All the Bitter: Crafting Non-Alcoholic Bitters with Purpose

Summary

In this episode of The Sipping Point, we raise a glass to innovation with Ian Blessing, co-founder of All the Bitter. Ian shares his evolution from fine wine sommelier to trailblazer in the booming non-alcoholic beverage space. We dive into the essential role of bitters in mixology, explore the bold and nuanced flavors of his handcrafted, zero-proof bitters, and learn how his shop in Chico, California offers a one-of-a-kind tasting experience. Plus, Ian reveals how All the Bitter blends flavor with philanthropy, donating a portion of profits to support environmental causes. Whether you're sober-curious or a seasoned sipper, this episode is full of flavor and purpose. 

Check out All the Bitter online for more about his bitters CLICK HERE

Takeaways

• Ian Blessing transitioned from fine wine to non-alcoholic bitters.
• Bitters are essential for crafting sophisticated non-alcoholic cocktails.
• All the Bitter offers a variety of flavors, including aromatic and New Orleans style bitters.
• The tasting room experience includes cocktail kits and a curated selection of non-alcoholic beverages.
• Bitters can enhance the flavor of drinks without added sugar.
• The company uses functional ingredients that promote digestive health.

Transcript

Laurie Forster (00:01.04)
All right, Ian, welcome to The Sipping Point.

Ian Blessing (00:05.09)
Thank you, Laurie

Laurie Forster (00:06.616)
Awesome. I'm so excited today to hear all about your journey from wine to non-alcoholic bitters, All the Bitter being your company. And so tell me a little bit about your background. Of course, I have lots of wine lovers listening and I know they'll be so impressed by your background at the French Laundry. And how did you go from there to owning your own bitters company? Tell us the whole deal.

Ian Blessing (00:36.76)
I don't even know. I did not think that I would be going from selling, know, DRC and Screaming Eagle to making non-alcoholic cocktail bitters in Chico, California, but here we are. So, start, you know, kind of at the beginning. My wife and I met at the French Laundry working as Somms about six or seven years ago.

and had an incredible time. Absolutely, you know, was one of the best times of my entire life. We had kids and we quit drinking. We drank too much and it was not we needed to make a change. And when we had kids, we realized that. So we made that switch and, we quit drinking at the right time because the non-alcoholic beverage market really

kind of emerged about five years ago. We had Odools and at the time there was Seedlip. That was about the only thing that existed. We actually had a handful of bottles at the French Laundry, but none of us knew how to use it. None of us really cared enough, honestly. I know that sounds bad, but none of us really cared enough to figure out how to use it. And then once I quit drinking, I realized, I understand why these products exist and why it's important that we learn how to make.

sophisticated adult beverages for people that don't want alcohol for whatever reason, whether it's, you're not drinking for nine months, you're not drinking tonight, you're not drinking because it's January, you're not drinking because you've got a big test tomorrow morning or you're training for a marathon. There's a million reasons why somebody might not want alcohol but still wants an enjoyable beverage. And so, the good news for us is we quit drinking and this...

Laurie Forster (02:03.632)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Blessing (02:24.876)
you're sitting behind us is a huge assortment. This is a bottle shop and tasting room that we've opened recently. And we stock over 200 different non-alcoholic beer, wine, spirits, and cocktails. And that's a small selection. That's a very curated selection of what's on the market now. And so we got really into making non-alcoholic cocktails just as people, as consumers who enjoy a tasty beverage but don't want alcohol anymore.

and realized pretty quickly that there were a ton of options for spirits on the market, but there were virtually no non-alcoholic cocktail bitters, which is a super important ingredient to finish your drinks. I realized that you could make an old fashioned or a Manhattan, but you couldn't really finish those drinks because there were no non-alcoholic versions of angostura

Laurie Forster (03:13.967)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Blessing (03:14.796)
So we plugged away and worked at creating recipes in our home kitchen and went from there to scaling up into a shared commercial kitchen. And now we have a production space at a bottle shop and tasting room.

Laurie Forster (03:30.041)
Yep. And I know we'll talk later about how people can connect, but they can order from you online, but you're also available on online stores and you have restaurants and bars using your products as well.

