Here we are in dreary January (again). The days are short and there is nothing left but monochrome colors. All life seems to have been skimmed off of the world – or at least all of the serotonin. I’m SAD – it’s the SAD time of the year.
It also happens to be citrus season. Of all of the cures for the sads, citrus (and a ready application of the vitamin C it brings) remains the best cure* for a (mild) case of the sads. With this in mind, my partner and I decided that our seasonal batch of house bitters this year would be orange flavored.
Of all of the citrus that I have tried, orange is the one that I like the least out of season but one of the ones that I love the most come January when nothing else is edible. Orange has some of the cleansing properties of the other citruses while also adding the sweetening properties of happiness and abundance. This is the energy that I wanted to harness to help bring us into the new year with a positive attitude and a bright outlook on life.
This recipe was loosely adapted from the book Bitters: A Spirited History of a Classic Cure-All with Cocktail Recipes & Formulas by Brad Thomas Parson which is a nice primer on the basics of bitters making. I changed the bittering agent (I do not care for Gentian root) and the base spirit from white liquor to brown since I will be adding my orange bitters primarily to cocktails made with brown liquor.
Orange Bitters
Zest three oranges 1/4 cup chopped dried orange peel 4 Cloves (abundance) 8 Green Cardamom pods, cracked (happiness) 1/4 tsp Coriander Seeds (healing) 4 tbs Wild Cherry Bark 1/4 tsp Allspice Berries (abundance) Wild Turkey 101 1 cup water 2 tbs Rich Syrup 2 jars with secure lids Making bitters is super easy – it is simply a long-form alcohol infusion. For the first two weeks, you infuse all of the herbal ingredients in the liquor and then you strain them out and use them to make a strong tea which you steep for another week. Then, you combine the liquor, strained tea, and rich syrup. From there, you bottle and your bitters are ready to use.
This recipe calls for regular shaking of the infusion – this is where I add the majority of my magic to the recipe. As I revisit my concoction to shake it daily, I focus on adding the energy of happiness, health, and abundance for the new year in. I also did a ritual where I burned an orange candle that had been dressed with a powder made from the base ingredients over the jar to further empower the spell.
Cocktail bitters can be applied in various ways. They can, of course, be used in the creation of a cocktail but they can also be added to water or another beverage, or simply taken on the tongue. The bitter agents in this concoction will soothe minor stomach upsets while they liven your mood.
A few notes about the ingredients in this recipe: As always with recipes, the quality of the ingredients will affect the potency and flavor of your final product. It is important to use organic orange peel if you can for this recipe since pesticides tend to accumulate in the peels of the fruit. I used Wild Turkey 101 for the infusion but any overproof liquor will do. You could substitute another bittering agent for Wild Cherry bark, the original recipe called for Gentian root.
*non-medical