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Making Bitters at Home
A beginner's guide to making cocktail bitters — how they work, a straightforward base recipe, flavor variations to explore, and how to bottle and store your finished product.
Making your own bitters is one of the most rewarding projects in home bartending. A bottle of bitters transforms a cocktail, and a bottle of bitters you made yourself transforms your entire relationship to the craft. Here's how to do it properly.
What Bitters Actually Are
Bitters are high-proof alcohol (typically 35–45% ABV) infused with bittering agents (gentian root, cinchona bark, wormwood), aromatic botanicals (spices, herbs, citrus peel), and sometimes sweetener. They're used in dashes — small amounts that add complexity, balance, and aroma without contributing significant volume or alcohol to a cocktail.
Think of bitters as the seasoning in a cocktail recipe: you wouldn't taste a pinch of salt in isolation, but the dish is flat without it. The same principle applies — you won't taste the bitters distinctly in an Old Fashioned, but remove them and the drink feels incomplete.
Why Make Your Own?
Commercial bitters from Angostura, Peychaud's, and Regans' are excellent. Making your own isn't about replacing them — it's about creating custom flavor profiles that don't exist commercially: black walnut bitters for fall cocktails, lavender bitters for floral gin drinks, cardamom bitters for warming winter drinks.
The Base Recipe: Aromatic Bitters
This recipe produces a well-rounded aromatic bitters in the style of Angostura — good in Old Fashioned, Manhattan, and most classic cocktails.
Ingredients
Bittering agents (pick one or two): - Gentian root: 1 teaspoon (the primary bittering agent in most commercial bitters) - Cinchona bark: 1/2 teaspoon (quinine; adds a dry, almost tonic-like bitterness)
Aromatics: - Orange peel (dried): 2 tablespoons - Cinnamon stick: 1 (broken into pieces) - Cardamom pods: 5 (lightly crushed) - Whole cloves: 4 - Star anise: 2 pods - Black peppercorns: 1/2 teaspoon
Optional for complexity: - Dried cherry: 2 tablespoons - Vanilla bean: 1/2 (split, scraped) - Cacao nibs: 1 tablespoon
Base spirit: - 8 oz high-proof neutral grain spirit (Everclear diluted to 60% ABV, or a 100+ proof vodka)
Equipment
- 1 pint mason jar with lid
- Fine-mesh strainer
- Cheesecloth
- Dropper bottles (1 oz or 2 oz) for final product
- Small funnel
Method
Step 1 — Combine and infuse (Day 1–2): Add all botanicals to the mason jar. Pour the spirit over them, seal, and shake vigorously. Leave at room temperature.
Step 2 — Daily shake (Days 1–14): Shake the jar once per day. After 1 week, taste the infusion using a cocktail dropper — it should be intensely bitter and aromatic. Continue infusing up to 14 days for more depth.
Step 3 — Strain: After your infusion period, strain through a fine-mesh strainer. Then strain again through cheesecloth, squeezing the solids to extract maximum flavor.
Step 4 — Bottle: Using a small funnel, fill dropper bottles with your finished bitters. Label with the name and date.
Shelf life: Indefinitely if made with high-proof alcohol. Bitters don't go bad; they may mellow slightly over years.
Flavor Variations
Once you understand the base recipe, you can create custom flavor profiles by swapping out the aromatics.
Citrus Bitters
Replace the warming spices with: - Dried lemon peel: 3 tablespoons - Dried orange peel: 3 tablespoons - Coriander seeds: 1 teaspoon - Cardamom pods: 3 - Gentian root: 1 teaspoon
Best uses: Martinis, gin sours, tequila cocktails. The citrus bitters add brightness and aroma without adding citrus juice.
Chocolate Bitters
- Cacao nibs: 3 tablespoons
- Dried orange peel: 1 tablespoon
- Espresso beans: 1 tablespoon (lightly crushed)
- Vanilla bean: 1 (split)
- Gentian root: 1/2 teaspoon
Best uses: Espresso Martini, Old Fashioned variants, and chocolate cocktails. Exceptional in rum drinks.
Cardamom Bitters
- Green cardamom pods: 15 (crushed)
- Black cardamom pods: 3 (crushed)
- Orange peel (dried): 2 tablespoons
- Cinnamon stick: 1/2
- Gentian root: 1 teaspoon
Best uses: Gin cocktails, Nordic-style cocktails, aquavit drinks. Extraordinary in a Gin Fizz.
Black Walnut Bitters
- Black walnut hulls (dried): 2 tablespoons
- Walnut pieces: 1 tablespoon
- Dried cherry: 2 tablespoons
- Cinnamon stick: 1
- Gentian root: 1/2 teaspoon
Best uses: Autumn whiskey cocktails. The nutty depth is revelatory in a Manhattan or a New York Sour.
Troubleshooting
Too bitter: Add more aromatics and less bittering agent in your next batch. A small amount of simple syrup can also tame excessive bitterness in the finished product.
Not complex enough: Extend the infusion time, or add a secondary infusion (strain the botanicals, add fresh ones to the strained liquid, and infuse for another week).
Too one-dimensional: Add more botanical diversity — the best bitters have 8–12 components working together.
Cloudiness: Normal. You can clarify by using the Clarifying method (freeze the finished bitters, let it thaw through a coffee filter), but most homemade bitters are slightly hazy, which is fine.
Gifting Your Bitters
Homemade bitters in a beautiful dropper bottle with a handwritten label make an extraordinary gift for anyone who loves cocktails. Include a card with two or three cocktail recipes that use the bitters. It's a gift that takes $15 of materials and produces something genuinely impressive.