Strange Déjà Vu

With Tales Of The Cocktail Vancouver quickly approaching I found it fitting to create a cocktail using some of British Columbia's great spirits.  The cocktail below utilizes some great local Gin from here in Victoria as well as some Orange bitters from the same distillery.  From The Okanagan, I'll be using some genuine absinthe.  This cocktail uses a technique called "toasting" which is demonstrated in a video below.

Strange Déjà Vu
- 2 oz Orange and Ginger Infused Victoria Gin*
- 0.25 oz Absinthe (I used Taboo from Okanagan )
- 0.5 oz Orange Tea Syrup**
- 1/8 oz Victoria twisted orange bitters***
- 4 inches of rosemary


- Add rosemary to bottom of mixing glass 
- Add absinthe to rosemary
- Turn mixing glass to insure absinthe has totally coated rosemary
- With a olive oil mister filled with absinthe, use a lighter and spray flame on to absinthe soaked rosemary for approximately 10 seconds

- Place separate mixing glass over top to extinguish fire
- Leave mixing glasses together until smoke can be see forming in the glasses
- CAUTION: Bottom mixing glass may be hot to the touch, be careful before using it
- Remove top mixing glass and begin to add gin, tea syrup and bitter to bottom mixing glass containing the rosemary
- Add ice and stir for 45 seconds
- Double strain with Hawthorn Strainer and Tea strainer into pre-chilled cocktail glass
- Garnish with fresh rosemary sprig

Strange Déjà Vu

* To make orange and ginger infused gin, peel one large orange.  Place half of peels in oven at 200°F for an hour and a half until orange peels have dried out.  Cut 1.5 inches of ginger in to quarter inch disks.  Place dried orange peels, fresh orange peels and ginger into a jar with a 750 ml bottle of gin (use a quality gin of your choosing). 

** To make orange tea syrup brew 1 cup of hot water with 2 tea bags of orange tea (I just used Tazo Tea, I'm sure you could find other teas that work great if not better). Add tea to pot with 1 cup of sugar over low heat until all the sugar has completely dissolved into tea.  Let cool and bottle.

*** Victoria's orange twisted bitters have a bitter orange peel, cinnamon and clove kind of taste.  You could probably substitute for 2 parts Angostura orange bitters and one part Angostura bitter.  I measured my bitters for this recipe just because the spout on Victoria's bitter is very small and only allows for small drops at a time.

I have to thank Jamie Bourdreau and Simon Ogden (Head bartender of Veneto Tapa Lounge here in Victoria B.C.) for introducing me to the technique of toasting.