By: Ria Rueda
Flavored with roots, herbs, barks and dried fruits, bitters are spirits with potent powers. Bitters are to drinks and cocktails as salt is to food. They transform any cocktail from good to great with a dash. “Bitters are perfect for adding layers of flavor and complexity to a drink without adding volume of liquid,” says Wine & Spirits Director, Gretchen Thomas.
At Barcelona, we use a variety of bitters brands to enhance our cocktails such as Peychauds, Bitter Truth, Bittermens, Scrappy’s Bitters and Angostura bitters. The latter is the oldest bitters company in the U.S. dating back to Prohibition.
Our corporate bar manager, Joel Singleton, experiments with making bitters at home. Joel uses two methods and here are his tips for you:
“First select your ingredients. Choosing the highest quality bitter plants, barks, roots and leaves are essential to the process. I selected wormwood and dandelion leaf. Then, I selected a high proof alcohol to help extract the flavoring from the ingredients by speeding up the process. I chose a 100 proof vodka which is a neutral alcohol. Then, I added allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, star anise, and cloves and mixed with the wormwood and dandelion. Fill the container with vodka until all of the ingredients are submerged. Once all of the ingredients were added, I would shake and taste it everyday until I was satisfied with the result.
The second method is called ‘tinctures.’ In the first method, I mixed all of my ingredients whereas in this method, each ingredient is placed in a separate jar. The ingredients I used this time around were wormwood, ginger, sage, milk thistle, orange zest, lime zest and lemon zest. Then, I added the high proof spirit to each jar. Tinctures can be used individually to flavor a cocktail or blended together with a bittering agent to create blended bitters. I prefer this method because it allows me to have more control over the flavor.”
Cheers!
