The Witch's Liquor Cabinet: Bitters and Balance (minisode 17)

In today's episode, Shéa and Amy talk about how to balance your beverages with bitters - as well as how to make your own!

Mix yourself a cocktail (originally defined as spirits, water, sugar, and bitters) and learn about the energy you can find in the various roots and botanicals and how to combine them to make bitters and bring balance to the force ... er cocktails. 

Remember to craft your bitters with intent, because you’re not just mixing a drink.

You’re mixing magic.

If you want to listen to the episode where we talk about the magical properties of cherry, head back to Amy's birthday 'sode (it's always a good time celebrate Amy!):  https://www.buzzsprout.com/2429206/episodes/18739772

If you want to hear us discuss aperol and vermouth, check out Emma Hamm's episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2429206/episodes/18921646

Cherry vanilla bitters

This super simple cherry bitters recipe requires only a few ingredients and 1–2 weeks of maceration to create a rich, aromatic addition to cocktails. Combine 1/2 cup dried tart cherries, 1 split vanilla bean, and 2 crushed cardamom pods in a jar with 1 cup of 100-proof rye or bourbon, shaking daily for 1–2 weeks. 

Ingredients

• 1 cup (250ml) 100-proof rye whiskey or bourbon/vodka
• 1/2 cup dried tart cherries
• ½ cup sweet cherries
• 1 vanilla bean (split and scraped)
• 2–3 cardamom pods (crushed)
• 1 star anise 
• 1 ½ tsp wild cherry bark 

Instructions

1. Combine: Place all ingredients into a clean, sealable glass jar (like a Mason jar).
2. Macerate: Seal tightly and store in a cool, dark place for 1–2 weeks. Shake the jar once a day.
3. Strain: After 1-2 weeks, strain the liquid through a cheesecloth or fine mesh strainer into a dropper bottle. Squeeze the cherries to extract all the liquid.
4. Store: Store in a cool, dark place for up to a year. 

Optional: If the mixture is too harsh, add a teaspoon of simple syrup to balance it. 

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Thanks - the Caftan Coven

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Welcome to Cliffhangers and Cocktails Podcast with Amy Sissel. Oh, that's me. And Shaya McCloud. That's me. USA Today best-selling authors of paranormal women's fiction, among other things. Brought to you by the Caftan Coven.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Welcome to yet another mini pod where we will be discussing a single topic related to the craft. Whether it be craft cocktails, witchcraft, or writing craft. So today we're doing craft cocktails. It's the fourth episode. Really the fourth already? Yeah. Episode of our series called The Witch's Liquor Cabinet. And today we'll be talking about balancing your sweet, sweet spells with bitters.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Ooh, I like how you did that. That's exactly what I had in my head when I wrote it. So we sweet spells.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Well I want to tell you a funny story, but I hope. Okay. So I was talking about how I didn't have any bitters. Right. And that I could maybe think of a past relationship to feel more bitter. And then my husband mentioned something. Child support. And he was like, no, no, too bitter, too bitter.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Well, the thing about bitters and cocktails is they are all about balance. You don't want to put too much bitter in your cocktail any more than you want to put bring up too much bitter in your memory. So um, you know, when I first I'm good at creating an allergy. That was an excellent one. That's great. Um so you may or may not be familiar with bitters, but it's it's one it's a it's an ingredient that's kind of overlooked uh in like cocktail making, you know, a little bit we're we're seeing a resurgence of it, but um but a lot, you know, it's kind of overlooked when you're m making cocktails as a spell. Like you don't really think about the bitters, but the bitters are an important part of spellcraft. Just like they're actually kind of an important part of cocktail craft. So not about life. Not about life. But I mean, I'm not gonna lie, I for a long time I didn't like use bitters at all. Like I didn't know what to do with bitters. I'm like, there was there's a couple cocktails like um an old-fashioned and stuff that use like Angostura bitters. And so one I finally got down, you know, worked down and bought Angostura bitters and I'd put them in, but I didn't really know why I was doing it and what's the point, and I kind of made cocktails without bitters. Um, but then I was taking a cocktail class, not a magical cocktail class, but a magically delicious cocktail class. And she's important. Just as important. And she talked about bitters. We she actually did a really cool thing. She had us make uh a cocktail and w and not put the bitters in and taste the cocktail. Then put the bitters in and taste the cocktail. And I could not believe the difference. I mean, because you don't when you add bitters to a cocktail, you're not adding a lot. It's like right.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

It's a cocktail or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

Yeah, it's like yeah, it's like a couple of dashes or whatever. But the impact is enormous um as far as the flavor goes. And magically it can be the same. And we're gonna have to talk about whatever it is you're drinking because that looks pretty. It's a beautiful sort of is it orange? It looks orange from my end.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

It's kind of um a pinky-orange color.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Yeah, kind of like grapefruit color.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

I know there's no grapefruit harmed in the making of this though, because I am on mental health meds and therefore I can't have grapefruit.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

You can't have grapefruit, yes.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

Please check with your doctor.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Exactly. Bitters add so much subtlety and they like balance the flavor of a cocktail, and you can induce so much magic into your cocktails and and other beverages with bitters.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

I'm kind of in your boat, in that bitters were not really something that I ever considered.

