Summer, you’re here already? Warmer weather calls for a lot of things we love: longer evenings, BBQs with friends and family and of course — ICED DRINKS!
Launching Wednesday, June 1st, we’re excited to introduce a line-up of refreshing iced beverages that are sure to quench your thirst in the summer heat. A lot of time and care goes into developing these recipes, and we hope you can enjoy them as much as we do. Our talented team member, Karine Ng, has methodically curated a handful of unique ingredients for the lineup of our new iced beverages.
To provide you with a little bit of background on each of those unique ingredients…
- Fever Tree Tonic Water – Highly-regarded around the world as one of the best tonic waters, Fever Tree was founded in 2005 in the UK. The key ingredient in tonic water, quinine, is found in cinchona trees that are found in the Rwanda/Congo border. This quinine is blended with spring water and eight botanical flavours, which include marigold extract and a bitter orange from Tanzania. The resulting tonic water is also highly carbonated with small, fine bubbles that deliver the delicate flavours needed to craft exceptional cocktails and drinks!
- Porter’s Grapefruit Tonic Syrup – Created by local Calgarian Nicole Fewell, Porter’s Tonic Syrups are handcrafted and add a complex zing to any drink. We’ve chosen to use the Grapefruit version to add that extra kick of citrus to our iced tea.
- Lakewood Premium Pure Dark Cherry Juice – There are over three pounds of fresh cherries used to make every glass bottle of Lakewood Dark Cherry Juice! It’s cold-pressed, offering a delicious, deep cherry flavour that rounds out our Black & Tonic coffee cocktail.
- Tea from O5 in Vancouver, BC – We’ve worked with O5 Tea in Vancouver, BC for the past few years. They share our philosophy in working with quality-focused producers, and we’re proud to offer their loose leaf teas in all of our cafes. Pedro and his team are wonderful people and we’re happy to bring O5 to new audiences!
That being said, without further ado, here are the new additions to our menu:
Black & Tonic
Back by popular demand, the Black & Tonic is an incredibly refreshing iced drink that’s perfect for summer — we start with a brewed black coffee concentrate mixed with Lakewood Black Cherry Juice, which is shaken with ice. It’s then poured into a glass with ice, and topped with Fever Tree Tonic Water. This coffee cocktail has the complex flavours of coffee, paired with the naturally rich and deep fruit flavours of cherry that’s accentuated with a sparkling touch of tonic.
Espresso & Tonic
As many of you know, we travel the world (currently, we’re heading to 11 different countries) to source exceptional quality coffees that are single origin and in-season. To accentuate the complex flavours and nuance of our single origin espressos, we’re combining it with Fever Tree Tonic — the effervescent texture of the tonic water brings out the bold fruity flavours and bright acidity of the espresso. It’s simple, straightforward, and very delicious.
Cold Brewed Iced Tea
In the past, we have experimented with brewing black tea hot, and then dispensing it onto ice. We’ve found that it is quite astringent, and lacks the depth and complexity of a really delicious and well-developed tea. For our iced tea, we are steeping Assam black tea, cold, for 24 hours — it’s sweetened lightly with a palm sugar simple syrup, with a touch of Porter’s Tonic Grapefruit Syrup for a bit of citrusy acidity. Served on ice, this version of iced tea will certainly quench any summer thirst.
We are very proud to add these two new coffee cocktails and iced tea to our menu and have taken great care and thought into creating harmonious and lively drinks for you to enjoy this summer. You can savour any of these drinks in our cafes: Marda Loop, Chinook Mall, Simmons Building, and Mission!
