bitters based cocktails

I admit it, I love bitters! I do enjoy malort, and I think absinthe is basically a cocktail in a bottle! I am also more than a bit fed up with the sugar focused cocktails which dominate. I also think bitter cocktails go better with food than sweet ones. Like hoppy beers, or even better than, bitter cocktails make you want to take the next bite, cleansing the palate and stimulating the taste buds to amplify the flavors of the food you're eating. Total LTH material.

Anyhow... Something I've been doing for a while is creating cocktails at home which revolve around the bitters, rather than simply using bitters to supplement other liquors, and I've been enjoying them immensely! I previously thought I was doing something completely wrong, or totally avant garde, until I googled it. Of course, google can validate just about anything dirty hobby these days.

I'd like to open up the topic. Let's create some of our own bitters based cocktails and share! Bitter fans unite!

Here is my opening recipe, not my favorite or anything, but it's quite bitter and I figured I'd start off with one of my more intense concoctions. It's also just what I'm drinking at the moment while I'm procrastinating some video editing work I should be getting done (yes, at 2:30am).

1 part regan's orange bitters
1 part north shore modern gin #6
1/2 part north shore absinthe (this shit is awesome, and I've tried a many types of absinthe)
1/2 part of your favorite orange flavor liquor
Stir over a chunk of ice.

I also love bitters, and bitter leaning cocktails. I suggest getting to Scofflaw and talking to Danny. I was there on Saturday and asked for a Bitter Sour, type of drink and it just happened he is working on an entire line of these style drinks. I think we ended up tasting 5 of his creations and loved each more than the one before it. Also there is Malort on tap if the cocktails don't scratch the itch.

Thank's for bringing up the topic.

Regards,

Bourbon

Angostura Sour (Charles H. Baker)
1 1⁄2 oz Angostura Bitters
1 oz Lime juice
1 oz Simple syrup
1 Egg white
Dry shake, add ice, shake, strain, up.

Trinidad Sour (Giuseppe Gonzalez, Clover Club/Dutch Kills/PKNY/etc)
1 oz Angostura bitters
1 oz orgeat
3/4 oz fresh lemon juice
1/2 oz Rittenhouse 100-proof rye (can sub Wild Turkey 101)
Combine in a cocktail shaker and shake well with ice. Strain into chilled coupe, and stand back.

Don's Little Bitter (Don Lee, PDT)
1 oz Rum, Barbancourt (8 yr)
1⁄2 oz Fernet Branca
1⁄2 oz Lemon juice
1⁄2 oz Simple syrup
1⁄4 oz Bitters, Angostura
1⁄8 oz Peychaud's Bitters
1⁄8 oz Orange bitters, Angostura orange
Shake with ice and double strain into a coupe glass.

Gunshop Fizz (Kirk and Maks of Beta Cocktails)
2 oz Peychaud's Bitters
1 oz Lemon juice
1⁄2 oz Simple syrup
3 slices Cucumber
2 Strawberry
3 twst Orange peel (wide swaths)
3 twst Grapefruit peel (wide swaths)
1 oz Sanbitter soda
1 sli Cucumber (as garnish)
Muddle all but Sanbitter for 2 minutes to allow flavors to meld. Add ice, shake, strain, collins glass. Garnish.

Some of my favorite drinks involving significant quantities of bitters (both potable & non)...

Fernet Flip (Ira Koplowitz)

1 1/2 ounces Fernet Branca
1 1/2 ounces Carpano Antica Formula
2 dashes bitters (Angostura, but something like Chocolate/Mole is great, too.)
1 dash Demerara syrup (If you're reading this thread, feel free to omit.)
1 whole egg

2 Cups of Blood (Tonia Guffey)

3/4 ounce Mezcal Vida
3/4 ounce Suze (or other Gentian liqueur)
3/4 ounce Punt e Mes
3/4 ounce Bittermens Xocolatl Mole Bitters
Grapefruit twist garnish

Peychaud's Sour (Ira Koplowitz)

1 ounce Peychaud's Bitters
1 ounce St. George Absinthe
.75 ounce lemon juice
.5 ounce simple syrup
1 egg white
Lemon twist garnish

Unnamed Flip (Troy Sidle)

2 ounces Rittenhouse BIB
3/4 ounce Angostura Bitters
1/2 ounce Blis Bourbon Barrel Matured Maple syrup
1/4 ounce Demerara syrup (again, you might want to omit this if you're looking for something more bitter)
1 whole egg
Fresh Nutmeg garnish

Campari Martini (Maks Pazuniak)

3 ounces Campari
Dash Saline (3 parts water to 1 part salt)
Orange twist garnish

Eeyor's Requiem (Toby Maloney)