SPEAKER_00 4:29

They're I'm I know they're a primary ingredient in well, old fashions, Manhattan's, things like that, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Yeah, and I don't drink a lot of whiskey or bourbon drink. So that's not something that's come up. And people like you'll go to a German restaurant and they'll have all their um digestive because that's basically what bitters are on the wall. And I so I've had them and I'm like, Well, um, I don't really think about it much until we started doing this podcast, and then I got obsessed with the idea.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

Obsessed with it. It happens, right? Because in my witchcraft cocktail book by uh Julia Helena Hadas, yes, there was one of her recipes, I believe it was her version of the aviation cocktail, which is you know one of my all-time favorites. It's a um it's defin it's a 1920s cocktail, it's so fantastic, and she added lavender bitters to it, to her version. And I went, oh, wait, there's lavender, you know, and I do you like lavender? I know you're not as into lavender. No, I like lavender. Do you like in a cocktail?

SPEAKER_01 5:35

You know what? I don't think I have done enough experimentation, and this is now homework I am charging myself.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

So they brought a depth a depth to it that was a little different, and so I started adding it like um I have there's a cleansing lemon drop that she has also in the book, and I started making a for my own version of that and adding a couple of dashes of lavender bitters, and it like it's not like you get this really kick of lavender, it's super subtle, but it just brings this whole new flavor to it, which is really nice.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

So I think that was my problem with bitters too, is all I was familiar with was the Angostura bitters, right? And like this has opened my eyes. Like, I just bought a book on bitters, like a whole book about it. I love it. I like placed in order with an Italian company. Oh my god, I can get like serious. I haven't had a hobby hobby in so long because of work and parenting and everything else. And now I have time for a hobby.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

Yay!

SPEAKER_01 6:45

And my hobby is cocktails.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

It's a great hobby. If you're not familiar with bitters, you might be wondering, what the heck are you guys talking about? Okay, well. You may be wondering that a lot when you watch our podcast. I mean, fair, fair, 100% fair. Um, sometimes I wonder what the heck we're talking about when we're yeah. Um, so bitters are highly concentrated, alcohol-based, although in these modern times you can buy non-alcoholic versions of bitters.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

Um just be careful if you actually if you need it for sobriety reasons, right, and you want to make sure that there's zero alcohol, make sure you check into what you're doing because things only have to be like they things can still have a percentage of alcohol. Right. Still be considered non-alcoholic. There are if it's important for you to have zero alcohol, you need to definitely check on what you're double check everything.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

Yes, double check everything. And then there's a couple, um, I know there's at least one company that their bitters are definitely zero alcohol. And I'm gonna have to look into what that company was.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

Um, because bitters are just a place to be extra sure because it's very difficult to make bitters without alcohol.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

Right.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

It is very difficult to make shelf stable.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

That's why, yeah, that's why typically homemade bitters are used with alcohol because I mean that's how it's done. I didn't even attempt to do non-alcoholic.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

It was do it with vinegar, but it changes the whole taste of it.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

Yeah, that's more of a that ends up more of a shrub, which I'm gonna talk about in another episode. Because shrubs are fun, but they're a very specific thing. And yeah, so if you need zero alcohol, I would actually just recommend buying it from a a company that is reliable and that has that's what they do. I mean, you can fool around, you do you boo. So basically, they're they're they're highly concentrated alcohol-based flavor extracts. Like, think of like your vanilla extract, your almond extract. You know, those are those are made with alcohol too, although again, we now have um low or no alcohol versions, but but they're infused with botanicals like herbs, roots, bark, and fruit. Usually all of them, all together.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

They all have different places in the formula.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

Exactly. They're primarily used in tiny amounts, little dashes to add complexity and balance to cocktails, like an old-fashioned or a Manhattan. And they they essentially they act as seasoning for drinks, kind of like an herb or salt is used to season a soup and to bring bring balance. That's what bitters do for drinks. They cut the sweetness a little bit, they bring balance, they bridge flavors. Um they bring balance to the force, Liz. Exactly. The light side and the dark side of the force are balanced. See, that's the whole problem. There's no bitters. That's why everything's all out of whack.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Yeah, and they wouldn't have needed nine whole movies plus however many spin-offs.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

