BittermensAG

Chris, I don't want to say anything negative about the folks at The Bitter Truth at all, but we're extremely happy to have taken our recipes back. Finding a production partner last year was a necessity, predominantly brought about by the fact that I had accepted a position overseas that made producing the bitters ourselves impossible. So, we accepted some changes - we modified the formulas to work with the ingredients, equipment and processes that they had access to - and we accepted that the bitters would be coming into the US as a potable product and being sold through liquor stores. However, thanks to the crappy economy, followed by a layoff and repatriation, we were lucky enough to be in a position where we could take control back and start producing ourselves. It feels great to be hands-on with the production again, though filling and labeling over a thousand bottles over a weekend really takes its toll. We restored everything back to the way it originally was - from the formulas to the cobalt blue bottles and even to the non-potable status. The biggest change was getting the commercial kitchen space from the fine folks at Taza Chocolate (and switching to their nibs which just work so well in the Xocolatl Mole) so that we could be legal to produce and sell. We've also been able to introduce the 'Elemakule Tiki Bitters and the Boston Bittahs, two flavors that we had regretted never being able to get to market. In the next few weeks, our first non-bitter product should be getting ready to hit the shelves: the Chocolate Mexicano Extract, which we're making for Taza Chocolate. It's designed for chefs and bakers, but it does a fine job replacing or supplementing Creme de Cacao in Alexanders and 20th Centuries. There's even a new product that we've submitted to the TTB for non-potable formulation review, but you'll have to wait a little bit before we can talk about it! The great thing is that because we're non-potable, our products can ship to any state and to most countries. We also have East Coast and West Coast distribution and are even trying to make headway into getting our products available in Europe and Asia. It's a full time job on top of our full time jobs - but as Adam said, all small batch bitters producers do it because we love the cocktail world - and if our bitters help bartenders make a drink that they could have never made before, then that means we're successful.

Since they're a bit oversized to handle the liter bottles... take the canisters, throw a few packing peanuts in the bottom and a little bubble wrap and bring them when you travel. If you find a bottle you want to lug back in your suitcase, use the bubble wrap, put it in the canister and you've got a little armored shipping container.

The first is Ron Cacique - Tasting notes are available here: http://www.ministryofrum.com/rumdetails.php?r=292 The second looks like Mekhong from Thailand. They call it whiskey, but it's more of a herbal rum. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mekhong_whiskey Hope this helps.

If you have one night, do the Notting Hill Run: Trailer Happiness, Portobello Star, Montgomery Place and the Lonsdale. If you have a second day, add in the Connaught Hotel (warning, it's pricey) and 69 Colebrooke Row (warning, reservation needed). Don't forget to hit Gerry's Wines and Spirits on the way out of town for bottles to take home.

Though it's hard to find real tiger nut Horchata outside of Spain - it makes a very interesting substitute for Orgeat. I guess it should have been obvious for me to try it as Horchata is probably the root beverage that became Orgeat and Orzata as it moved throughout Europe (it's even called Orxata I think in Catalan) - same process of making a stable nut milk, just using an easier to find nut! Nice earthy tones - plays very well with dark rums and really takes to pimento dram.

Leslie, Interesting idea, but I see what you're saying - that there's not enough contrast between the cold and hot components... though I think you were saying that there isn't enough contrast from a temperature perspective and I'm thinking that you might want to consider making the flavors of each layer a bit more distinct. Having specific flavors at the different layers will fool the mind into perceiving more of a temperature contrast. My initial thought is that the idea is solid - but maybe I'd take it a little farther into the experimental side and basically build two complimentary cocktails that get served together where you're using the St. Germain as the common bond. Maybe keep the cold side exactly the way you described and then for the warm side, go a little more acidic/sour - the first thing that pops to mind is a pisco sour. Try lemon, pisco, egg whites, maybe a little gelatin to help it hold as a layer a bit better and a smaller amount of St. Germain for the sweetness and floral notes (which should play nice with the pisco. Since all of the primary flavors work well together (Pisco-Gin, Pisco-Tonic, Pisco-Lemon, Gin-Lemon, Gin-Tonic), it should work both as the layers stay separate as well as once they start to blend together. The end result would be a St. Germain-ed Gin & Tonic meeting with a St. Germain-ed Pisco Sour. Good Luck! - Avery PS: One thought - maybe I would use pasteurized egg whites in the top half or pull the egg whites out and use a little pineapple juice and more gelatin for the foamy texture (and the flavors still work) if I was doing this in a bar setting, just because holding egg whites at this temperature could be a little problematic from a food safety perspective. Plus, it should hold stable at higher temperatures for longer.

