The LCBO held its Whisky Rocks event at the Mod Club Theatre on College Street as part of its annual promotion for the brown spirit known by some as the water of life. Guests packed the house while servers mixed up drinks exclusively using four new Canadian whiskies—Crown Royal Black, Collingwood, Spicebox and Revel Stoke.
The event featured performances by singer Divine Brown and the blues rock band Big Sugar, with Thirsty Traveller Kevin Brauch serving as the emcee. But the star of the show was probably bartender Frankie. His whisky sours were made with fresh-cracked and separated egg whites, shaken vigorously to ensure a frothy head in the rocks glass. When making an Old Fashioned, the patriarch of modern cocktails, he sliced fresh orange peel then massaged them with a lighter until the oils erupted in a blinding burst of fire.
The four new releases combine to make this one of the most prolific years in the Canadian whisky front. Only Crown Royal Black comes with a widely recognizable brand—and this from a line that’s remained essentially unchanged for decades. The darker whisky makes a much bolder Old Fashioned than the regular blend could ever hope to achieve, with oak notes standing tall alongside strong flavours of the Angostura bitters and orange peel.
It’s a considerable push to reinvigorate and modernise the Canadian whisky world, which has been described as stagnant by more than one representative I’ve spoken to.
“We have been unexciting for way too long,” says Brad Fletcher, managing director for Collingwood Canadian Whisky. While American whisky has enjoyed a surge of small batch bourbons, and even Irish and Scotch whiskey have introduced new flavours and approaches, Canadian whisky has seen little change in the last decade. As a growing number of young adults and female demographics are turning to flavoured vodkas and spiced rums, the new Canadian brands are eager to catch up to the new trends.
Spicebox and Revel Stoke are particularly interesting. The two whiskies, blended with spices like vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon, arrive alongside other American flavoured spirits, notably Jim Beam’s black cherry-flavoured Red Stag, and Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey, which is actually a blend of the traditional whiskey and a honey liqueur.
“We want to be for spiced Canadian whisky what Captain Morgan is for spiced rum,” explains Cam Matches of Revel Stoke. The whisky begins with a powerful nose of honey and maple, and is smoother than your average Canadian whisky, albeit less complex than a classic medium-range single malt Scotch.
Spicebox, which is distilled and blended in Montreal, has tapped into the seedy prohibition image seen in Sleeman’s and other products of late. According to its website, whisky was often smuggled to the United States in barrels and boxes marked “spices,” hence the name. Marketing VP Marilyn Foster says Spicebox has about a quarter of the sugars as comparable whisky-liqueur blends like Tennessee Honey, which contributes to its palette of spice and mellow sweetness instead of a cloying aftertaste.
Collingwood, while not a spiced whisky, tries its hand at stirring the pot (still) with a proprietary maple wood maturing process that, while Fletcher is tight-lipped about the details, introduces maple in addition to the normal oak barrel aging process. Although it’s distilled and sourced just on the outskirts of Collingwood, Ontario, the whisky is sent to the U.S. to be bottled in its distinctive and frankly unusual packaging that resembles a giant men’s cologne bottle.
Fletcher says it’s all about promoting new Canadian drinks in a market that consumes more whisky than any other spirit, but needs to catch up with the trendy vodka and wine categories.
“We need to shake it up a little bit. It’s not sexy. It needs to be sexy,” says Fletcher.
Clearly then, this is an event for the younger or young-at-heart whisky-drinking crowd rather than the image of the stuffy old men’s club drinking single malts older than their grandchildren. This isn’t to say the single malt crowd has become irrelevant; the LCBO’s Whisky Shop locations include dozens of gorgeous malts from Scotland, Ireland and Japan. But new products and buzz generated by a loud as hell concert could be just the shot in the arm (and the glass) the Canadian whisky industry needs to avoid falling behind contemporary-minded distillers and blenders around the world.