If they just congention movies. The history of bitters is like super interesting. They originated as medicinal tonics. Essentially, I mean, this goes back to like ancient Egypt. They had written documentation that they put herbs and things in wine, but they actually found more recently some like they were able to test some wine like that had leftovers, I guess, or wine drugs, inside of some um inside of they had been inside like clay pots or whatever, and so they were able to test it, and they were able to s actually prove we correlated this event of opening ancient medicinal wines and the current timeline, like so basically, okay, so bitters. Okay, we're gonna go back to ancient medicine. So archaeologists have found papyri dating from about 1850 BC, that's like 4,000 years ago, um, that contained recipes for concoctions to treat like different ailments um that involved wine mixed with herbs. So these are like the earliest direct evidence for a medicinal substance with alcohol made of alcohol and herbs. Bitters, essentially. And they were usually called that because they usually had bitter herbs in them. So they had a you know, well, you've you've tasted the digestive.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

I mean they're still used widely for that purpose.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Absolutely, and and we're gonna talk about that a little bit. Less here, not here in the States so much, but in other place places, but there's a piece of antiqua that pottery, thank you, that they discovered called the Abydos jar, which is from 3150 BC, so BCE. So that's like even more old than that. It is even more old. Yeah, so that's like 5,000 years old. They contain like basically what it had, you know, evaporated, but there were still bits left on on the inside of the jars. So they were able to test it. And it was wine mixed with coriander, mint, sage, and pine tree resin. Oh, that's interesting. Isn't it? So I'm assuming that was kind of probably the sort of the bitter brought the bitterness. Yeah. Um, and the use of bitters for uh medicinal purposes can also be traced back to ancient China. Not really a surprise there. Uh they still to this day, a lot of Chinese medicine has um l little tinctures of you know medicinal herbs uh that very similar to bitters. Um, India, Africa, and even ancient Greece. Um now then we get to the Middle Ages and up until the 19th century, apothecaries um it kind of started with the monks, as most of these things do. Um, but apothecaries would infuse alcohol with spices, barks, and herbs to create tonics for indigestion, inflammation, malaria, and other ailments. Yes, Amy.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

Well, a lot of the bittering agents used in modern digestifs and bitters is Tintonabark, which is from the fever tree, aka, which is tonic water. Exactly, which is the cure for malaria. Oh, right. Sorry, I forgot that part was the connection. Yes, that's it about genotonic.

SPEAKER_00 13:45

But it is yes, GNT, yes. So GNT cures malaria, but they didn't have GNT back then, so they but similar. But yeah, that's why it literally did cure malaria. It did help people with malaria because it had quinine in it. Um, but it was just in its earlier form, and they probably couldn't tell you, oh, there's quinine in this bark, which does this to this disease. They just knew this worked.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

And those trees were often called fever trees because of the medicinal use. Exactly. And that's my favorite brand of tonic water, this fever tree.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

Same. I love fever tree tonic water. There are other good tonic waters, but that's my favorite. So I'll just shut up again for a while. I'm so excited about the medieval botany. Because you're gonna go be a medieval botanist and tell us all kinds of stuff. Or my excitement about medieval botany. So for some early Americans, uh, and I'm by early Americans I'm talking about the colonists, not the indigenous people. For early Americans, drinking bitters was like a morning ritual. A lot of bars, the pubs would have drams of these little medicinal bitters, little tiny bottles, and they'd with and then they'd like usually they usually had Madeira or rum or brandy as like the base alcohol. And then they'd be flavored with juniper, mint, orange peel, spice bush berries, which apparently have a similar flavor to allspice, and artemisia, which we found out is the beautiful name for Mugwort. And yeah, we don't we're not calling it Mugwort anymore. It's our it's our Artemisia. They would go down to the pub in the morning, they'd get their bitters, they'd down their bitters as I guess to get their digestion going.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

But would they also put them in alcohol just to make it taste better? So it's just like, oh, I'm going to the pub for burning.

SPEAKER_00 15:45

I go to the pub. Absolutely, because because as early as the 18th century, like that's when we have documentation, um, people seeking a cure started, um, you know, it it these were they're kind of nasty tasting, these bitters that they were making back then, and some now. Well, they're not meant to be they're not meant I mean they uh they were a medicine, they weren't necessarily meant to taste good.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Um that's why you need a spoonful of sugar. Mary Poppins knew what was on.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

She knew what was going on, but these people, you know, sugar was expensive, not easily come by as it is today. So they would go down to the pub and they'd say, Hey, George, George was running the pub. George, can you put this bitter into like some whiskey so it'll taste better? And George was like, dollar signs, and George put the bitters in the whiskey. So by 1806.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

George was a giver.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

George was a giver. He he loved to help his clients. So by 1806, the word cocktail was already in use to describe a mix of spirits, water, sugar, and bitters.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

