Ladies’ Choice

Invented over 100 years ago by the legendary Ada “Coley” Coleman, first woman head bartender at The Savoy Hotel’s American Bar, the Hanky Panky should challenge any ideas about what women drink. Mallory O’Meara's recent book, Girly Drinks, features an entire chapter on Coley—and her famous drink.

Jessica Blaine Smith, drinks photographer and co-creator of the online community Bartender Atlas, will never forget the time she ordered a Sazerac and the bartender said, ‘Oh, I don’t think you want that,” and that she’d prefer something else. Through her photography work Smith noticed that in pictures featuring spirit-forward or whisky-based drinks, they are almost always held by a man—something she wants to help change. Inspired by her experiences, this drink, called Lady Maravilla (named after the famous luchadora), is a spicy twist on a classic Sazerac, made with Smith’s favourite spirit, smoky mezcal. 

Co-owner of Hamilton craft cocktail hotspot, Bar Sazerac, veteran bartender Jennifer Ferreira loves the occasional intensely bitter Ferrari drink, a 50-50 mix of Campari and Fernet-Branca that’s known as a “Bartender’s Handshake.” Shaking people’s perceptions that her partner must be the driving force behind the bar’s dynamic drinks list though, is less pleasingly bitter. Inspired by the earthy and herbal Ferrari, sometimes consumed as a shot, this drink is dedicated to her. Here it calls for a little citrus and simple syrup to lengthen it and transform it into a proper cocktail.

Marlene Thorne, owner of Famous Last Words cocktail bar in Toronto’s Junction neighbourhood, says a lot has changed since she opened the bar 7 years ago. At the outset, if an order came in for an Old Fashioned and a Whisky Sour, and there was a man and a woman sitting at a table, you could usually guess—correctly—that the man had ordered the sturdy spirit-forward Old Fashioned. “Now, I wouldn’t put even money on it,” she says, remarking that women seem more confident about ordering what they want. This twist on a Manhattan, her go-to cocktail, combines two of Thorne’s favourite spirits, Irish whiskey and Chartreuse Green, an herbaceous Alpine liqueur from France.