How To Make Homemade Bitters

From the medicine cabinet to the bar, bitters have a long history of curing ailments and flavoring drinks. Though they may seem mysterious, at heart, bitters are simply bitter and aromatic herbs and spices infused or tinctured in spirits. Combining the various flavors is where the fun part comes in. Here’s a primer to making your own bitters at home, which you can use in cocktails, sodas, cooking, and even as digestive aids.

Bitters are comprised of bitter-tasting roots, barks, or leaves, plus other botanicals that provide aroma and flavor (and medicinal properties). In general you should use whole ingredients rather than ground, as they are easier to strain out. You can chop ingredients up or coarsely crack them to expose more surface area for infusing.

Bittering agents usually make up 10 to 50% of the blend and may include plants like angelica root, artichoke leaf, barberry root, black walnut leaf, burdock root, calamus root, cinchona bark, citrus peel, dandelion root and leaf, devil’s club root, gentian root, horehound, licorice root, mugwort, Oregon grape root, orris root, quassia bark, sarsaparilla, wild cherry bark, and wormwood.

Aromatic and flavor agents round out the bitters and may include just about any herb, spice, flower, fruit, or nut. Use your imagination! Also use organic ingredients when possible, especially when it comes to fruit peels. Some examples:

• Spices – allspice, aniseed, caraway, cardamom, cassia, celery seed, chiles, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, fennel, ginger, juniper berries, nutmeg, peppercorns, star anise, vanilla beans
• Herbs & Flowers – chamomile, hibiscus, hops, lavender, lemongrass, mint, rose, rosemary, sage, thyme, yarrow
• Fruits – fresh or dried citrus peel (lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit), dried fruit (apples, cherries, figs, raisins)
• Nuts – toasted almonds, pecans, walnuts, etc.
• Beans – cacao beans, cocoa nibs, coffee beans

To learn more about botanicals, I highly recommend the book The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart.

For maximum flavor extraction and preservation, use a high-proof liquor — at least 100 proof or 50% alcohol by volume (ABV). You’ll get the most neutral flavor using grain alcohol (such as Everclear) or vodka (Absolut and Smirnoff are fairly accessible brands of 100-proof). You can also experiment with other spirits such as 101-proof bourbon and rye and 151-proof rum.

In addition, bitters may be lightly sweetened with simple syrup, caramel, molasses, honey, or other sweeteners. They may also be diluted with distilled water, bringing the final product no lower than 80 to 90 proof or 40 to 45% ABV.

There are two main ways to make bitters. One method is to combine all of your botanicals and infuse them in liquor together. The other method (and the one shown here) is to make a separate infusion or tincture of each botanical and then blend them to taste. I prefer this method because different ingredients infuse at different rates. Tincturing them separately gives you more control over the outcome. However, if you have a good recipe, the first method might work just fine.

Depending on the botanical, infusing time may range from a day to several weeks. Regularly smell and sample each tincture or infusion; it will be ready when it strongly conveys the ingredient. To smell, put a couple drops of the infusion in your palms, rub them together, and hold your hands up to your nose. To taste, put a couple drops in a glass of still or sparkling water. If you taste it straight bear in mind it will be rather intense!

Bitters ingredients may be found at grocery stores, spice shops, medicinal herb shops, in gardens, growing wild, and online.

• Botanicals from Mountain Rose Herbs
• Bottles from Specialty Bottle
• Martha Stewart Crafts Labels from Michaels