On this Saturday night I attended the launch party for a new cocktail in a can brand: Bootleggers. A collaboration that has brought together art with an all-natural alcoholic beverage that tastes like it was mixed to order.
This night was also the inaugural debut of their Ghost Bar concept. A once-a-month Popup bar, that will be held at a secret lounge location, opened until late. It is not heavily advertised, but spoken as a word of mouth referral, those who are in the know get to go. Tonight’s experience was held at the basement suite of Wildebeest restaurant in Gastown. This is the newest creative project by the Los Angeles and Vancouver-based duo, Cocktail Connoisseur and Kiarash TK.
Tonight, the bar was serving the entire 4 can line of Bootleggers, as well as options of beer and wine. And the kitchen was offering cool and warm bar snacks, more substantial entrees, and even desserts.
It is self seating, so you grab a couple of bar stools along the handful of share tables and wait for the lone server to take your order. It is easiest to start a tab and order as you go, enjoying the rotation of live DJ’s mixing techno dance beats.
Bootleggers is proudly the world’s 1st NFT and Augmented Reality Powered canned cocktail brand. The drink’s colour, flavour, and overall presence is curated to match the art on the can. The dark purple skull gives you a spicy hot berry beverage and the light purple mystical feminine profile gives you a honey and floral mix coloured light purple by butterfly pea flower. Each can has a QR code that you scan for an interactive component. An augmented reality gift and a unique way to learn more about their product.
The following is our review on each of their canned flavours, what we had to eat, and what you may expect for their next monthly Popup.
Listed as a craft cocktail the Bootleghers Skull Society is a tequila-based drink with blackberries, hibiscus, jalapenos, and lime. This is the boldest flavour in their lineup. You get the spicy jalapeño off the bat, which is then balanced out by very berry punch. This and all the others are listed at 9.6% ABV per small can, and you certainly can’t feel it. Great with spicy foods that include jalapeño like Mexican with tacos or nachos.
The Bootleggers Phoenix Feather also features tequila, but is more tropical with passion fruit, mango, and lime. Juicy with summer fruits, it starts tangy and ends slightly sour. It tasted well mixed, if I didn’t know any better, I would think it was made to order. This one would be best paired with heartier spices and more boldly seasoned plates like with Indian food.
The other two cocktails are vodka based. Bootleggers Dance Of Shadows with vodka, grapefruit, yuzu, and bergamot. This was mellow with a mild citrus flavour. Easily drinking like flavoured vodka soda. Great with lighter plates like seafood and salad.
The Bootleggers Giggle Water was pretty in purple thanks to the use of the trendy butterfly pea flower to colour; alongside vodka, lavender, honey, and lemon. This is the lightest of all their craft cocktail and drank like its can and hue. Airy with a whisper of floral notes. You can taste the least amount of liquor in this one, making it a great cocktail to accompany tea time or to casually sip on the patio.
For food we started with Chips and Guacamole regular store-bought tortilla chips and house made guacamole. Standard more chips than dip, nothing out of the ordinary, just a classic finger food to pair with cocktails.
I liked the Baby Patatas Bravas. Roasted baby potatoes, tossed in garlic and mixed herbs, served with sour cream. Perfectly softened nuggets that ate like baked potatoes with the fresh and tangy sour cream. They just could have used a greater variety of seasonings and maybe even some bacon to add interest to an otherwise one-tone plate. Good thanks to the sour cream, but it could have been better.
The 3 pieces Slow Cooked Pork Tacos featured 6hour braised and shredded pork, pickled vegetables and sour cream. The pork could have been better seasoned, as it felt flat that some hot sauce could have remedied.
And for dessert we indulged in the Hot Chocolate Fondant. It was described as a Belgium dark chocolate lava cake with chocolate sauce, but when we cut into it there was no runny centre of chocolate “lava” to behold. Otherwise, this was a typical moist chocolate cake.
I preferred the Pineapple, Walnuts & Carrot cake out of personal preference. Pineapple, carrot, walnuts and icing, this was a great rift on carrot cake, one of my favourite types of cake. Fluffy with bits of crushed nut, vegetable, and fruit for added texture, given a sweet dessert feel with the heavy salted icing.
In short, this was a great way to introduce a new locally produced drink to the canned cocktail scene. So good that I will be looking out for their second drop with 4 new flavours in the future. For now, the 4 original flavours will be available at order from privately own liquor store today, and on stocked shelves by mid-January. On where to buy and when, bookmark the link below.
https://volatileproject.com/ready-to-drink-cocktails/