Ian Blessing (03:43.822)
Yes, yeah, we're available now in almost 400, I'm sorry, 600 bars, restaurants and retailers nationwide and 10 countries. If you go to our website, allthebitter.com, there's a store locator so you can look at your area and find either a store that carries us near you or find a restaurant that carries us. And chances are if a restaurant is stocking non-alcoholic cocktail bitters, that's a pretty good indication that they have a strong non-alcoholic.

program.

Laurie Forster (04:15.099)
That's awesome. And I think bitters are probably like, you know, that last ingredient, like a finishing oil or that finishing touch on a dish that a chef would make that a lot of us don't think about that as part of our cocktail, but it's always an important part. And so how great of you to realize that that was missing in the market and, you know, to fill that void and be the first, it sounds like, in doing that.

You have a number of flavors, which I have here behind me. And one of the things you offer is sort of your basic flavors. It's a three pack. And so I'd love to talk a little bit about those three flavors and how they may relate to other bitters that people have experienced as well. I actually made myself a little cocktail of Pellegrino and the aromatic bitters. So maybe we can start there.

Ian Blessing (05:14.19)
Yeah, aromatic is our version of Angostura, essentially. So any bitter that's labeled aromatic, it's a pretty kind of standard flavor profile of warm spices. It's rich, earthy and bitter. And so in ours, we use cinnamon clove, nutmeg, ginger, black pepper, allspice and star anise, literally every baking spice. It's very bright. It's kind of Christmassy almost.

but really balanced by a very bitter, earthy backbone. It's the standard bitter. It's what you would use if a cocktail calls for bitters, you know, an old fashioned Manhattan, any drink that is asking for bitters but doesn't specify a flavor, that's what they're looking for. They're looking for aromatic bitters.

Laurie Forster (06:06.811)
Great. And so there are a number of ways of enjoying this. I'm using just sparkling water, which is awesome. You can do during the day, but you can full on make mocktails and cocktails because, you know, even if you're making a cocktail with alcohol, these just have such great flavors, but not just the flavors that are in there. What I was really intrigued by is that you have functional ingredients, meaning ingredients that are good for us.

that you can feel good about. Tell me about the functional ingredients that you have in your bitters.

Ian Blessing (06:43.894)
Yeah, know, cocktail bitters have a historical context that's rooted in health, in digestion specifically. So before bitters were used in cocktails, they were a medicinal tonic. They were taken daily for a variety of elements. you know, like a lot of snake oil, they didn't do the million things they said they did. But what they do, what they are good for genuinely is digestive health.

And so we've really focused on a pretty broad range of ingredients in our bitters that are, you're more likely to find them in digestive bitters. We're using dandelion root, burdock root, ginger, fennel, milk thistle seed, gentian root, all of these different ingredients that not only lend a really wonderful, really true herbal flavor to our bitters, but they also are ingredients that are really

noted for their use in digestive health and gut health.

Laurie Forster (07:43.738)
love that. So you can kind of, I'm feeling healthier already. The more you drink, the better it is. I'd like maybe some other beverages. So I love that. So the other two in the starter pack are the New Orleans and the Orange. The Orange sounds pretty self-explanatory, but tell me about New Orleans style bitters because I was not familiar with that.

Ian Blessing (08:07.66)
Yeah, New Orleans style refers to Peychaud's bitters, is, know, Peychaud's, Angostura, and orange are kind of the holy trinity of cocktail bitters. It's what you're going to find behind every bar. know, plenty of places will stock maybe a walnut bitter, cardamom, or lavender. But almost every bar is going to carry those three bitters. Those are the classic bitters that you're going to find in every cocktail. And Peychaud's is specifically used in a Sazerac, which is a really specific drink.

but it's such an important cocktail that you find it behind every bar. It's a really wonderful flavor though on its own. It doesn't need to be used just in a Sazerac cocktail. The defining characteristic is anise, is a very anise forward flavor. Peychaud's is also in confusingly kind of in that category of aromatic bitters, which means that it's spiced, you know, and it has a similar profile, but Peychaud's goes a very different direction in being anise forward.

Laurie Forster (08:48.283)
Mmm.