And that's like the beginning of the word cocktail. That's why we're here, y'all. That's why we're here, y'all. Why you get us.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

So there were all kinds of these bitters that were, and they were, you know, all kinds of different companies were, you know, in Europe, here in the US, through other parts of the world, were making and selling these bitters. But of course, we had a fun thing here in the US states called Prohibition. Oh, I've never heard of that. I'm not from the United States. And what happened was it essentially almost it pretty much killed off the bitters industry. Only two companies survived in the US, Angostura and Peshods. Uh, and by the time, like, I mean, Prohibition did a lot for the evolution of cocktails as we know them today, but it nearly killed off bitters, and then when it came back and they were able to drink, you know, do do normal booze again, people were just kind of not into bitters anymore. And then about 20 years ago, they kind of made a resurgence in popularity, but now it's not for medicine, it's for cocktails. And although there are still plenty of folks who swear a few dashes of bitters in soda water will help settle the stomach.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

And in Europe Those people are my husband.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

And in Europe, uh peritifs such as Kampari and Aperol are popular. These are considered drinking bitters. They literally came out of the same like sort of family tree, if you will, as bitters. They're just more drinkable and diluted, and that's why a lot of times they're good, they've got that bitter taste because they've got those same barks in them. Um, and so like the bitters that we're talking about that we're making though, that we're using, are called non-potable because they're too strong to drink on your own. You have to dilute them. Whereas the drinking bitters, like Aperol or whatever, you can just drink them straight. Woo-hoo! So there's a there's a lot of those. But like you also can buy, I think the brand is like Bundenberg or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

Like, there's like liter, literally, like there's little shots of digestive, and it's basically there's like I don't know, if like at these German restaurants that I went to, that I would go to, they'd have like the strip of paper like hanging behind the bar. And um, it was like a bandolier of bitters. Like just oh, with the little stuck. And then you just pull like I'll put it, I'll post a picture of that for y'all because you need to see a bitter's bandolier. Yeah. So they're kind of like now I'm imagining wearing it around.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

They're little sharp. Your digestion.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

Your liver.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

Absolutely. But the bitters that we're talking about, yes, they do have they're much more concentrated. And yes, they do have items that have you know, ingredients that have medicinal benefits, but that's not our primary use, of course. Um so bitters and spells, we're gonna talk about how what what do they have to do with what do bitters have to do with witchcraft and spellcraft?

SPEAKER_01 20:14

And I'm excited to learn this part because this is not something I know about.

SPEAKER_00 20:18

Um because I've been doing a lot of reading about bitters, but not about yeah, because most uh of this is kind of a uh almost a new science, if you will. Um it's it's likely that bitters the more the the potable bitters have been used in witchcraft for a long time. I mean, they've been used as medic medicines. That's part of what witchcraft is about. It's about healing. It's about exactly. I'm a doctor. But bitters in spells, the way we're talking about with cocktails, is a fairly new thing. So obviously, bitter herbs have been used for centuries in spiritual practices and cleansing rituals, and they're known for their healing properties. Bitter herbs are known for their ability to transform, to renew energy. And in witchcraft and magical myth mixology, which is fairly new, cocktails, cocktail bitters are used as concentrated potions. So think of them as like extra little magic bombs that bridge the gap between and you're gonna love this because I love this, between kitchen witchery and traditional herbalism. I don't know, I'm connecting the dots. Oh, you're connecting the dots. Okay, I'm like, what is she doing? She's connecting the dots. So, you know, your medieval herbalism, my kitchen witchery, magical cocktail. Because they're made by infusing herbs, roots, and spices in high-proof alcohol, they act as putting. Potent carriers of energy and intention. So they're bringing tons of energy from the ingredients, from the herbs, from the spices, but they're also carrying your intention, especially if you're making them yourself. Much like adding salt to a dish, a few dashes of bitters can act as a final seal on a beverage-based spell. So it's cool.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

So Shay, I've got a question.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

You know what? And I'm gonna tell you, you've never heard me say this before, but I'm gonna say it right now.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

I'm on the seat of my seat of my pants, the edge of my seat. I'm on the edge of the page.

SPEAKER_00 22:44

Edge of your seat. There you go. You do you boo. I know, you've never heard me say that before. You do you boo. First time that's been said on the plug. So here's the thing. The benefit of making your own bitters is that you have absolute total control over the ingredients, over the intention, and over the energy put into your little potion. Not only that, but you can make flavors that aren't necessarily available or available easily in store-bought bitters. Um, I found when I was making bitters, this was my first time making bitters for this episode. And even with my limited spoons, my limited energy, they were incredibly easy to make, like super, super easy. Um, but they do require a lot of different like little amounts of a lot of different ingredients, and those ingredients aren't always easy to find, or some of them are cut can be kind of expensive, and and so particularly since you only need small quantities of like lots of ingredients, but you usually can't just buy a teaspoon or a tablespoon of chintien root or whatever, you have to buy like a whole like bag of it.

