opting for a natural approach, using flora and fauna to add colour and flavour to their spirits.

Furthermore, most botanicals have a long history with humanity, which goes beyond colour and taste. Many hold medicinal and spiritual meaning for present and past cultures. Although these plants are safe to consume, it is important to do your homework before using them at home. After all, plants are powerful!

The color blue is a controversial topic in the world of spirits and cocktails. This is largely because very few natural coloring agents can create a stable, vibrant hue that resembles our favorite shades of blue—such as the clear summer sky, a stunning sapphire, or even a brand new pair of Levi's jeans.

Disco drinks remind us that colour has always been part of cocktail language. Long before Instagram, bartenders were manipulating hue to signal sweetness, seduction, and spectacle under the mirrorball.

Caramel colouring might be one of the most debated ingredients in modern spirits. Labelled as E150a, it’s a form of plain caramel made by heating sugars, used primarily to adjust colour rather than flavour. You’ll find it most commonly in whisky, where producers use it to create consistency from batch to batch, ensuring the liquid in the glass matches what consumers expect on the shelf.

Supporters argue it’s a practical tool. A way to standardize appearance without materially affecting taste. Critics see it differently.

For our ‘One Bottle Three Ways’ series, we’re changing things up in this edition. Instead of building multiple drinks around a single bottle, we explored the full Nikka Coffey range, asking pro-bartender Kim Xie from Calgary, Alberta, to create a cocktail inspired by the colour of each label.

Over the last couple of years, bold, energetic launches of hotel bars have brought a new sense of style to Scotland’s finest destinations. With it, new visitors are invited to discover the fabulous flavours of whisky and mixology found up and down the country.

In a world where colour signals flavour, blue breaks the pattern. For this edition of the Conversation List, we leaned into the ambiguity. These are spirits that wear blue, are named blue, or feel blue in character. Think of this less as a verdict and more as a conversation with one colour, many hues.

How can you capture the northern lights in a cocktail? Or create a space that invites guests to be a part of the process? Or take them on a journey to a forest floor in the middle of a concrete jungle?

Experimental bars in three very distinct North American cities are going beyond taste, creating immersive experiences that transport guests from one world to another.