Ian Blessing (09:04.364)
And it's a little bit lighter and kind of fruitier than angostura, where angostura is really bold, rich, and spicy. Peychaud's is much lighter and brighter and almost a little fruity. So in ours, we use tart cherry, anise, hibiscus, and rose hips, plus 15 other spices and ingredients, but those are the primary flavors.

Laurie Forster (09:20.667)
Mmm.

Laurie Forster (09:25.209)
I love that. And you mentioned the website, but I definitely will link that on my blog and with the podcast because what I loved about the website is you have so many recipes out there for great cocktails. each recipe, you can make it with alcohol or without alcohol. You give us the option to do that because like you said, some people might not drink at all, but some people just might not be drinking this week or tonight.

And so it's nice to see that. So if someone comes into your tasting room, what is the experience like? I know you said you have over 200 non-alcoholic alcohol and wine and spirits. What can they expect if they come visit you in Chico, California?

Ian Blessing (10:10.498)
Yeah, so we're actually, we're transitioning into a full seated lounge. So right now we're kind of doing standing tastings and after I left the French Laundry, I went to Opus One and managed the hospitality program there. So it's been very fun to kind of take all of that and translate that into, you know, a non-alcoholic tasting room. So we have a handful of cocktail kits that we offer. Right now we have a margarita, an old fashioned and a negroni

and a lemon drop made using a kava spirit, which is really interesting. So kind of trying to focus on recipes and drinks and profiles that people know, but substituting out non-alcoholic spirits to make the drink work without alcohol. But to your point, most of these recipes can be made with an alcoholic spirit instead. So the margarita is a great example. It's a great margarita recipe.

You can make it with alcoholic tequila. You can make it with NA tequila. You can make it with half and half, which is a great option for people that aren't. You're not you're still drinking. You just don't want to drink as much. You know, let's say you want to have a couple of cocktails in the afternoon, but you don't want to be asleep by by three o'clock. Make a couple of half strength drinks, you know, enjoy the full flavor of that margarita. Enjoy the full drink. Don't drink less. Just drink differently.

Laurie Forster (11:10.939)
Mm.

Ian Blessing (11:34.958)
So there's, you know, there's a ton of stuff that we have, of course, for people to taste. We pour our bitters with soda water, which is the easiest way to drink bitters like you mentioned with Pellegrino. Our New Orleans bitters with a tart cherry is my favorite with a squeeze of lime. So just like plain sparkling water, New Orleans bitters in a squeeze of lime is really, really excellent, like surprisingly good. And bitters and soda is really just like flavored seltzer, but better. It's, you know, it's your La Croix or your Waterloo.

Laurie Forster (11:35.109)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Blessing (12:05.198)
but much more interesting. It's the cocktail version of flavored seltzer. And to your point, it's good for you. It's made using whole organic ingredients. not using any artificial flavors or colors or extracts. We're just using whole plants and whole plants that have a historical context of digestive benefits. So replace that seltzer with bitters and soda. It's a wonderful, refreshing,

option just to drink throughout the day. But we will have in the next month or so, we'll have a full cocktail menu. We'll have 12 non-alcoholic cocktails plus beer and wine by the class flights. We're going to do wine flights, bitters and soda flights, and cocktail flights. And we'll have a little menu of kind of local snacks like olives and cheese.

Laurie Forster (12:54.349)
Nice. Are you, I know this is a random that just popped in my head, so forgive me. Are you a Bravo TV watcher at all?

Ian Blessing (13:03.374)
I'm not, no.

Laurie Forster (13:04.321)
Okay, there's a show called the summer house and it's like a summer share house in the Hamptons, know, bunch of, of kids. They're a little bit older now, but, anyway, Carl, one of the roommates is no longer drinks and he's trying to open up a non-alcoholic bar in New York city called soft bar, which you may have heard of that. So that's big in the news now. So I guess, you know, we're going to see these popping up all over the place. It sounds like,

Ian Blessing (13:22.392)
Yes. Yeah.

Ian Blessing (13:32.706)
Yeah. Yeah.