Oh, and just to clarify - I wasn't at all trying to insinuate that the process I was describing was the process that Fee Brothers uses. I was just describing a worst case scenario of how glycerin can be used by an unscrupulous producer of bitters or liqueurs to make a cheap product.

Samuel - I bow to your significantly more comprehensive knowledge of food chemistry! I'd edit my post to correct the mis-statement, but damn - that's a great response you have there and wouldn't want it to be out of context! Still, food or not, I really prefer not to consume glycerin if I don't have to...

Glycerin isn't a replacement or supplement for the Alcohol. The Neutral Grain Spirits (or other alcohol used by bitters makers) act as a solvent, liberating essential oils from the herbs/peels/spices. Glycerin doesn't have any real solvent qualities for it, so it's not useful for pulling flavors out. Glycerin in itself is just a texturizing agent, it's a little sweet, but not enough that you would use it as a primary sweetener. What it does do very well is trap oils and other volatile compounds. It also prevents louching, which is a big problem when you add alot of oil into an alcohol/water solution. The problem is this - Glycerin isn't food. It's a chemical additive - typically a byproduct of soap making used as a humectant (keeps things moist/wet) and a partial preservative. It makes things feel artificially smooth, rich and syrupy. If you're looking to make a very inexpensive bitter, very quickly, you can simply purchase essential oils, tinctures and artificial flavors, add some pure alcohol to bring the volatile aromatics out more into the solution, then add water to stretch the small amount of oils to reduce the cost, and then add in glycerin to stabilize and trap the flavors. The end result is that you can use significantly smaller amounts of the expensive essential oils/tinctures and still have something that resembles a classically-made bitter. Using this method, you don't need to do any aging. Just mix it up and it'll stay together. - but it tends to result in products that are thin in flavor and lack the complexity that comes with using whole herbs, spices, peels and essential oils and letting them mature together over the period of weeks. So, you can come to your own conclusions. For me, I try to avoid liquors, liqueurs and bitters that use glycerin. It just isn't necessary. With that said, I do have a few different Fee's in the house. I quite like the NY standard of Fee's Orange/Regans Orange done 50/50 - and the barrel aged works well in many drinks. Just on one other small note - I was cracking a little joke at Joe's (Fee) expense. Karmically, he owes us a couple after copying paying tribute with his "Aztec Chocolate" Get to know people a little before naturally assuming they're just snarky a-holes (though in my case, I'm not sure that would be far off)! That and a couple of good tiki drinks will keep you from getting high blood pressure over things like bitters conversations on eGullet

I know this is going to sound horribly petty - but the best way to avoid this situation is just not to purchase bitters that contain glycerin (or artificial flavors).

Ah - it's very cool that Kalustyan's has the Xocolatl Mole and Grapefruit... we're starting to get into retail worldwide!

Gin - Beefeater Rye - Rittenhouse Bottled in Bond Applejack - Laird's Bonded Rum - Ron Mulata Anejo (or Flor de Cana 7) Luzardo Maraschino Campari Siembra Azul Tequila Blanco Angostura Bitters La Guita Manzanilla Sherry Punt e Mes The sherry and Punt e Mes may seem a little strange - but unless you're going through alot of vermouth, I like using these as they're a bit more shelf stable. I use the Manzanilla in place of dry vermouth with very interesting results, and the Punt e Mes is a nice replacement for sweet vermouth. - Avery

I put in a vote for Balear in Madrid - amazing rice there.

Rereading the topic and thinking about those tinctures, I don't think I quite understand this. I certainly want my bitters to be bitter. Am I missing something? ← Nope. You're not missing anything in my book. If it's not bitter and especially if it's just based on a single flavor, then it's a tincture. There's nothing wrong with a tincture. From an ATF perspective, cocktail bitters and tinctures all fall under the "Flavoring" category. The problem is that the media and laymen have mistakenly called these tinctures bitters and now people call anything you add to a cocktail in drops or dashes a bitter.

