Toronto Cocktail Week seminars celebrated this city’s burgeoning cocktail culture with industry experts

This October’s Toronto Cocktail Week tastings and classes took place at landmark Toronto bars including Mother Tongue, BarChef, Civil Liberties, DaiLo and Toronto Temperance Society. Everything from absinthe to beekeeping to non-alcoholic cocktails were featured and there was something for bartending veterans and casual drinkers alike.

Classes kicked-off at Mother Tongue where attendees learned about the art of the cocktail menu from Trash Tiki’s Iain Griffiths, and Grey Tiger’s Becky Ip and Ryan Ringer. Death & Co New York’s David Kaplan was in town coaching bartenders and owners on aspirational staff culture. In the evening, classes on clarified cocktails, cognac cocktails, and absinthe education were featured.

Day two brought bartending champions Evelyn Chick, Chris Enns, Kaitlyn Stewart and Oliver Stern to the stage where they discussed how rewarding competitive bartending can be. The evening tastings included a deep-dive about mezcal, as well as an experiential cocktail class with BarChef’s Frankie Solarik.

A team of experts from False Ox, Seedlip, Prettyugly and Civil Liberties took over Mother Tongue on day three, to make some classic placebo cocktails. The day ended with a six-course Los Siete Misterios Mezcal dinner at Quetzal.

The seminars came to a close with representatives from BEEGrrl and Bittered Sling exploring how beekeeping and honey can change your drinks, and a panel of pros examined where our alcohol is coming from and how we can be more conscious about distilling practices.

Check out the posts below for some of the highlights of the week, or search the hashtag #TCW18.