Laurie Forster (13:33.648)
going forward, but you're ahead of the game. It's, you know, you're ahead of the game for sure. I'm obsessed with tonic. do you love that? Okay. Exciting. You're gonna have to keep me up to date on that. Cause I'm, I'm a Bravo holic. I've been to Bravo con the whole thing. I'm obsessed with tonic, but sometimes I want it, but I don't want to drink. And so I loved doing this with your, one of your special bitters.

Ian Blessing (13:39.246)
I have a call with them tomorrow actually.

Ian Blessing (13:47.564)
Well, I'll let you know.

Laurie Forster (14:01.913)
which is the lavender, which I also absolutely love. So tell us a little bit about this one. I know it has some great benefits beyond just digestion, but it really just, you know, a nice, this is a light Q Tonic, nothing too fancy with like, you know, five dashes of this. It's so delicious. And I feel like I'm having something without, you know, having to mix up a whole bunch of ingredients.

Ian Blessing (14:27.778)
Yeah, it's so good. Lavender is one of my favorites. It's unfortunately sold out right now, but it's a wonderful flavor. We use local lavender from a farm that's about 30 minutes down the road. There's chamomile in there as well. And that's one of the things that I think separates our lavender bitters from other, not only lavender bitters, but other lavender flavors and drinks and foods. When you do tastings, one of the things that people will say to us is, no, I don't like lavender in my food.

And I try not to be pushy about it, but people will usually eventually take a taste and are always pleasantly surprised by it. They are not over the top, floral, soapy, perfumey lavender. They're really, really well balanced, I think. So chamomile rounds it out a little bit. Chamomile softens the really sharp, perfumey lavender flavor. And then we've got a handful of ingredients in there that help to

again, kind of diffuse that overly floral lavender flavor. And that's where you're getting some of those kind of calming benefits from. So we use passionflower, which you'll find in like nighttime teas. It's relaxing. It'll help you with sleep. It's not gonna put you to sleep, but it's absolutely helpful for, yeah, it's helpful for relaxation and for sleep. And skull cap and ashwagandha and blue vervain, all of these really wonderful herbs.

Laurie Forster (15:47.035)
Yeah.

Ian Blessing (15:57.55)
that are really lovely, both for their calming benefits, but also because they just taste really great and they give our lavender bitters a more complex, more interesting taste.

Laurie Forster (16:13.819)
I because I think I would have been one of those people that was like, I don't know if I want, I love the smell of lavender, but the thought of it in a drink would just be like, I'm not sure about that. But the first time I tried it, I fell in love with it. And I'm a person that doesn't really like sweet things. Or maybe you're a person that's trying to avoid sugar, which you tend to get in a lot of cocktails, NA or otherwise. This, if you get a sugar-free tonic or light,

or the soda water just is so nice because you're not getting that added sugar in your diet. that's my absolute favorite. Not that I don't like the others, but definitely into that one. And the other special flavor is the cherry coffee. And when we had talked once before, you had a great idea for this one that had to do with cola. tell me what...

Tell me a little bit about this one and your favorite way to enjoy it.

Ian Blessing (17:15.062)
Yeah, that's a really, that's a fun one. So we use decaf coffee. It comes from Equator coffees in Marin, which Carly and I first ran into at the French Laundry. That's the coffee that they serve there. And so that was a pretty obvious choice for us. they're a couple hours away. So last time I ordered, they roasted and shipped.

on a Monday, we received it on Tuesday and we ground it and started extraction on Tuesday. So within 24 hours, the coffee was roasted, ground and started extraction. The flavor is incredibly fresh. It's really, really wonderful. We pair that with sweet cherry, orange peel, vanilla, chocolate, roasted chicory, roasted dandelion, cinnamon and cardamom. It sounds like a lot, but it's a really interesting, very rich, kind of warm, but also like spiced and bright.

coffee flavor, it works exceptionally well in tonic. So to your point, and all of our, any cocktail bitters really, ours and other bitters as well, they could be easily mixed with soda water, of course, but they can also be added to ginger beer, ginger ale, tonic, like any simple mixer. Bitters are liquid seasoning. It's like salt and pepper. You can add them to virtually any drink. You can add them to most foods. You can add them to ice cream.

