Beginning today, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario will broadcast weekly podcasts featuring popular cocktails and demonstrating how to concoct them. ‘This is a new way for us to connect with customers, sharing our expertise and inspiring them at home,’ explains LCBO SVP sales & marketing Bob Downey.

Additional content in the two-minute Hot City Cocktails podspots will include news about various spirit products and new recipes for their use. Toronto’s Martini Club, which worked with the LCBO to source the most popular cocktails from the most popular bars and cities in the world, is co-hosting the two-minute podcast episodes. Free downloads will be accessible online at www.lcbo.com every Thursday for the next month.

The podcasts are just one element in the LCBO’s ‘Hot City Cocktails,’ a one-month promotion in 600 stores across Ontario. There will also be a 48-page brochure with more than 20 new recipes, and over 1,000 tastings and other events across the province. As well, consumers will be introduced to new summer-themed products, with emphasis on what Downey calls ‘the return of the classic cocktail,’ and a celebration of the 150th anniversary of the gin & tonic.