On your mark, get set, santé!

The Vancouver 2010 Olympic torch relay is off and running. If you're not one of the 12,000 lucky torchbearers who have been selected to hold the flame high as it travels from sea to sea to sea, you can still get a glow on from these medal-worthy cocktails.

Created by the bartenders at YEW Restaurant + Bar in the Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver, these rarefied elixirs use premium spirits and ingredients that are indigenous to the Canadian regions that have hosted Olympic Games past and present.

"When I was asked to make an official Olympic cocktail, I couldn't decide on just one," YEW mixologist Justin Taylor says. "Then it dawned on me: Why not make a round of drinks, one for each city?"

Why not, indeed? As with podium placements, we say the more the merrier.
Gold Vancouver 2010, garnished with B.C. smoked salmon floating on a crisp cucumber slice (the drinks all contain an edible component), tastes like victory. And it smells even better, with intense notes of citrus, juniper and coriander derived from two ounces of Victoria Gin, Canada's first small-batch, craft-distilled gin.

Silver Calgary 1988 is a smoky twist on the Caesar (created by Walter Chell at the Calgary Westin Hotel in 1969) that packs some serious heat. Served in a classic cowboy boot glass and garnished with a buffalo jerky swizzle stick, the drink gets a beefy leg up from chipotle and smoked-buffalo-infused Crystal Head vodka, a recent release from distillery owner Dan Aykroyd that is manufactured in Newfoundland and triple filtered through the polished crystals known as Herkimer diamonds.

But it's the Bronze Montreal 1976 that really tickles our taste buds. With its brûléed sugar egg-foam crust cracked with a fan of apple slices, this surprisingly tart blend of liquid bonhomie evokes memories of ice sheets tearing through the old catastrophe-prone Teflon roof on the city's "Big Owe" Olympic Stadium.

Mixed with first-press maple syrup, tapped in small batches from a single-tree crop, this delectable Canadian whisky sour could bring smile to the face of even the most fervent anti-Olympic protester.

Gold: Vancouver 2010

Ingredients
2 ounces Victoria gin
3/4 ounce lemon juice
4 ounces cane sugar syrup
Good pinch of fresh dill
4 quarter-sized cucumber cubes
1 ounce smoked salmon on a cucumber slice

Method
Muddle fresh dill and cubed cucumber in a Boston mixing glass. Add gin, lemon juice and cane sugar syrup. Fill with ice and shake vigorously. Double strain into a martini glass. Garnish with cucumber and smoked salmon float.
Silver: Calgary 1988

Ingredients
2 ounces chipotle and smoked buffalo infused Crystal Head vodka
3/4 ounce secret spice (mixture of fresh horseradish, BBQ sauce, Tabasco and Worcestershire)
4 ounces Mott's Clamato juice
1 piece buffalo jerky
3/4 ounce Triple Threat celery salt rim (onion, garlic, cracked pepper and celery salt pulverized into a dust)

Method
Rub citrus wedge on rim of a classic boot glass and dip into celery salt mixture. Combine infused vodka, secret spice and Clamato juice in a Boston mixing glass. Fill with ice and shake vigorously. Fill your boot and garnish with jerky swizzle.

Bronze: Montreal 1976

Ingredients
2 ounces Alberta Premium Rye
1 ounce Granny Smith apple juice
1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice
3/4 ounce Quebec maple syrup (L.B. Maple Treat Single Press 2009)
3/4 ounce pasteurized egg white
Cinnamon sugar
Sliced apples
Method
Pour rye whisky, apple juice, lemon juice, maple syrup and egg white into a Boston mixing glass. Fill with ice and shake vigorously. Serve straight up in a chilled coupe. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar on egg-white foam and brûlée the crust. Garnish with sliced apple fan.