3. The Old Fashioned: The Seasoning

Online School of Cocktailory

(aka: how to gussy up survival-quarantine-drinking on the couch in our pajamas) #alonetogether

Section 101: The Old-Fashioned

Last week we learned that sugar adds balance, like fat and salt amplify flavors when cooking dinner. Bitters are like adding in pepper and spices. They’re typically made from macerated barks, roots, herbs, and dried citrus soaked and concentrated in high proof alcohol. So a little goes a long way, like vanilla extract. 2 dashes usually does the trick.

Bitters go generally into 3 categories:

Aromatic, which are sweet, bitter & spicy (think licking a pinch of all your Christmas spices mixed together. Cloves, cinnamon, brown sugar, etc) These go best with aged spirits. Remember: mmmm barrel. Angostura is the most common & widely available aromatic bitters. 

Citrus, which are the orange, grapefruit, and lemon bitters play better with unaged spirits like vodka or tequila blanca. You don’t want a Christmas party in your margarita, but a little orange zest is nice. Really a little orange zest is good in pretty much any cocktail so toss in a couple dashes at will.

The third kind is Savory bitters which covers anything else. Bitter chocolate, chili, lavender, cardamom, licorice, you name it. The adding bitters rule of thumb seems to be: if the flavors sound good together, go for it. 

Our homework: you’ll need plain cold seltzer water and whatever flavors of bitters you’d like to try. I’d recommend Angostura, an orange, and a savory of your choice. You can always try this experiment with baking extracts instead if you prefer, but both are alcohol based so do what you wish. 

Ok, pour 1 cup of cold seltzer water into 4 glasses (if you’re trying 3 bitters. 1 is the blank palette cleanser glass). Add 2-3 drops of one flavor of bitters in 1 glass and stir briefly. The seltzer will spread out the concentrated flavor, and the bubbles bring the aroma to your nose, according to the book. If it’s not strong enough, add a few more drops. After taking a few sips, put 1 drop of bitters on the back of your hand and lick it. The first step shows you the flavors and smells of your bitters, the second tells you how sweet it is, and if you can taste caramelized dark sugar. Some bitters have a chemically sweet taste like baking extracts tend to have, so when you’re making drinks you’ll want to use less of it to avoid that flavor taking over your cocktail. 

If none of that made any sense, try this: put a drop of bitters on one palm of your hand, rub your hands together, and then cup them around your nose & mouth to smell. You can also do this with herbs in your garden. 

(experiment from this week came from pg. 15 of the Cocktail Codex)