The city’s sweetest summer cocktails marry two of our favourite things: booze and ice cream
Featuring bar recommendations, recipe ideas and liquor pairings to help beat the heat
On a sweltering summer day, there’s nothing like a chilled spritz or a frosty swirl of soft serve to help ward off the heat. Now, bartenders are blurring the line between both treats by creating high-ABV ice creams that go far beyond your standard chocolate and vanilla.
Related: Over-the-top cocktails are sweeping the city
Bar Mordecai, for instance, makes stunning soft serve in such fetching flavours as piña colada and strawberry elderflower margarita, which can be topped with prosecco for an additional $4. They’re served in stemware and are highly photogenic. Co-owner Christina Veira admits that some people order a round purely for the Instagram bait—and then they discover just how tasty it is.
Flavours rotate, but other recent creations dispensed from the soft serve machine have included an eye-opening frozen tiramisu espresso martini and a chocolate peanut butter ice cream concoction made with Skrewball peanut butter whiskey and Dillon’s crème de cacao. “Some people treat these as a kicky dessert,” says Veira. “Drinks and food should always have a sense of fun and whimsy.”
Three add-ins for intoxicating ice cream at home
Dillon’s Limoncello Here’s a home-grown take on an Italian favourite: Dillon’s Niagara grape spirit steeped with lemons, lemon peel, cardamom and lemon verbena. Serve it alongside Good Behaviour’s lemony Torta Della Nonna ice cream. $45
Top Shelf Butter Tart Liqueur This Perth-based distillery translates Canada’s favourite sweet treat into adult form. The corn spirit is flavoured with butter pastry crust, caramel and pecans. Use it to spike scoops of butter pecan ice cream or pour it over shaved ice. $23
Appleton Rum This eight-year-old Jamaican rum is made by the first-ever female master blender in the spirits industry. It’s elegant and excellent, particularly when added to a rum raisin milkshake. $42
More ways to keep cold
Frenchy: The Hilton’s fancy French-ish lobby restaurant serves a scoop of lemon sorbet as the finishing touch on its Faux Femme Libertine, a zero-proof spritz topped with a sprig of baby’s breath.
Mother Cocktail Bar: This Queen West spot makes a boozy affogato with icy caramelized yogurt and a blend of amaro, vodka and hazelnut liqueur, all finished off with salted vanilla foam and nutmeg.
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Kate Dingwall is a writer, author and photographer covering spirits, business, culture, fashion and travel. By night, she’s a working sommelier. She has worked with Flare, Food & Wine, Wine Enthusiast, Maxim, People, Southern Living, Rolling Stone, Eater, Elle, Toronto Life and the Toronto Star, among other publications. She frequently appears on both CTV and NPR, has co-authored a book on gin, judges Food & Wine’s Tastemakers and has strong opinions on the city’s best martini.
