Celebrate Canada Day with the best sips of summer

Celebrate Canada Day with the best sips of summer

Cheers to the long weekend

Through the thick of more than a year without travel, comes the day (ahem, weekend) when we’re proud to stay local, be it lakeside, in your backyard or scouting for a patch of grass in the city. Wherever it may be, don your red, white and patriotism this Canada Day with the best sips of summer.

Freed Earth Green Tea

Freed Earth Green Tea With Honey

Inspired by the renewing powers of nature, this Freed Earth Hard Tea uses only sustainably sourced tea leaves, brewed to perfection and combined with drizzles of honey and tripledistilled vodka. Plus, it’s only 3g of sugar and 100 calories per 355mL can with no artificial sweeteners or colours, so you can indulge elsewhere (might we suggest an extra butter tart?). $13.95 for six cans at the LCBO.

 

Georgian Bay Cranberry Gin Smash

Georgian Bay Cranberry Gin Smash

Nothing says long weekend like a sip of Georgian Bay Cranberry Gin Smash, a true Canadian classic. Bring a taste of Ontario’s freshwater lake district to your city celebration with a blend of craft gin, cranberry, lemon and lime, topped off with a herbaceous taste. Our suggestion? Have it as a handy refreshment while you fire up the grill. $3.05 at the LCBO.

White Claw Watermelon

White Claw Hard Seltzer

The White Claw craze is still strong, and we’re here for it. The light and easy-to-drink sparkling hard seltzers are now available in tart raspberry and fresh watermelon, both crafted using natural fruit flavours to deliver a surge of refreshment with only 1g of carbs per 473mL can. Enjoy these soon-to-be summer staples, pairing perfectly with cottage weekends, camping and all other summer adventures. $2.95 at the LCBO.

Nikka Coffey Vodka

Nikka Coffey Vodka

This smooth, full-bodied vodka comes from Nikka, Japan’s leading producer of premium malt and grain whisky. Carefully crafted using a Scottish Coffey still that maximizes character, then filtered through a white birch charcoal to enhance clarity, the velvety mouthfeel comes with subtle notes of stone fruit—a luxurious base for a vodka martini, but balanced enough to enjoy chilled and neat. $60.25 at the LCBO.

Lemon Life Hard Seltzer

Lemon Life Hard Lemonade Seltzer

Offering a bold and sweet-yet-punchy taste, this Lemon Life Hard Lemonade Seltzer owes its fruit-forward flavour to the hand-picked lemons grown on family-owned farms. A cold-pressed method extracts the most authentic lemon taste, blurring the lines between a full-flavoured cooler and sparkling seltzer at just 1g of sugar and 100 calories per can. $13.95 for six cans at the LCBO.

El Dorado 12YO Woodman

El Dorado 12 Year Old Demerara Rum

Those looking to sip on something stronger will find their old fashioned taken to new heights with this enticing rum blend, laid down in oak barrels for at least 12 years. The result is a rich and diverse spirit, greeted by rich notes of raisin, molasses and a hint of coconut; creamy on the palate with contrasting flavours of creamy butterscotch and a hint of candied orange peel. $45.25 at the LCBO.

St~Germain

St-Germain Elderflower Liqueur

St~Germain is the world’s first artisanal French liqueur, made with up to 1,000 fresh, wild, handpicked elderflower blossoms in every bottle. Its flavour is as subtle and delicate as it is captivating, evidenced in its sublime notes of peach, pear and grapefruit, yet none of them exactly. Canada Day celebrations and endless apéritif afternoons start with good company and a fresh bottle of St~Germain. Add a dash of freshly handpicked elderflowers to spritz up your spritz at home. $49.95 at the LCBO.

Georgian Bay Raspberry Rhubarb

Georgian Bay Raspberry Rhubarb Vodka

The perfect companion to your beach bag or picnic basket: Crack open the refreshing taste of locally crafted, quintessentially Canadian fruit flavours in the form of Georgian Bay Spirit Co.’s Raspberry Rhubarb Vodka Smash. Tart-yet-sweet notes play off harmoniously in the bubbly bevvy, with raspberry and citrus notes upfront, then ending with a crisp, dry rhubarb finish. $3.05 at the LCBO.