SPEAKER_01 24:08

50 gram minimum.

SPEAKER_00 24:09

Yes, so unless you can forage or you can grow your own, it can become a slightly spendy little hobby here. But if you can't or don't want to make your own, yes, Amy.

SPEAKER_01 24:23

But it is if you do end up making a large batch because you did end up getting a large batch of ingredients, uh-huh. You're set for gifts for all of your friends, all of eternity cocktails.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

Absolutely. And you can always do um, you know, you can always water it down with uh and make a more Aperol type uh drink as well that you can mix with so uh soda water or potable bitters or something? Yeah, potable bitters. You can make you could like if you have a huge batch, but um I was able to actually um I found a recipe for just a really small batch, and that's what I made. And I definitely have enough ingredients left to make more more batches of things in the future. If you can't or don't want to make your own, store-bought is fine. Although you don't have as could much control over the ingredients, you know at least the general uh ingredients that are in there. Uh you know, if you're buying orange bitters, you know the orange is in there. Um that sort of thing. You can kind of look up online which ingredients are in which types of bitters, and you know, and then of course you can put your intent into it uh when you're mixing it with your cocktail. You can even uh you know hold it in your hands when it arrives and put some of your energy into it, and there you go, you've put some of your own energy, energetic energy into it. Energetic energy.

SPEAKER_01 26:01

Woo! Well, and I would say that if you are gonna do store-bought, which again, totes valid.

SPEAKER_00 26:07

Totally legit.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

If you have the ability to look for local companies that make them, you if this is something that is within your price range and is available locally, I would say that would be the next best thing. That would be yourself. Yep. Because you're gonna be able to have the local that local connection. Yes. And it just it cuts down on a lot of that's the scientific word.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

Listen. It reduces your carbon footprint. Oh, speaking of potable. What's in your glass? Speaking of potable, um, this is actually I'm drinking root beer. Now, this is real root beer. It's not root beer that's just like a root beer flavor, like a lot of modern root beers are. It's it's real root beer.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

Um get a lot of good real root beer in Portland, Oregon. I'm telling you right now.

SPEAKER_00 27:05

Yes, you can. Um, because it's the middle of the day, I didn't, and we already recorded one episode today. I did not want to drink another uh cocktail. Uh but since we're not but but you know what? You're at nine at night or something like that. So, you know. Oh, it's after 10 now. So I'm cool. I'm cool. Everything's cool.

SPEAKER_01 27:26

Also, yeah, so there's a lot of jin in here.

SPEAKER_00 27:30

That's hilarious. Yeah, root beer actually come. I mean, it was originally uh uh like a health tonic or whatever, and it turned into a drinking soda.

SPEAKER_01 27:41

Can I ask a question about root beer that you may or may not know the answer to? Okay. Okay, so root beer, obviously root, it's because it's made from roots. Right. And it's brewed similar to beer. I'm just saying this is I think the original is. Sasparilla, right? Sasparilli and they would sell that often at old timey things that I would go to. Yeah. And are they basically the same thing? But sarsaparilli is like the more authentic rooted version because sarsaparilla root is like the main ingredient in sarsarilla. And yeah, I don't know if that was like the precursor to root beer or if they just have no connection whatsoever. Um, you don't have to know the answer.

SPEAKER_00 28:23

No, they they are so I can tell you the answer because I'm gonna I'm going to a site called Bundeberg Brewed Drinks, and they're gonna tell us the difference between root beer and sarsaparilla. So aside from the label, there isn't one. I knew it. I knew sakspirilla was the same. Basically, uh they're this, they're both crafted over three days. Now their particular brand uses licorice root, sarsparilla root, molasses, and vanilla beans. So it's the sarsparilla root that is what root beer is made of. Yes, that's what I thought. Which is the same as sarsaparilla. So it used to be called sarsaparilla.

SPEAKER_01 29:11

This is so educational.

SPEAKER_00 29:13

Yeah. So um, and it does have a lot of benefits. Like when I was doing some research into benefits for my psoriasis, one of the things that sarsaparilla is supposed to help psoriasis, like help reduce the inflammation or whatever. Um I'm like, bring on the root beer. I don't know that there's enough in modern root beer to actually help sarsaparilla. I mean, to actually help psoriasis, but but essentially that's where root beer comes from.

SPEAKER_01 29:41

So how would you know if you don't try?

SPEAKER_00 29:43

I mean, yes, like I yeah, bring it on. So um, so anyway, yes, it's perfectly valid to buy your own, to buy bitters. I have many bitters that I bought, you know. Uh, and but I thought it would be fun to try making them. So I made my first batch of, and I decided to go with cherry vanilla bitters.

