Cloud Lily
- ¾ oz Empress 1908 Indigo Gin
- ¾ oz Violet Liqueur
- ¾ oz Triple Sec
- ¾ oz Lemon Juice
- 1 Egg White (or vegan alternative)
- Dry shake for 10-20 seconds, then again with a rock of ice for 20-30 seconds, double-strain into a coupe
- Garnish with lemon zest
Happy Friday, friends!
Today’s cocktail was inspired by a bottle of gin gifted to me from some new friends through the Kelowna Newcomers Club. I’ve written about this club on several occasions now, as it’s become our main anchor while my wife continues to search for work and I wait for a decision on my application for Permanent Residency in Canada.
The bottle in question comes from Victoria Distillers, located in Victoria, the provincial capital of British Columbia.
This week’s cocktail features their flagship spirit–Empress 1908 Indigo Gin–inspired by the legendary Fairmont Empress Hotel in Victoria. In addition to traditional gin botanicals, it’s infused with a blend of black tea served during the hotel’s famous “High Tea,” along with butterfly pea blossom, an herb that gives the gin its signature indigo color. It’s a staple of modern Canadian spirits, and yet it’s one bottle I hadn’t yet welcomed into my home bar.
In thanks, I’m serving up a Cloud Lily this week.
I had originally set out to create a new, original cocktail with this gifted bottle. But between my usual draw toward amaro and the constraints of time, I realized that–like Occam’s Razor suggests–sometimes the simplest solution is the best. In this case, that solution is the Cloud Lily, a crisp, floral‑forward sour that feels just right.
Empress 1908 Indigo Gin provides an earthy base from the butterfly pea blossoms and the Fairmont Empress House Tea blend, with a bright backbone of citrus from grapefruit peel. Those notes glide seamlessly into Cointreau, whose clean orange expression softens the sweetness and adds a subtle bitter lift. Delicate floral touches of rose petal and warm spice round out the gin’s profile, playing beautifully with the eternal purple haze of the violet liqueur.
In this case, that liqueur is Giffard’s Crème de Violette, a bright, deep garnet‑colored spirit that carries an intense floral aroma of violet petals, rose, and a hint of earthiness–a natural partner for Empress 1908 Indigo Gin. On the palate, it’s sweet, smooth, and velvety, with flavors of fresh violet, lavender, and a faint hint of anise.
Those two primary ingredients are brightened by triple sec–here, Cointreau–and fresh lemon juice. I’ve used Cointreau in place of generic triple sec before in the Moon River on Flavor Notes, and I’m doing the same here. In this Cloud Lily, as in that earlier build, Cointreau delivers a clean, bright orange flavor that balances sweetness with a gentle bitter note, bridging the gap between fruit and citrus in a way that feels both modern and classic.
The violet aroma greets your nose first as you bring the glass to your lips. The foamy egg‑white layer settles lightly on your upper lip, then the fresh lemon juice announces itself at the front of your palate. The sharpness of the citrus is cushioned gently by the egg white, and quickly gives way to the sweetness of the Cointreau. The velvety Crème de Violette wraps itself around that citrus sweetness as the sip moves across the mid‑palate. All the while, the earthiness of the tea and the botanicals in the gin provide a quiet, steady foundation, never veering into perfume‑overload, and leaving you with a softly savory finish.
As the fruit trees blossom in the orchards, the floral, citrus, and earthy notes of this Cloud Lily feel like a quiet ode to spring in the lush, agricultural Okanagan Valley.
With this week’s Cloud Lily in hand, I find myself thinking about the week that was.
Earlier this week, we received an update from our local Member of Parliament’s office regarding the status of my Spousal‑Sponsored Permanent Residency application. In Canada, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) handles all such applications, and only provides updates to Members of Parliament. Because my experience seemed to stall shortly after I received an Acknowledgement of Receipt–which is usually followed quickly by a request to submit biometrics, a step that has not yet arrived in my case–our immigration lawyer reached out on my behalf.
While the update itself wasn’t particularly illuminating, the MP’s office did invite us to follow up again in one month’s time if there’s still no visible progress on my file.
For context, we submitted my application in September 2025.
In my lawyer’s experience, this process would typically have concluded by now. But, as he gently reminded me, we’re not living in particularly “normal” times. To manage the flow of Permanent Residents coming into Canada after the high‑volume years of 2021–2024, IRCC’s 2026–2028 Immigration Levels Plan now prioritizes skilled workers with experience in Technology, Healthcare, and STEM over some other streams.
During this waiting period, I’ve come to accept that the prospect of stable employment–whether in the US or in Canada–is unlikely for the foreseeable future. In my conversations with employers and in‑house recruiters, it’s become clear that:
- Canadian companies generally cannot hire me until I have status.
- US companies with any international footprint, especially those operating in Canada, are equally constrained by the same rules.
- US companies without an international presence usually don’t have the bandwidth or legal resources to navigate the question of whether they can hire someone abroad.
Unlike some, I’m not willing to sidestep these boundaries by using a VPN or a PO‑box address to make it appear as though my work originates from the US. That kind of workaround feels at odds with the integrity and transparency I try to bring to both my work and this blog.
So, in the meantime, I’ve been leaning into whatever contracting work comes my way, as well as exploring opportunities outside my usual career wheelhouse that feel exciting and sustainable. Cocktails & spirits tasting has become one of those outlets–a way to stay creative, connect with people, and build something that feels like a coherent piece of my life, even while the bigger pieces remain in flux.
I’ve also been focusing on building our own community here in Kelowna through our activities with the Kelowna Newcomers Club–a space that’s become both a social anchor and a small, tangible way of putting down roots in this new place.
That brings me to a recent dinner party we hosted, where our guests gifted me this bottle of Empress 1908 Indigo Gin, the inspiration for this post. While bringing a bottle to a dinner party is a common gesture of hospitality, the fact that these friends took the time to choose a local BC spirit for the guy with a home bar stacked full of bottles–and who writes a cocktail blog–was genuinely touching.
Even more meaningful was that it was a local BC bottle I hadn’t yet added to my bar. That kind of thoughtful, intentional gift feels like a quiet vote of confidence in the person I’m becoming here.
So while the world is giving us lemons, I raise this Cloud Lily to the new friends who’ve shown me how to make not just lemonade, but Limoncello from our current reality. When settling into a new home provides its own legal hurdles and long waiting periods, it’s often the friends we make along the way that see us through to the finish line.
Cheers! 🍁💜🦋
