#celery bitters

The bitter Truth cocktail bitters traveler’s set.

Les bitters dans les cocktails sont un peu ce qu’est le sel à la cuisine, un truc dont on peut se passer dans certaines recettes mais qui relève d’une absolue nécessité dans bien des cas. Imaginez un peu un old fashioned sans Angostura ou un sazerac sans Peychaud’s, oui imaginez la tristesse qui se lit sur le visage du dipsomane à qui on aurait servi un bourbon au sirop de sucre, car oui, un old…

Imbolc or St.Brigid's day as it is also referred to, is synonyms with the blackthorn tree. It is professed that once Imbolc arrives the blackthorn will blossom. In honor of this day, let me introduce you to the Imbolc Sloe Gin Cocktail. 

You will need:

50ml Sloe Gin

6 Poitín steeped blackberries (you could use blackberries steeped in any strong liquor. I like too steep mine for a minimum of 3 months) + 1 to garnish

The juice of one quarter of a clementine + a slice to garnish

1 teaspoon of caster sugar

35 ml Soda Water

2/3 dashes of Celery Bitters

Crushed ice

Serves two people.

Muddle your clementine juice, sugar and blackberries in a mixing glass.

Pour over your Sloe Gin and add the Celery Bitters, Shake well to dispense all of your flavours.

Fill your glasses 1/3 full of crushed ice.

Strain your Sloe gin mixture between the 2 glasses.

Add Soda Water to taste and garnish with a steeped blackberry and a slice of clementine.

Bloody Marys

Soup

I'm quite a fan of the Martini. No surprise really. I like gin, I like vermouth. I pretty much like any combination thereof.

There's a huge variety of different Martinis. They vary by type of vermouth, type of gin, quantities, type of bitters. Different ones are to different tastes, and different people prefer different styles. It's all subjective whether one is better than another.

Except this one. This one is the best Martini recipe. You should make this one.

4 parts No. 3 gin

1 part cocchi americano

2 dashes bitter truth celery bitters

Garnish with a twist of grapefruit (a twist of lemon + some grapefruit bitters is also very acceptable)

Supposedly Winston Churchill's instructions for making a Martini were "you should observe the vermouth from across the room while making it". I suspect this is apocryphal, but nevertheless the term "Churchill Martini" seems to get colloquially used for what is basically a cocktail glass full of cold gin.

That's not what I'm drinking tonight.

Having previously observed that Cocchi Americano is delicious, it seemed a shame to give it such a minor role in the cocktail, so I thought I'd try a Martini which was much heavier on it that was traditional. So basically we have the opposite of a Churchill Martini. Let's call it a, well, Godwin's Martini.

50ml Gin Mare

25ml Cocchi Americano

2 dashes of Bitter Truth celery bitters

Just to complete the sacrilege (by which I mean "Because I'm lazy, drinking on my own and they're easier to wash up") I served it in a tumbler rather than in a cocktail glass (not on the rocks though. That would be a step too far).

This is actually pretty good.

Between the Gin Mare and the celery bitters this drink is almost savoury on the initial sip. You get the celery and rosemary flavours quite strongly up front, then as you swallow you get more of the sweetness from the Cocchi, then the bitterness you'd expect from the Cocchi on the swallow with the celery flavours joining back in on the party.