DIY Aromatic Bitters: Make Amazing Cocktails at Home!

Bryan Luukinen — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:33:47 +0000

Throwback cocktails are all the rage these days, and drinking at home frees you from $8 drinks and designating a driver. What separates ordinary swill from killer cocktail recipes can be as simple as the addition of aromatic bitters.

If your bitters are made at home, you’ve got an ultimately customizable addition to any good drink. And you can re-use the container, and buy bulk spices. Sustainability in a bottle!

What are aromatic bitters you say? Why, saddle up to the bar and lend an ear. Bitters are indispensable additions to countless cocktails, and you may be familiar with a couple of house calls that beckon for bitters, including the Sazerac, Manhattan, and LLB (lemon, lime and bitters). Thing is, bitters were kind of an ol’ timey thing until a couple of years ago when the cocktail began to stage a bit of a comeback.

Bitters started out as “a tincture of any number of esoteric roots and herbs with an alcohol base“, and became a common addition to many cocktails. One of the first cocktails, the Sazerac, was invented by a Frenchman who popularized the drink in New Orleans. His drugstore, the Pharmacie Peychaud, served up drinks in a coquetier (that’s french for “egg cup”), which is where the name “cocktail” may have come from. Ok, enough history. Let’s drink!

Green Options » cocktail recipes

DIY Aromatic Bitters: Make Amazing Cocktails at Home!

Throwback cocktails are all the rage these days, and drinking at home frees you from $8 drinks and designating a driver. What separates ordinary swill from killer cocktail recipes can be as simple as the addition of aromatic bitters.

If your bitters are made at home, you’ve got an ultimately customizable addition to any good drink. And you can re-use the container, and buy bulk spices. Sustainability in a bottle!