Crystal Manhattan
- 2 oz 1800 Cristalino
- ½ oz Blanc vermouth
- Dsh Walnut N’ Spice bitters
- Stir ingredients in ice for 20-30 seconds, serve neat in a coupe
- Garnish with a grapefruit twist
Happy Friday, friends!
Last summer my family relocated to Kelowna, British Columbia, to be closer to my wife’s family–she was born and raised here. Without jobs or kids in school to plug us into community, we leaned hard into the Kelowna Newcomers Club to start building our own.
I jumped in to lead a weekly bicycle ride and to launch a monthly Cocktails & Spirits tasting series. Last month I wrote about our visit to Okanagan Spirits and the Fintry Old Fashioned.
Last night marked our second event of the year: a tequila-focused tasting at award-winning Cantina del Centro. And they created a signature cocktail exclusively for our Club.
Say hello to the Crystal Manhattan.
I’ve enjoyed Don Julio Añejo for decades and margaritas even longer. But this tasting was my first encounter with the cristalino category–specifically 1800 Cristalino.
Cristalino is aged tequila that undergoes charcoal filtration to remove its color while preserving its complexity. In this case, 1800 ages its añejo for 16 months in new American and French oak barrels. The blended spirit is then finished an additional six months in port wine casks before filtration.
The result? A crystal-clear tequila with the structure and depth of an añejo–oak, vanilla, caramel–but with the visual clarity of a blanco. The port finish lends a subtle sweetness that makes it dangerously approachable.
Of the six tequilas we tasted across the category spectrum, this was one of my favorites.
I’ve always been a sucker for subtly sweet spirits.
Where a classic Manhattan marries brown whiskey to brown sweet vermouth, this version pairs a clear cristalino tequila with Dolin Blanc vermouth–the original “white” vermouth from Chambéry, France.
Dolin Blanc is built on Ugni Blanc wine and infused with more than 30 alpine botanicals. It’s lightly sweet, floral, and balanced by crisp acidity. Notes of elderflower, almond, peach, and candied fruit glide across the palate.
It’s one of the few vermouths I genuinely enjoy sipping on its own.
In the Crystal Manhattan, its silkiness complements the tequila’s sweetness without muddying the drink–either visually or structurally.
To finish the cocktail, the Cantina used Walnut N’ Spice bitters from Born to Shake, a local cocktail supply shop and bar we’ll be visiting later this year.
The bitters bring walnut, anise, and sour cherry into the mix–amplifying the barrel notes of the tequila and adding depth without darkening the drink. Even the bitters respect the “crystal” theme.
The grapefruit twist lifts the nose with bright citrus before the tequila and blanc vermouth unfold in tandem across the palate.
Mid-sip, the oak and port sweetness from the tequila intertwine with the floral botanicals of the vermouth. At the back of the palate, the walnut bitters step forward to frame the finish with gentle bitterness and spice.
Cold. Clear. Composed.
Where a Martini’s clarity signals dryness and austerity, the Crystal Manhattan flips the script: visually austere, but sweet, floral, and layered.
It drinks like a Canadian winter–beautifully transparent, quietly complex, and colder than you expect.
This Cantina visit marked the second installment of our Cocktails & Spirits Tasting series for the Kelowna Newcomers Club–and designing it has been one of the most energizing creative projects I’ve taken on.
Kelowna may be known for wine and breweries, but it also boasts three significant distilleries and more than a dozen serious cocktail bars. There are spirit-specific groups like the Kelowna Scotch & Fine Spirits Society and the Okanagan Whisky Enthusiasts.
The infrastructure is here. The appetite is here.
My role has been to connect the dots.
For this tequila evening, I worked with Cantina’s restaurant manager, bar manager, and an exceptional bartender to design a tasting that told the story of tequila’s evolution–and reclaimed the category for those who’d sworn it off after youthful mistakes.
The lineup:
El Tesoro Blanco – Blue Weber agave in its purest, most youthful form.
Siempre Reposado – Canadian-owned, Jalisco-produced; 2–4 months in American oak bringing vanilla softness.
Tierra Noble Añejo – Highlands agave, dual fermentations with wine yeasts, 24–30 months in new American and French oak.
Jose Cuervo Reserva – Extra añejo heritage; over 200 years of legacy. The unanimous table favorite.
Don Fulano Overproof – Barrel-strength intensity with raspberry and cinnamon brightness.
1800 Cristalino – The modern evolution: aged, filtered, clarified.
From agave field to barrel room to filtration column, we walked through the state of Jalisco in six pours.
And then the Crystal Manhattan tied it all together.
What excites me most isn’t just the spirits. It’s the architecture of the experience. Identifying a problem–“I don’t like tequila”–and designing a journey that reframes it.
Bringing people together around a table. Collaborating with experts to create something unique to a moment and a community.
It’s the same impulse that drove my career in market and customer insights: listen deeply, synthesize patterns, design better outcomes.
Only now the output is a cocktail instead of a PowerPoint deck.
With just two events under my belt, I can already tell this series has staying power. Whether it remains a side project or evolves into something larger once I’m fully able to work here in Canada, I don’t yet know.
But I know this: it feels like alignment.
So whether you find yourself at one of our tasting events or stirring something thoughtful at home, I raise a coupe of a Crystal Manhattan to creative collaboration–and to building community in unexpected ways.
Cheers. 🍁🍸💖
