Home Speakeasy

The closer we get to November, the more we hear about Brad Thomas Parson’s Bitters, and the more antsy we get to try making our own. We are a bit lacking in the exotic roots and barks that a lot of the classic recipes call for (we will be hunting some down soon for additional tests), but for now decided to follow the spirit of the law rather than the letter. Using only things we already had, we took a shot, and in about 3 weeks we’ll see how it worked.

We each tried our own fall-inspiried aromatic bitter, and here is what we ended up with:

Jon’s Batch
zest of 1/2 lemon
10 cloves
10 coriander seeds
3 cinnamon sticks
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp cardamom
1 vanilla pod, opened and scraped (with both parts in the jar)
Peel of one fiji apple
Peel of two granny smith apples

Since we didn’t have any allspice berries or whole cardamom, I emptied out some tea bags and put the powdered spice in them to try and let the taste steep in without having to deal with a lot of powder after the fact. Not sure if it will work, but I’m optimistic: I’ve done the same thing when making syrups before. I can say that once everything was in, the jar smelled amazing.

Once everything was in the jar, I added about 2 cups of overproof bourbon (I would have liked MORE overproof, but 90 proof Bulleit was the only thing in the house I was willing to use to experiment with half a bottle.) Shake well and sit aside, out of the sun, at room temperature. Shake it once a day, and in two weeks, I will take it on to step #2.

Jen’s Batch:
peel of 3 granny smith apples
zest of 1 whole orange
2 cinnamon sticks
1 vanilla pod, opened and scraped
1 tsp garam masala (in tea bag, as above)
1 tsp nutmeg (in tea bag, as above)
2 cups Wray & Nephew overproof Rum

Prepare as above.