Premium Quartz Vodka - Crafted by Canada

In the midst of the barren wilderness and harsh climate of Quebec’s Far North, a new elixir was born. Ultra premium Quartz vodka offers the highest level of purity, as it is made entirely from water naturally filtered for 8,000 years, one of the world's purest water sources, used to bottle ESKA water. Nothing was overlooked: Quartz is micro-distilled 5 times and then micro-filtered to offer an incomparable subtlety that will bring your cocktails to a level of refinement and versality rarely attained! An incarnation of the strength, beauty and purity of Quebec nature. 

If James Bond had come to Quebec, he would have asked for his Vesper Martini with Quartz vodka!  

Rum lovers, here’s something new for you made right here in Quebec. Distilled with a traditional pot still, Chic Choc spiced rum is an amber nectar that will give a lot of personality to your cocktails thanks to its homegrown spices from the Chic-Choc mountains. With dreamy names such as lovage root and wild angelica, these spices add a Nordic touch to the rum’s sugar cane and cinnamon nuances. A match made in heaven, with a more rounded mouth feel than many imported agricultural spiced rums!

Just in time for the holidays, a gift box is available at the SAQ and the Ungava Spirits boutique that includes a bottle of Chic Choc rum, a tuque and two branded glasses in enamelled tinplate. A perfect gift for anyone heading out hunting or to the cottage... or just to warm up after snow removal! 

Thé blanc Alain Ducasse
For the first time in its 150-year history, Kusmi Tea is introducing a white tea, teaming up with Ducasse himself to release Le thé blanc Alain Ducasse, a tea that, the company says, is worthy of "the master of taste."

Though Kusmi made it through multiple world wars and ownership changes since 1867, it somehow never managed to release a single white tea. Perhaps Kusmi was just waiting for the right collaborator to create a white tea, whose "sprouts and buds are picked by hand just once each year in the springtime, making the tea all the more precious." Kusmi's "owner and nose" Sylvain Orebi and Ducasse worked to created a recipe that incorporates notes of raspberry and rose.

Since white tea undergoes the least alteration from its initial plant state of all tea types, Kusmi says it symbolizes purity, and to match the purity and refinement, Le thé blanc Alain Ducasse is packaged in an immaculate handsome white canister created by Paul Lagache, whose thousands of diamond-like facets complement the precious new tea. A tea cup is also available with the tea canister in a gift box for Holidays.

Does your sister like getting together with friends for happy hour? Does your husband or father like to play Mr. Cocktail? Give them an assortment of Bonne Maman Intense jams and print out this recipe file: four intense fruity cocktails to discover. One of them might just become your signature New Year's Eve drink - before the midnight bubbly! We've even added an intense martini for your New Year's brunch. 

For homemade Christmas treats, Gourmetpedia suggests:

• Orangettes / Chocolate orange peel from Switzerland
• Chocolate Mendiants from Provence
• Rumkugeln - Rum and walnut balls from Austria

Or a sweet memory like

• Sucre à la crème
• Chocolate fudge - basic recipe to personnalize