Clinton Cawood dusts off The Toronto and tells us about its history.
A riff on either the Old Fashioned or the Manhattan, depending on how you look at it, the Toronto was once a fixture of its namesake city’s drinking scene.
That’s according to Robert Vermeire in his 1922 book Cocktails – How to Mix Them, in which he says that it’s “much appreciated by the Canadians of Toronto”.
While the drink he’s referring to is the Fernet Cocktail – cognac or rye whiskey with Fernet, sugar and Angostura – this eventually came to be named after the city, first appearing in David Embury’s 1948 book The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks.
Fittingly, Embury opts for Canadian whisky. While not particularly prevalent nowadays, a Toronto has been on the list at London’s Nightjar since it opened 15 years ago.
“It was picked out by Marian Beke for our original menu as a classic cocktail that could be twisted imaginatively without changing the essence of the drink – we have the unique flavour profile of Fernet Branca to thank for that,” says Nightjar co-founder Edmund Weil.
While their version uses bourbon, tribute is paid to Canada through maple syrup infused with coffee and pecan.
The garnish of orange blossom-smoked candyfloss can either be eaten or added incrementally to the drink as a sweetener.