1 1/2 ounces Campari
1 ounce Dolin Blanc
1/2 ounce Tanqueray
1/4 ounce Cynar
1/4 ounce Fernet
15 drops Orange bitters (50/50 Fee's & Regan's)
Heavy Orange Oil garnish (3+ peels)

kl1191 wrote:Eeyor's Requiem (Toby Maloney)

1 1/2 ounces Campari
1 ounce Dolin Blanc
1/2 ounce Tanqueray
1/4 ounce Cynar
1/4 ounce Fernet
15 drops Orange bitters (50/50 Fee's & Regan's)
Heavy Orange Oil garnish (3+ peels)

One of my all-time favorite drinks--thanks so much for the recipe!!

Not a huge bitters fan, but you might want to check out Balena, which has a mostly bitters-based cocktail menu, with the drinks ordered by degree of bitters-ness.

I made the Angostura Sour the other night.

It was a great drink! I gave one to Teresa without telling her what it was, and her reaction was "wow, is that a chai flavored cocktail?" The spices in the Angostura really come forward with the egg white, not to mention it makes a beautiful color. I did not find it to be too bitter at all, thought Teresa did ask for it with a bit more simple syrup on the second one.

laikom wrote:The spices in the Angostura really come forward with the egg white, not to mention it makes a beautiful color.

Agreed. The color you get from significant measures of Angostura is a nice added benefit. You get the same effect on the flip w/ rye & maple that I mentioned above.

Thought I'd ask the experts here about the Negroni.

Had one a few weeks ago at The Violet Hour, and it was spectacular. On the menu it states "Tangueray, Cocchi di Torino, homemade bitters, orange flower water". I thought, how hard can THIS be to make? So I looked up the recipe and it said '1 part gin, 1 part Campari, 1 part vermouth'. I did exactly that, using Tangueray, Martini & Rossi sweet vermouth & Campari. It was beyond nasty, not even a poor replica of the cocktail at the VH. And tweaking the ratios didn't help in the least.

I know the Negroni's been discussed in previous threads, but anybody here have some tips towards the proportions/ingredients needed to come close to what I tasted?

jnm123 wrote:Thought I'd ask the experts here about the Negroni.

Had one a few weeks ago at The Violet Hour, and it was spectacular. On the menu it states "Tangueray, Cocchi di Torino, homemade bitters, orange flower water". I thought, how hard can THIS be to make? So I looked up the recipe and it said '1 part gin, 1 part Campari, 1 part vermouth'. I did exactly that, using Tangueray, Martini & Rossi sweet vermouth & Campari. It was beyond nasty, not even a poor replica of the cocktail at the VH. And tweaking the ratios didn't help in the least.

I know the Negroni's been discussed in previous threads, but anybody here have some tips towards the proportions/ingredients needed to come close to what I tasted?

Not sure if they are still making it to Toby's specs, but here is the recipe he posted for the original "Maloney Negroni" on this thread:

MALONEY NEGRONI
Riff on classic Negroni, more of a drinker's Negroni.
.5 ounce Campari
1 ounce Carpano Anitica Forumula Vermouth
3 ounces gin, bold juniper and citrus
11 drops orange bitters, just shy of 3 dashes

So the answer may be: (a) play with the proportions (I tend to not be as aggressive with the gin as in the above, and go 2:1:1 gin to vermouth to campari); (b) use better vermouth (if not Carpano, try Dolin Rouge or maybe Punt e Mes if you want to up the bitter quotient); and (c) try adding some orange bitters.

I'm a big fan of bitter cocktails too. I really like the angostura fizz and eeyore's requiem listed above. Here are a few of my other go-tos.

Hard Sell (from Brad Bolt, Bar DeVille)
3/4 oz each Malort, St Germain, gin and lemon juice
shake and squeeze a twist of grapefruit over the glass

Cynar Flip
3 oz Cynar
1 whole egg

If I'm feeling really lazy, a 50/50 mix of Averna and bourbon (usually Makers 46) neat or on the rocks is quite good too.

eli wrote:
If I'm feeling really lazy, a 50/50 mix of Averna and bourbon (usually Makers 46) neat or on the rocks is quite good too.

I'm a big Averna fan too--I made a (much needed) drink last night that consisted of:

3oz bourbon
1oz Averna
.5 oz Amer Picon
a few shakes of Attrill's arugula bitters (lovely to add but won't compromise the drink if you don't have them )
Stirred and poured over ice and garnished with 2 homemade bourbon cherries and a sprig of thyme.

I think I'm on my way home to make another. Bad week. Hope this makes someone else's better!!