Bitters are often thought about as kind of esoteric and almost difficult to use, but they're not. It's literally like salt and pepper. You can add it to anything that you're drinking. And so simple, you know, drinks like a tonic and a couple dashes of bitters is really, really excellent. It's a really nice way to elevate. know, tonic is great on its own. Tonic is a wonderful replacement to your point for somebody that's not drinking. Tonic is complex. It's delicious. You can find light tonic. It's got enough.

bite and flavor to enjoy it by itself, a couple dashes of bitters make it even better. So coffee and tonic works in the same way that coffee shops would serve espresso and tonic. Those flavors work wonderfully together. You can also add it to Coke, to your point. I've been adding it to Diet Coke, regular Coke, Dr. Pepper. It's a really nice way to boost regular sodas. We'll add our New Orleans bitter, which is tart cherry.

Laurie Forster (19:34.714)
Mm-hmm.

Ian Blessing (19:37.166)
to Coke to make kind of like a more interesting version of, you know, cherry Coke. But again, without adding extra sugar, without adding all those chemicals, like you're adding real ingredients, you're adding a really nice, but more subtle flavor. You're not adding an ounce of cherry syrup. You're adding half a teaspoon of cherry bitters, but you get a really wonderful flavor without all that added sugar and digestive benefits.

Laurie Forster (19:55.418)
Mm-hmm.

Laurie Forster (20:07.489)
Love that. One of the things I love seeing on your website was that when you purchase anything from All the Bitter, 1 % of your profits is going to be donated to causes for the planet. I think you call it 1 % for the planet. tell me a little bit about that. How does that work? I just love that you have that philanthropic angle as well.

Ian Blessing (20:35.074)
Yeah, I mean, you we started this business because we started this business because of our kids, honestly, we know as much as we loved working in restaurants, I miss working in restaurants. The hours were too late. It wasn't it didn't work out, you know, for us for having a small new family.

Ian Blessing (20:59.022)
we could make much more money working somewhere else, working for somebody else. But owning our own business and doing it this way allows us to operate the way that we wanna operate. We can make the product the way that we wanna make it. We can use the ingredients we wanna use. We can source the way we wanna source. And we can give back the way we wanna give back. And again, we have a six and a four-year-old and I wanna make sure that

the world is still healthy when they're older and things are not looking great. So it's really important for us to donate some of the profits that we make to environmental charities. And so for the last couple of years, we've donated to an organization called Trees for the Planet that plants trees in Africa. They create what are called food forests and they essentially work with small family farms.

and plant a ton of trees, a forest essentially, around their property, which obviously then helps tremendously with carbon dioxide and oxygen and carbon in the atmosphere. But it also teaches these farmers how to farm more sustainably. It provides them food because a lot of the trees are functional fruiting trees. So really, really wonderful organization.

And then in the last year, we started donating more locally to California charities, an organization called River Partners that helps with rivers and marshlands and waterways in California, an environmental charity that's based here in Chico that helps with local cleanups, and then another charity in the Sierra Foothills that's trail cleanups.

Laurie Forster (22:53.667)
Love that. So everyone, if you want to check out allthebitter.com, not only will you have the chance to order any of these delicious bitters, I am a total convert now. I never thought too much about bitters. Maybe I had one or two things behind the bar, but didn't think a lot about it. But now I'm fully on board. So you've converted me. And the recipes I think are amazing as well. When can folks expect to come in with the full

tasting and cocktail menu that you mentioned earlier.

Ian Blessing (23:26.776)
We're aiming for the middle to late June. So about a month from now, we should be fully up and running. But we are open now. The bottle shop is open. We're doing tastings. We're doing sales. But we'll have our full seated menu by the end of June.

Laurie Forster (23:30.234)
Okay.

Laurie Forster (23:34.051)
Awesome.

Laurie Forster (23:42.085)
Perfect. And you can come in, taste a delicious non-alcohol wine or cocktail, and then bring home the ingredients to do it yourself, which I love because sometimes you want to have one at home as well. Ian, this has been so amazing. Thank you so much for coming on The Sipping Point. I really enjoyed it.

Ian Blessing (24:01.08)
Laurie, thank you for your time. This was great.

Laurie Forster (24:03.353)
Awesome, cheers.

Laurie Forster (24:07.34)
Awesome. All right. Just.