Your weekly digest of Toronto food news
Dear reader, I’ve been thinking about coffee a lot. A couple of weeks ago, I decided to reduce my caffeine consumption. My reasons were vague—maybe it will help me sleep better, maybe it means fewer stains for the dentist to scrape off at my next cleaning. And given I really only had one to two cups every day, I didn’t think this would be a problem—surely I wasn’t caffeine-dependent. It turns out I was wrong and the headaches are real. For me, coffee has always been about the morning ritual: something to sip on while I get in a bit of reading before the sun comes up and the day starts. I don’t do coffee in the afternoon or after dinner. I just don’t enjoy it that much, which explains why I never got on board the espresso martini train. I like all components of the drink fine enough on their own (espresso, vodka, coffee liqueur) but every espresso martini I’ve tried, be it a made-to-order one at a nice bar or a pre-mixed cocktail in a can, has had an artificial whiff about it—kind of like how I imagine a chocolate-scented scratch-and-sniff sticker would taste. But I could really go for one now. Too bad Kahlúa has been yanked from the LCBO’s shelves. It turns out that even though the popular coffee liqueur is owned by French brand Pernod Ricard and made in Veracruz, Mexico, the bottles Canada typically imports are produced for the Kahlúa Company, which is based in New York, hence the boycott. But that hasn’t stopped the city’s bartenders from churning out the coffee-based cocktails (mostly because the people demand them) which means they’ve just had to get a bit creative. In this week’s edition of Table Talk, you’ll learn how eight Toronto bars are dealing with the shakeup, and why they think the espresso martini is still so buzzy. Also in this week’s newsletter: a Q&A with Toronto’s Grape Witches about what it’s like to be in the wine business when everyone’s boycotting American-made bottles. For more of our food-and-drink coverage, visit torontolife.com or subscribe to our print edition. |
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| —Rebecca Fleming, food and drink editor |
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The espresso martini has been having a moment in Toronto for a while now, with bartenders across the city leaning on their La Marzocco machines to make multiples of the retro cocktail, night after night. But there’s a problem: Kahlúa, the classic coffee liqueur and a staple component of the retro cocktail, is no longer available at the LCBO. We asked eight bartenders what this means for your espresso martini. |
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| | Who needs US-made hooch? Toronto bars and restaurants are partnering with their favourite local distillers, winemakers and brewers to produce custom-made drinks. Here, nine crushable new concoctions—including a lager to pair with pizza, a chuggable red wine and a cedar-infused gin—all made in Ontario and coming to a menu near you. |
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| | What happens when you’re a bar and bottle shop owner who a) can’t access cases of US-made wine, already paid for and now just languishing in an LCBO warehouse and b) get flack for selling off the American bottles you still have in stock? We caught up with two of Toronto’s Grape Witches about navigating boycotts, importing American wine and supporting the Canadian economy during its trade war era. |
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