A Bitters Pill To Swallow

We’ve all seen that little brown bottle on the bottom shelf of the liquor store.  You know the one: it has a slightly oversized label that extends over the fat part of the bottle.  There is probably a bottle in your home bar right now.  You bought it years ago to put in a particular drink that you didn’t like and you haven’t opened it since.  So there it sits, in cocktail purgatory.  You don’t know why you keep it; it doesn’t know why it has to sit there unused.  I’m here to tell you that a functional relationship between you and bitters can be salvaged. 

To start, there are two different varieties of bitters: cocktail bitters and digestive bitters.  Digestive bitters can be consumed straight and can be served in measurable quantities.  Examples of digestive bitters are Campari, Chartreuse, Benedictine, and Absinthe.  For the sake of brevity (and perhaps laziness), we will only be covering cocktail bitters, (specifically aromatic bitters) in this post. 

Cocktail bitters are made by soaking herbs and spices in alcohol, which extracts and concentrates the flavors of the ingredients.  With that in mind, there are a variety of recipes that correspond to today’s market offerings of bitters.  The bottle with the oversized label is Angostura bitters, probably the best known and most recognizable type of bitters.  It’s also the easiest to find.  The Old Fashioned is an example of a cocktail that utilizes Angostura.

Old Fashioned

1 sugar cube

1 tsp water

2 dashes Angostura bitters

2 oz rye or bourbon whiskey

Muddle sugar, water, and bitters together until the sugar is mostly dissolved.  Fill glass with ice and then add the whiskey.  Garnish with a twist of orange peel and a cherry.

Another example of an aromatic bitter similar to Angostura is Peychaud’s Bitters.  Peychaud’s is the vital component in the Sazerac, which I covered in an earlier post about The Monarch.  Other examples of aromatic bitters include Fee Brother’s and Scrappy’s. 

There are tons of other types of cocktail bitters beside aromatic, from lime to chocolate to apple to lavender.  I will make an entirely separate post that deals with exotic bitters.

Do you have a bottle of bitters in your bar?  What’s your favorite drink that contains bitters?  Comments are always appreciated, and questions can be directed to @rebellionwhisky.  

Hey! There's A Quail On The Fireplace!

English charm is at the forefront of this week's visit into the bar scene of St. Louis: the cozy Fox and Hounds, located in the lobby of The Cheshire Inn.  A quick warning: groups larger than four cannot be accommodated on most weekends and parking can be a chore (though for a few bucks, a valet is an option).  This place is the epitome of small; there are about four bar stools, a couch positioned in front of a fireplace, a circular table that can hold about six people, a few wingback chairs, and a scattering of tables that hold two people each.  The place feels even smaller because of the piano-bass jazz duo that somehow fits into a corner.  The adjective 'intimate' is under selling the feel of the tavern.  The tavern is just that; decorations consisted of taxidermy (quail, caribou, etc.) and rustic wood paneling.  

When we approached the bartender, I asked for a Manhattan for my wife and an Old-fashioned for me.  To my chagrin, the bar lacked rye whiskey, upon which both of the drinks I ordered are dependent.  Rye is becoming more and more popular, so the fact that the Fox and Hounds didn't carry any was disappointing.  After settling on Maker's Mark, we found ourselves a place on the couch.  It struck me immediately that the bar was far understaffed.  With one bartender and one waitress taking orders, the time in between drinks was lengthy.  There is no specialty drink menu, and when I asked for a Tom Collins, I was told that the bartender could not make one because he didn't have any lemonade.  The inability to create any custom order (like, you know, a proper Tom Collins) definitely put a damper on the experience.  I eventually settled on a White Russian that wasn't made with cream (it was still good, but I'm a sucker for Kaluha).

If you want to experience the Fox and Hounds, you might want to try on a weeknight.  And don't expect too much; the drinks will be average, the service less than average, and most likely you will be knocking knees with a stranger (which isn't necessarily a bad thing, depending on the bar experience you desire).

Oh, and have a Tom Collins; they are refreshing.    

Tom Collins

Two parts gin
One part lemon juice
1 tsp Simple Syrup
Soda Water

Fill a Collins glass with the gin, lemon juice, and simple syrup.  Stir, and add club soda.  Garnish with a cherry.