In Madrid, my typical places for cocktails are: Del Diego - Fernando del Diego is a great old-school bartender and feel free to go off menu with him - describing a preferred spirit and style Bar Cock - A little more scene and style, but it's still worth seeing. They make a solid cocktail - but get crowded and it's more difficult to go off menu with them. La Terrasca - a great tequila joint with very good sangrita and fantastic tropical drinks For specialty bars: La Venecia for Sherry Mercado de la Reina and Bristol Bar for gin-tonic specialty bars Te Deum for a great selection of beers Ambigu 16 for a wide selection of rum - but not a cocktail joint Bora Bora - Haven't checked it out myself, but it's supposed to be a good tiki bar

Correct. If you're hammering a nail, even if you hit it a thousand times, if you don't hit it with enough strength, it'll never be driven in.

Just from personal experience, I'm not a fan of the "blending of tinctures" approach. I've played with taking recipes we use here and doing it as a series of blended tinctures and it just seemed the flavors were very separated, not as cohesive. I think it has to do with how the essential oils interact as they're being extracted from the herbs and spices. I consider bitters making like making a stew. If you were going to make a beef stew and took the potatoes, carrots, beef, herbs and other ingredients, cooked them all separately and then put it in a bowl to serve, each individual part may taste good, but it wouldn't really taste like stew. It's a personal philosophy. Some gin makers take base spirit and tinctures and blend before bottling. Some make a "tea" of all of the spices and distill together. I'm not going to say one is right or wrong, but I think that if you're just going to mix a series of tinctures to make a bitter - why not go the Pegu Club route and just add the individual tinctures you want at the time you make the cocktail?

My only warning is about the use of the Yohimbe, as the active chemical in the bark (yohimbinine) can raise blood pressure. I'm not sure how much is extractable using alcohol, but it's been warned that people with blood pressure issues or on high blood pressure medicine should avoid it. -Avery

Isn't that basically what most of Sasha's bars actually do? But I think the main answer is just that cracking ice cubes is quick enough (and looks cool enough) that there's not that much to be gained by getting pre-cracked ice. Given all the stuff the bartender is doing with garnishes and the like anyway, I'm not all that scared of getting cooties from his touching the ice. ← You don't really want to talk about Sasha's ice programs here, do you? They have lots of different types of ice at his bars: large rectangular blocks for collinses and long drinks, large cubes for rocks drinks, large chunks to be used for shaking or broken for stirring and pellets for juleps and swizzles. Part of the benefit of cracked ice versus pellet or shell ice is the irregular shape and size of the fragments - which allows for the most subtle variations that makes each cocktail taste both the same and a little bit different each time.

Pray tell, have you even done a tasting of the three: a Jack Rose with Laird's Bonded, one with Laird's Blended and one with Calvados? I've done it with a few bartenders and it always goes Bonded, Calvados and then Blended. I'm just personally really confused about the vitriol regarding her use of Calvados. Here's the exact quote: "If you can't find the Bottled in Bond [Laird's Applejack] you should probably just substitute Calvados." Lots of bartenders feel the same way. Note the word: probably. That means, it's your choice in the end. I've blind tasted and if I can't get Bottled in Bond, I think the Calvados route makes a more balanced and true to the original taste Jack Rose. Again, that's my opinion. In response to lime, how many bars have you gone to where the "lime" available is either just Rose's or some pasteurized pre-bottled lime that lacks any of the essential oils to make it pop? The exact quote: "If your lime is actually secretly plastic and filled with lime juice and it sits in your fridge, that's not a lime and it doesn't count. If your lime isn't a lime and instead it's a little bottle that says Rose's something on it? That's not a lime, it doesn't count. It has to be an actual piece of fruit." Again, to me, that's advice that many people need to hear on a regular basis. By the way, just to be historically accurate, if we want to be traditionalists, in the 1920s, the Applejack would have most likely been 100 proof and the limes? They would have been Key Limes - since the Persian Lime wasn't developed until the 1920s and didn't make their way to this shore in any great quantity for some years after that (if my memory serves me). That means that to "do right" by the Jack Rose, you'll have a much drier, more acidic and more aromatic drink.

