Imbibe
First off, I just found out that Greene King IPA (India Pale Ale, you know like Keith's) is available the LCBO in Ontario. Sweet. The Green Dragon pub around the corner from my place in Cambridge was a Greene King pub, so I'm familiar and fond of their IPA. It's on sale even, fifty cents off a bottle. So that's today's mission.
Lately I've been trying to learn a bit about cocktails, which is funny in so far as I drink very little lately. Anyhow, my latest "lesions" was learning the difference between various American and Canadian whiskey / whisky's. From Bourbon, rye, Canadian rye, Tennessee, Scotch and Irish, and terms like sour mash, sweet mash, malt, wort, and 'bottled in bond'.
Whilst there are many drinks sites, and many cocktail recipe books, a couple that I like are Drink Boy, Art of Drink, and Gremolata.
For mixing cocktails, one ingredients I am not familiar with is bitters, the most common of which is Angostura bitters which can be found in many grocery stores in Canada. Another less common one is Peychaud's Bitters, originally from New Orleans, but moved due to ownership changes. It is available from Buffalo Trace's gift shop. There are also several orange flavoured bitters such as from the Fee Brothers, and Regan's Orange No. 6 bitters which is also available from Buffalo Trace's gift shop.
Because there are two films now out about wine tasting, Bottle Shock and Judgment of Paris based upon true events at the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976 (Globe and Mail article / review). I think Art of Drink's presentation on Sensory Perception is worth reading for anyone interested in mixology.