SPEAKER_01 30:06

And I am so jealous of this right now. You guys you have no idea how much I want these cherry vanilla.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

It is, you know, I thought it sounded delicious. It's not something that's easy to to buy. And you know, vanilla I mean, cherry just you could I think they I could find like cherry bitters, but they were really expensive. So anyway, so I pulled up all sorts of recipes on the internet, and there's like so many recipes just for this alone, and none of them are the same. So I'm not sure you can actually make bitters wrong because there's so many recipes.

SPEAKER_01 30:44

I don't think you can. I think there's there's a formula and you just more or less kind of adhere to it.

SPEAKER_00 30:51

You kind of adhere to it and you kind of, yeah. So it's half art, half science. Pretty much. That's what this is. So one thing most of them had in common was they used wild cherry bark as the bittering agent rather than gentine uh gentian root, although some of them used both. Um, I just went ahead and used the cherry bark because I love that idea, because on another episode we talked about the properties of cherries and cherry wood. That was such a cool episode.

SPEAKER_01 31:19

It was so magical.

SPEAKER_00 31:20

It was really magical. So it's like, so I found the simplest recipe I could find, made a couple of tweaks to suit my purposes, and came up with a recipe. So a lot of the recipes I found were like basically using a whole bottle of like bourbon or vodka or whatever. And I was like, yeah, I'm not gonna do that. So this recipe only called for one cup, which is like a reasonable amount for doing such nick such a science experiment. I used vodka because that's what I happen to have on hand, although the original was to be called for whiskey or bourbon.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

And I think especially thinking about properties and flavor profiles, bourbon would I hate bourbon. Bourbon would be so good for this. It would really be good for this. Yeah, the way it would work with the cherry and the vanilla. But I also I would never use bourbon.

SPEAKER_00 32:11

Uh and the bourbon, we have a really nice bourbon right now that I'm like, I'm not using a cup of this really nice bourbon to make bitters. So I use vodka, and vodka, the thing about vodka is it's great, it's very versatile, it's very neutral. So um it called for I'll put up the recipe in the show notes, but it basically called for tart cherries, um, sweet cherries. I used frozen that I'd defrosted. Uh, a vanilla bean, cardamom pods. I just used ground cardamom, because whatever. A star anise, and then some wild cherry bark. The wild cherry bark. Where did you find your wild cherry bark? I got it on the Big River.

SPEAKER_01 32:56

Oh, um, because I had no idea. A lot of boat trips, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:01

Yeah, I do. I do go on boats quite a bit. Um, it was essentially the only place that I could sm find like a small amount for just, you know, and not pay like a ridiculous amount of money for like this huge amount of wild cherry bark. Um so essentially it was I grabbed a big old ma so I'm just gonna show you this. Is it all mixed together? And I've got my big old j Yeah. I got my big old mason jar.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

There will be a picture of this on our socials.

SPEAKER_00 33:31

Yes, it's like a it's a quart jar. Like my mother used to use to can things. I happen to have one sitting in my cupboard randomly. Um, which just love jars, y'all. We really care. We really love jars. Jars and bottles. Yes, jars and bottles. So basically took all the ingredients and put them in this jar. And, you know, I didn't have to chop anything. I didn't have to do smash anything, or I just put everything in here. You just had to open the vanilla beans, right? That's it? I opened the vanilla beans and scraped them, and that was it. That was the only thing I had to do. I didn't even have to crush the cardamom pods because like I said, I just used a uh ground cardamom. Um, because I thought buying pods was a little ridiculous when I had so much I have so much cardamom, ground cardamom. I somehow ended up with like three bottles of it. I don't even know. So basically you just kind of want you want to store it, store this, put the lid on, store it in a cool, dry place once a day for one to two weeks, you give it a shake and kind of focus your intent on it. And then after one to two weeks, you strain the liquid through a cheesecloth. I clearly haven't done that yet, or a fine mesh strainer into a dropper bottle or other bitters bottle. Um, and you want to make sure to squeeze the cherries, get you know, squeeze the ingredients, get all the extract out. And then you can store these in a cool dark place for up to a year, it says.

SPEAKER_01 35:03

Probably longer, but if it lasts that long, I'd be shocked.

SPEAKER_00 35:06

I yeah, I would be too. Now, I haven't tried this yet because not ready. Yes, not ready. It's only been a week. So it it says that if the mixture's too harsh, you can add a like a teaspoon of simple syrup to um sort of balance it out. Um, but oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 35:28

Well, one thing you can do after a week, because it's gonna take a while for the it to be it's gonna be super alcohol forward right away. Yeah. Um, so after a week, start maybe giving it a little taste every day. With like Shay is doing with her straw right now, or you can use uh eye trapper. This I mean I'm this is like she is doing with her straw right now, it's not slurping it through the straw. No, no, no. Like put the straw in and put your finger over the top, like the bartender straw. Not she's not slurping. I swear, I swear she's not slurping.

