My Bitter Half....

I am a woman possessed.

There's a certain magic to the addition of bitters to a cocktail that I hadn't fully appreciated until rather recently: It had always seemed kind of arbitrary to me, the way they are added- just a dash or two, and no more- to so many different drinks. I realize now that's a bit like saying vanilla is not really necessary for chocolate chip cookies. If you forget to add it, people will notice. But probably more accurately, it's like the difference between Italian sausage and a Bratwurst: it's all in the seasoning, and it's a whole different animal! So in the same way that one discovers the nuances of cooking ethnic dishes with different characteristic spices, so have I opened my eyes and awakened my palate to all of the subtleties bitters can bring to the bar. Now that I've fallen under the voodoo spell of bitters I can't get enough of the stuff, and I'm throwing them into just about every drink I make at home now, just to see what all the different varieties and combinations thereof can do....

It started with one, just one purchase of a bottle of Angostura bitters so I could start making my beloved Manhattans at home. "I won't need more than that for quite some time- bitters are bitters, right?," I thought to myself. And then one of my favorite bartenders, Julian, had to go and make me a Manhattan with orange bitters, insisting up, down, and six ways from Sunday that changing those two little dashes could make all the difference in the world. And he wasn't kidding! So off I skedaddled to my nearest Binny's for a bottle of the much revered Regan's Orange bitters. Then, the VeeV contest happened in May, and I went bat-shizzle hibiscus crazy and had to have that darned Burlesque bitters from Bittermens, too. I had it shipped all the way from Boston because I could not rest until I'd tried it with the VeeV. And since I was at it anyway, then I had to try the more anise-forward Peychaud's if I was ever going to make a proper Sazarac.... Sometimes, you don't really want to shove the genie back into the dasher bottle ;)

Today, it was the siren call of Fee's Grapefruit that lured me off the safety of the upper decks. This week's experiments involve cocktails made with beer, and this made me think of those hundreds of little wedges of citrus I've been served over the years with my lovingly pulled pints of ales, lagers, and Belgian-style wheats, which also in turn made me think of Margaritas and what a love child born from the marriage of both would taste like. And then there was that gosh darned Grapefruit Bitters, staring at me from the shelf at my neighborhood liquor store.... I tried to look away, but I was powerless against it's promises of crisp, thirst-quenching euphoria on such a smarmy, hell-mouth kind of day. I guess I'm still a sucker for a sweet talker....

So tonight I mingle and flirt with lager, tequila, lime, and my new Fee's; who knows where the hell this party will take us (just don't tell Grapefruit that I've already made a date with his cousin, Fee's Peach!)