Sorry - I'll wholeheartedly disagree with you. Take the historical element out of it, and if I can't get Laird's Bonded Applejack, I'd rather do a good Calvados or a mix of Calvados and Applejack. Bluntly, I don't really like the standard Laird's blended. The Bonded is one of the amazing spirits of the world, but given a choice to work with standard Laird's and Calvados, I'll take Calvados. For Grub Street, which is a consumer publication, the video hit the main points which tend to screw up a decent cocktail: shake adequately and vigorously, measure and use fresh citrus. Could the grenadine be better? Yes. Is that a reason to discount the video? No. Did she say to use bonded applejack and if you can't find it use Calvados? Yes - as do many bartenders.

JAZ - I don't want to turn the flame mode on here... but had you known anything about Rachel Maddow before writing this, you would probably know that the Grub Street title calling her a mixologist was tongue in cheek... because she's known to most to such a wide segment of America (and Europe for that matter as I was surprised to find out) as a political analyst who surged to national visibility during the election. So, calling her a mixologist was a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor... and asking her to do a video on Grub Street was because, well, people find her interesting. Though we haven't crossed paths in Boston - everyone says that she's an avid lover of cocktails and really respects the craft. In many politically aware circles, she's a bit of a celebrity - and because of that, many people are interested in what she is into when she's not at her day job. Now, with that said - her technique for making a Jack Rose at a radio studio was pretty much heads and tails above what most bars are doing... and I have a sneaking feeling that there was a good amount of John Gertsen (No. 9 Park, Drink) in there - from the cobbler shaker all the way down to the Oxo graduated measuring cup... and John is a pretty good person to learn from. Of course, this is just speculation. Personally, I was stoked to see her Imbibe interview, and now I have to put that Grub Street video on my iPhone so I can ensure a properly made Jack Rose when I'm out and about...

Though this doesn't pertain to every cocktail establishment, without the weekend crowd of trend-followers - many cocktail bars wouldn't be able to stay in business... especially outside of the major cities. For example, when I was living in San Francisco, there were only a very few bars that could afford to survive without the bridge-and-tunnel "weekend warriors", who were just out and about for the scene and getting drunk. Those who could either were beer-and-a-shot neighborhood bars with a solid post-work crowd, bars attached to successful restaurants or the few lucky places that bought their places when property was significantly undervalued. Mid-week crowds are rarely enough to sustain a good bar. Here's the deal - if you don't want your favorite cocktail bar to have to use the weekend crush to pay their bills, go more often. By the way, I know this wasn't the point Sneakeater were trying to make, but it's the point I wanted to rant about.

I couldn't agree with you more. Is the Lonsdale less of a serious cocktail bar because it is large? I've been to cocktail bars all around the world and just like with restaurants, size isn't a determining factor when it comes to the commitment of the people in the kitchen or behind the bar. Though I don't always agree with Mr. DeGroff, this is one of those things that we share. Choosing to go out to a restaurant or a bar is a choice to be social. That means being able to enjoy yourself. Of course, that doesn't mean that this gives you carte blanche to be an idiot, obnoxious or inappropriate.

It's statistically extremely improbable that in a real world scenario - a busy bar, lots of orders, lots of bottles of liquids of different viscosity, interruptions from patrons (and barbacks and other staff members) that a free pour will ever be as accurate as a measured pour... and for a properly trained bartender, I doubt it would be faster because they would be constantly re-adjusting the cocktails after the pre-service tasting to accommodate for the per-pour variances. Even if someone is good at free-pouring, how do you account for the difference in viscosity between spirits, cordials, cream, simple syrup, etc...? Sure, someone might be able to, in a staged challenge be pretty precise if all they need to do is pour 40 shots of water. But have them make 10 different drinks at real-bar speed, pouring each component into a separate glass and measure it all out. Where I'm comfortable that a bartender with a measure is going to pretty darned accurate, I'm not so sure about the free pourer. Now, this isn't to say that there aren't great free-pourers out there. Heck, Thomas Waugh at Death and Co. has pretty damned good accuracy (or at least he did when on the West Coast). But I will argue that a serious bartender who free-pours has to spend more time adjusting drinks - especially on complex recipes - than one who uses a bar measure. Even if you save a couple of seconds on a free pour, you're losing all the benefit if you have to re-make a single drink because of a mis-pour.