SeanMike Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 Check out the book Bitters: A Spirited History of a Classic Cure-All, with Cocktails, Recipes, and Formulas by Brad Thomas Parsons Just a note on that book... It's a very good book. However, due to a screw up one time at Cocktail Kingdom, my name got attached to their Wormwood Bitters. Greg Boehm (proprietor of Cocktail Kingdom) has no idea how it happened, and last time I talked to him he didn't know who came up with the recipe. But Brad still has me listed in there, with a reference to our blog. Oops! (Funny anecdote related to that: I was with friends at a cocktail bar in Athens, GA. The bartender was being rather condescending towards us, though we all knew quite a bit about cocktails and liquor. Finally, exasperated, I pulled out my driver's license and asked him to bring over the wormwood bitters. When he saw the matching names, he got very apologetic. I responded, "I didn't make them, but I ended up in a situation where my name could be ACCIDENTALLY attached to a line of bitters. Please, don't assume your customers are ignorant.") Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hapatite Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 I love your comment on "don't assume your customers are ignorant!" I think a pisco sour is a great base for many bitters, including rhubarb. I like using smoky bitters in tea based drinks to emulate lapsong tea (or Russian caravan tea). Chocolate or mole bitters surprisingly do well in tiki drinks (found out at needle & thread in Seattle) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaRiv18 Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 Probably the ultimate bitters drink is the Gunshop Fizz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeanMike Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 Probably the ultimate bitters drink is the Gunshop Fizz. For those of you looking for that: http://betacocktails.com/archives/159 (Don note: approximately 1 second delay posting that URL, running Chrome on Windows 7 on my uber-awesome gaming rig.) The predecessors they list to that - the Angostura Fizz and the Trinidad Sour - are both good, too. I would check, though, on the bitters you'd use in variations of this drink. Some bitters (and I'm thinking specifically the Fee's varieties) aren't as good for using as a "base" since they tend to be more chemicals as a base (in my experience, I could be wrong) than just alcohol + tinctures like many of the more "craft" kinds. You may also consider the Pink Gin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KMango Posted June 30, 2013 Share Posted June 30, 2013 *rant rant stompy rant waving hands aroundy rant looking more agitated than i really mean to be rant* My favorite beverage this summer has been iced, inexpensive red wine with a splash of San Pellegrino Blood Orange soda with a dash of Bittermen's Xocolatl Mole bitters. Alas, in a moment of high-regret generosity, I donated my bottle to an admiring, thirsty friend. I've been trying to dodge shipping fees and support local business by replacing it in Alexandria/Arlington. Society Fair, every wine-n-cheese store known to Mango, and my other usual epicure haunts all carry the Burlesque, and many carry the Grapefruit. Alas, my Xocolatl is a no show-latl (ha!). Maybe this is a better topic for Ingredient 911. But I'm not that urgent about it, just intrigued with the popularity of some bitters. (as anthony said to cleopatra) (as he opened a crate of ale) (some bitters are bitter than others) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Choirgirl21 Posted June 30, 2013 Share Posted June 30, 2013 The specialty shop at the end of Union Market across from Gina's Buffalo & Bergen? I know not VA, but it's worth a trip up there anyway. Check first. I'm pretty sure I've seen them carry Bitterman's but I couldn't be certain, especially about that specific one. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lperry Posted June 30, 2013 Share Posted June 30, 2013 I'm pretty certain I got this idea from someone on this board a while back, but contacting the distributor worked the last time I was looking for something. They can tell you who is carrying which varieties, then you can make a few phone calls and head out to buy it. Alternatively, Fee's makes a chocolate bitters, or you could buy some cacao nibs and whip up a batch of your own. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeanMike Posted June 30, 2013 Share Posted June 30, 2013 Just a head's up: Scrappy's makes a chocolate bitters, but they are not as spicy as the Bitterman's. They are more like bittersweet baking chocolate. Have you tried Ace? Joe can maybe order them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saf Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 So, the boy here is getting creative and going to make some bitters. But we're having trouble finding some of the ingredients - the co-op doesn't have them. Yes! doesn't have them. Penzey's doesn't have them. Anyone know where to find things like gentian root locally, or do we need to go the mail order route? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Deb Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 I used to make soap and bought some of my ingredients at Smile Herb Shop in College Park. You can give them a call. Maybe they can even special order it for you. http://www.smileherb.biz If you go out that way, check out The Jerk Pit at Rt. 1 and University Blvd, just north of campus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weezy Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 I'd say call the local health food stores. I know I've seen it within the herbal remedies area and also as tea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saf Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 I'd say call the local health food stores. I know I've seen it within the herbal remedies area and also as tea. Both Yes! and the TPSS co-op only have it as a tincture, and we need the actual root. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrXmus Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 I think mail order is your best bet for cinchona and gentian. Most of the cinchona bark from health food stores is in powder form. From what I understand, you'd much rather use the bark chunks because filtering is almost impossible using the powder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saf Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 I think mail order We did a lot of searching, and indeed, that is what we have done. Can't get some of these things locally. There are multiple places in the Pacific northwest though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonRocks Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 So, the boy here is getting creative and going to make some bitters. But we're having trouble finding some of the ingredients - the co-op doesn't have them. Yes! doesn't have them. Penzey's doesn't have them. Anyone know where to find things like gentian root locally, or do we need to go the mail order route? I would take this question straight to Derek, Todd, Adam, etc. There are a lot of bartenders on this website, but these three are known to fiddle with bitters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeanMike Posted July 22, 2014 Share Posted July 22, 2014 We did a lot of searching, and indeed, that is what we have done. Can't get some of these things locally. There are multiple places in the Pacific northwest though! Yeah, I ordered from Tenzing Momo when making my amer picon replica, and I think that's where Marshall got his stuff, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonRocks Posted July 25, 2018 Share Posted July 25, 2018 25 minutes ago, funkyfood said: Yes, sorry. Lukas is an avowed bitters fan and opened a bitters bar pop up below Smoke n Barrel last year but the setting and client base didn't really seem to work I guess I could look this up, but then again, I guess I could look most things up. What, exactly, are bitters? Is there a proper definition? (For me, they've always been like the loose-legal definition of "porn" - you know it when you see it, but I'm wondering if there's something more rigid than this.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funkyfood Posted July 25, 2018 Share Posted July 25, 2018 In my mind, bitters are high-proof, bitter alcohols used to add certain flavors to cocktails. Bitters bars, however, serve, generally, bitter cocktails, without citrus. I learned recently that amaro has no set definition, but people usually think an amaro must have 3 things: 1. 25-40 ingredients, 2. be bitter, 3. macerate at room temperature (as opposed to in heat or chill--which would make it a different type of liqueur whose name escapes me) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonRocks Posted July 25, 2018 Share Posted July 25, 2018 2 minutes ago, funkyfood said: In my mind, bitters are high-proof, bitter alcohols used to add certain flavors to cocktails. So Campari is not a bitter proper? How many bitters bars are there on Earth? I've never heard of such a thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funkyfood Posted July 25, 2018 Share Posted July 25, 2018 To my mind, Campari is an amaro or a bitter liqueur. "Bitters" to me (and I'm not sure) implies something like Angostura Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonRocks Posted July 25, 2018 Share Posted July 25, 2018 5 minutes ago, funkyfood said: To my mind, Campari is an amaro or a bitter liqueur. "Bitters" to me (and I'm not sure) implies something like Angostura I wonder if DC can support such a specialized bar - Chantal's Sherry bar (Mockingbird Hill) was a wonderful place to get Sherry and Jamón, but I wonder if it never got the necessary support to survive. I know there were other issues with that trilogy of bars, but they really brought some character to that block - I wonder if places that specific could only thrive in a densely populated city such as New York. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funkyfood Posted July 25, 2018 Share Posted July 25, 2018 I tend to agree Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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