It’s been a crazy month! My birthday party, going to New York, traveling to LA for work… I haven’t been home all that much lately! I finally got a chance to go through my photos from my birthday party, which we threw on Saturday, November 6th. My actual birthday was on the 13th, but we were away for New York so we moved the party one week earlier. Hard to believe I’m already 26! It was a blast!

This year’s party was quite different than last year’s party. The theme this year was “Champagne and Tequila”… so we didn’t have to spend too much time mixing drinks. It was a delicious and dangerous combination

I made a triple batch of my favourite chocolate chip cookies recipe for the party.

This year, I decided to have the party catered by Smoke and Bones BBQ Catering. They are based here in Vancouver and do AMAZING BBQ catering. They bring this super cool smoker truck along to their events! All smoking and cooking is done at the event.

I ordered their amazing award-winning BBQ baby back ribs, smoked chicken wings and drums, and award-winning baked beans (with secret ingredients!), cornbread, and coleslaw. It was a delicious spread.

I can’t recommend them enough. They are very professional, prompt, reasonably priced and the flavours of their food is incredible. I will definitely be booking again with them next year.

We also had a keg of GIB Gastown Amber Ale!

The rest of the party was a lot of fun. I drank a little more than I normally do at my own parties, so I probably look quite silly in these photos. Apologies

Quite a few people attended — we had about 150 people over the course of the night.

Oh yes, the snake wine that a friend brought. This was horrible… pretty much the worst thing I have ever had to drink. Never again!

There was a lot more space this year since we had both the outside, inside, bedroom, and sports room open. The tent on the patio really helped keep everything warm, dry, and toasty!

I wore a floor-length dress from BCBG Max Azaria and coral pink Ferragamo shoes. Needless to say I tripped over myself a couple times

We had a great time!

The cookies were all consumed.

And so was a lot of champagne and tequila! All in all, a very fun night. Thanks to all my friends who came out — it was the best birthday present ever to see you!

One of the things that comes with throwing a party is of course determining what your drink list will be, what will be provided, and what won’t be.

The rabbit hole goes quite deep when it comes to “premium liquors”… for example, there are some who consider Absolut to be good vodka, whereas others swear by Grey Goose, and it goes even deeper to $200, 500, $1000 vodkas etc. The same thing goes for whiskey, tequilas and so on…  But the real question is… is there any difference?

Vodka

When it comes to vodka, there has actually been quite a hot debate for years on whether or not there is actually any taste difference between vodkas. Many groups such as ABC, NY Times etc have done tests where they’ve shown that people cannot differentiate between the different vodkas. However, there are an equal number of other tests, such as this one from Slate, that disagree and say there really is a difference.

What do you think? Is there a difference?

I haven’t tried too many vodkas, but I’d really like to try Chopin and Ciroc. My “go to” favourite is Grey Goose because (as far as my own taste perception goes), it seems to be smoother than others I have tried.

I think most people agree that when it comes to other liquors such as rum, whiskey, tequila, cognac, scotch etc… that there are both subtle and significant taste differences between brands.

Rum

For rum, lately I’ve become quite partial to Zaya Gran Reserva (12 years aged). It’s so smooth and it’s got a really rich, dark taste. I’ve also heard good things about Angostura 1824 and Ron Zacapa rums. What’s your favourite rum?

Tequila

Yes, most people know tequila to be my drink of choice. I’m not sure why… it’s lively, flavourful and always dangerous.

In university, I started out drinking Jose Cuervo… that never let to a good experience in the end. However, in recent years I have fallen in love with fine tequilas. Although I do love Patron, I’ve also taken a liking to 1800 Reposado and Corralejo (and it’s stunning blue bottle). There are so many fantastic tequilas out there… I wish I had access to more!

What are your favourite tequilas?

Other Spirits

I have to admit that I’m not very well versed in other spirits such as whiskey, scotch, cognac, and gin to name a few…

So please help! What are some fine liquors that you like? Do you notice a huge difference?