SPEAKER_02 35:58

Wow, that's definitely not slurping.

SPEAKER_00 36:01

That is that's good. I'm gonna give it another week for sure. Um, but this is surprisingly good, and I honestly it would probably be even better if I'd used bourbon. So next time I make this, I'm gonna make I'm gonna buy a bourbon, a less expensive bourbon, but it's still a good bourbon.

SPEAKER_01 36:23

That's for your specific bitters, like what are the magical properties of your bitters?

SPEAKER_00 36:28

So the cherry is emotional balance and prosperity, while the cherry wild cherry bark, as we talked about in our uh other podcasts, is for protection. So you got your protection, you got your emotional balance, you got your prosperity. And then vanilla, which vanilla has so much going on, but it's inner peace, good luck, they use it with money workings and personal empowerment. And then cardamom, I love cardamom, it's like my favorite spice, and it's about attracting love, prosperity, mental clarity, and it also acts as a powerful uh energetic protection tool, like lots of protection in this, and then anise, um sorry, anis, uh protection, luck, enhancing psychic abilities. There you go. So if you're gonna do play with any of that, and cleansing negativity. So I was like, when I was focusing on this, I was focusing on the balance, uh, the protection, um, the peace, and then of course the um prosperity.

SPEAKER_01 37:41

We're prosperity, which is here, y'all.

SPEAKER_00 37:43

Yeah, we really are. We really are. So um, I do have a little video that I made of check out our YouTube channel for that short.

SPEAKER_01 37:53

You can find it on our Instagram reels.

SPEAKER_00 37:56

And it just shows me putting it together. So um you can watch, it's it's really not difficult. So that's why I say this is really easy. The most difficult part of this whole process was simply sorting sourcing the materials without paying like a hundred dollars for like enormous amounts of things.

SPEAKER_02 38:14

And I will say waiting.

SPEAKER_00 38:15

Yeah, and it does because it doesn't take a lot. Like I think my recipe has the wild, um, the wild cherry bark for the bittering agent, and it only requires like one and a half teaspoons. That's it. So you don't have to put a lot in there. Um, but anyway, uh so yeah, that was but I was able to source a simple recipe, and I can't wait to play more with bitters. So, Amy, what bitter recipe did you try?

SPEAKER_01 38:45

Well, I would like to say that in the script that Jaya wrote, it says Amy is a giant weirdo. Did I? Well, I said that. I mean it says that in the script. I didn't write it later. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 38:58

Where did I write Jamie's uh Amy is? Amy didn't see Amy. No, I don't see that. Amy added that to the script. She printed it out before I made my edit. Yeah, see, I print yeah, I printed the original version and she added later, so I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_01 39:12

So now there's like I can't even pretend it was her. Uh so it says Amy is a giant weirdo. So I have so many plans and I have a lot of cocktail spoons for these kind of projects. But unfortunately, my delivery of the gensin and gentona didn't arrive from Italy where I ordered it. And because I can't order I can't have stuff shipped to me, I don't know what it is, but Portugal has like put a wall around me and is like, no stuff for you. So, in my head, this was my plan. My plan was in in bitters, you have three main parts of bitters. You have your base of your bitter. This is whatever flavor you want to showcase. And so I think probably for Shay's it's the cherry and the vanilla. That's her flavor showcases. And that's about 25% of your total volume. You have your highlight botanical. Oh, actually, okay, for her base, it's cherry. I'm on this right now. Um, the highlight botanical, which is your supporting cast, it lifts the profiles of your bitters and keeps it from being flat. And that includes things like dried citrus peel, coriander, vanilla, cinnamon, star anise, or anise, or whatever. Yeah. I call it star anise, but we don't.

SPEAKER_00 40:34

I call it star anise, but apparently some people call it anise. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 40:37

Well, we don't like those people, even if we're wrong. And that's another 25% or so of your total volume. Yeah. And you have your bittering agent. And that's we've talked about the gention root, but it also includes the cherry bark that Shea would have used. Any kind of medicinal digestive root barks. Uh wormwood, uh, tinchona, genshin. And that's like the main bulk of your overall thing. It's the up to 50%. There can be a sweetening element if you need just something to cut it a little bit, and that's like a nave, honey syrup, whatever. And then when you're done, you want to add some purified water to adjust your ABD alcohol by volume to about 40%. Um, so those are your ingredients. So in my hat is what I have done. I have separate tinctures for each agent. Because I am a cocktail control freak now. And I have a lot of little jars and a lot of little dropper jars and a lot of tinctures. And this is who I'm becoming as a person. I didn't say it was good. The different jars for all of my stuff. You make your little tinctures. Like maybe you have your whatever. I have hazelnut right now. Um, tincturing away. And then you start taste testing at about a week until it gets to where you want. And then once it's there, you strain out the agents and you just you're left with your your liquid tincture. And then you have everything ready. Blend it. Blend it? Interesting. So that's where if I was, if I, the control freak, with a lot of cocktail spoons, was making chasting, I would make the cherry and the vanilla and the bitter and the cherry bark separate. Because now I'm a control freak. And then I would blend it once all the flavors were where I wanted them to be. And then I can add whatever sugar or sweeteners I want, and then the purified water to modify my ABP. However, this is imagination Amy. This is real life Amy. Real life Amy didn't do any of that stuff, so who knows what real life Amy would actually do. She might just skip all those steps and put everything in a jar. What real life Amy did was make a cocktail. I mean, fair. Oh, are you gonna say with bitters? Is that what you're gonna say? Yeah, with potable bitters. Oh, that's that's funny. So this is an Aperol and Amaretto sour. And the original recipe calls for Angostura bitters. But I don't actually even own bitters. Because I was so excited about all of this, and I'm like, that's okay, I'll just make my own. And then the closer we got to this episode, the more I realized I didn't have any of my own. And I had this whole plan that I was gonna go get my own, but then I was like, I'm too tired. And and then, oh, it's not at the store. And then the place I'm like, for sure I will go get them today was not open. And so what I have here is my Aperol and Amaretto sour with gin and anger of this. And what it has in it is gin Aperol, Amaretto, simple syrup, lemon juice, and what I don't have is Dashes of Angosera bitters. But what I do have is um two dashes of a saline solution plus a tonic.

SPEAKER_00 44:13

Seems legit. And it's so good, yeah. I mean April's pretty bitter. I mean, to me. Um, which is why I don't like it. It's too it's too bitter. Um I like PIMS because particularly when you put it into a Pim's cup, um, I've discovered I like that better. Um, but I also like vermouth. I like ver sweet vermouth. I don't like dry vermouth.

SPEAKER_01 44:38

Well you can see like I think it's Emma Ham's episode where we talk about the Aperol spritz and the Vermouth spritz.

SPEAKER_00 44:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:47

And I use tonic water because in addition to the Aperol, the tonic has that quinine.

SPEAKER_00 44:51

The quinine in it. Yes. So that made so you basically essentially sort of m made that between the Aperol and the and the tonic, you've kind of got that vibe going on anyway.

SPEAKER_01 45:02

So you're I was gonna lie and be like, no, no, I totally did it okay.

SPEAKER_00 45:08

No, and it's all fine. It's more fun to like science the shit out of stuff. That's what I think.

SPEAKER_01 45:17

And also, I can't lie to y'all.

SPEAKER_00 45:19

Like, I don't want to break trust. Final thoughts. If you enjoy kitchen witchery and cocktails as much as we do, or you're a medieval botanist, or a I aspire to be. Um, which I assume that you do because you're listening to this podcast. So either you're into those things or you're very lost, which if you're lost, welcome. Welcome. Juana Vas. Um, then it's well worth it to try a simple bitters recipe for yourself and just see how you get on with it. You know? Um, and if you do try, let us know. How'd it go? Please let us know. Was it tasty? Did you like it? Was it good in a cocktail? What cocktail did you make with it? What recipe did you try? We want to hear from you.

SPEAKER_01 46:13

Drop a comment here. Um, send us a DM on Insta. You can email us at clifffingersandcocktails at gmail.com.

SPEAKER_00 46:21

Send pictures of your drinks. We want to see pictures of your pretty cats or your cats. Cats are cats are welcome. I like pictures of cats because cats are cool, but I can't have cats because I'm allergic.

SPEAKER_01 46:34

So all cats are valuable here.

SPEAKER_00 46:38

All pets are valuable. We yes, we like all pets. Again, I have the same problem with dogs. Ellen threatened to get a tarantula. I threatened. I mean I threatened to bury him in the backyard. It's all good.

SPEAKER_01 46:52

This isn't the first time she's mentioned burying him in the backyard. And y'all, I have not laid eyes on that man in eight months.

SPEAKER_00 46:59

Well, you've also lived in a foreign country for eight months. Not the point. Well, thank you so much for joining us. And be sure to check out our show notes for all the linky dinks, all the recipes. And don't forget to check out our little midi video on me making bitters. Uh and me making this cocktail. And Amy making the cocktail. We have two videos. It's two separate videos, so check them both out. It's a fun, it's a fun little video that you do like it. Um, smash that like button. Share, subscribe, comment. And we will see you next time right here on Cliffhangers and Cocktails.

SPEAKER_02 47:47

Bye!

SPEAKER_00 47:48

Bye.