OSMO Salt x Four Roses Toasted Vanilla Bourbon Salt

This jar of OSMO salt and a bottle of Four Roses Small Batch were provided as part of a media kit to announce the launch of the product with no strings attached.

Sorry about missing Tuesday. I was out on a rare date with my wife. We went out for lunch, we went to antique stores, we went to record stores, and we stopped off at a local brewery. It was a lovely day spent with the love of my life. I wouldn’t necessarily call it romantic. I mean, we stared at our phones more often than we stared into each other’s eyes while we had our beers. But after 25 years of marriage, I think that the fact that we are still talking to one another and consider each other best friends is romantic enough to count. So…yeah. Let’s just say we were out on a romantic Day Date that was too much fun to allow for writing.

And it is with romance in my heart that I write about tonight’s…salt?

Bill? Is that right? Salt? Are we talking about salt tonight? You know this is a bourbon site, right? Ok, I sure hope you know what you are doing here.

Yes, dear reader, salt. Salt that is a co-branded collaboration between Four Roses Bourbon and OSMO Salt. Now, why did I bring up romance at the beginning? Well, as we all know, the foundation legend of the Four Roses brand involved a young man who was looking to marry a young lady. He asked her to wear a corsage of four roses to the ball if she was going to accept his proposal. And, as the legend has it, she did just that. It’s a nice story. There is evidence that it is nothing more than a legend, but what would be the fun in that? And besides, Valentine’s Day is coming up soon.

So, how does this salt taste? What makes it different than other salts that you might have on hand? Well, it is sweet. I’ll have tasting notes below, but here is what the PR firm had to say:

Four Roses was built on a 134 year old love story, making the bourbon the perfect spirit to toast with on Valentine’s Day. This year, Four Roses sought out to create an offering to elevate the date-night-in and make restaurant quality drinks and meals right at home. Tapping OSMO Salt -  the premium salt company created by celebrity Chef Nick Digiovanni intended to easily turn homemade dishes into Michelin-quality meals - for its first-ever culinary collab, the result is the new Toasted Vanilla Bourbon Salt, perfect for rimming bourbon drinks and for home chefs to add a robust yet sweet final touch to meals. 

OSMO Salt x Four Roses Toasted Vanilla Bourbon Salt

Purchase Info: This sample was provided free of charge by the producer for review purposes. It can be purchased from the OSMO website for $18.99 for a 3.5 oz jar. You can also buy the salt with a bottle of Four Roses Small Batch from ReserveBar for $60.99.

Nose: This is a caramel and vanilla bomb on the nose.

Mouth: Caramel, vanilla, and coconut, which transition into salt as the flavors wash off.

Thoughts: I'm probably not the target market for this, as my usual cocktail is whiskey in a glass. I like it as much as I like any salt, but I’m not really a “glass rimmer,” if you know what I mean. That said, though, if you make cocktails on the regular, this could be an interesting addition to your tool kit.

Along with the salt and bourbon came a cocktail recipe that I quite enjoyed. Created by Abby Martinie, Four Roses brand ambassador and mixologist, it contains raspberries, bourbon, Crème de Cacao, brown sugar, and lemon juice. Of course, the drink is garnished with tonight’s salt, as seen in the photo above. I really like this one. And if you are a person who likes pink, fruity drinks (or know someone who does), this is one that it wouldn’t hurt to keep in your recipe holder.

Twisted Sour

• 1.5 oz Four Roses Small Batch Bourbon

• 0.5 oz Crème de Cacao

• 0.75 oz lemon juice

• 0.5 oz brown sugar syrup

• 3-4 muddled raspberries

Combine all ingredients in a shaker. Add ice and shake. Rim rocks glass with Osmo Toasted Vanilla Bourbon Salt. Double strain over fresh ice into a rimmed rocks glass.

Cocktail Thoughts: If you like raspberry, this is pretty good. I'm not convinced the salt adds more than an aesthetic touch after the first sip, but if you are making a cocktail for your loved one (and the theme of the night is romance, after all), you might as well make it as pretty as possible, right? Though the smell of the salt on the rim does add a little bit of a sweet note as you sip.

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Fever-Tree Distillers Cola

When I was a child, a soda was a treat. Even if it was in the refrigerator, you had to ask to have one and often times the answer would be no. As I grew older, soft drinks became a bigger part of a young person’s life. I still remember when the first soda machine was put into my high school cafeteria. I remember that the old folks grousing: “what’s next, a McDonald’s instead of healthy food?” To my knowledge a McDonald’s was never brought in.

Of course when I was older I had soda all the time. If one could binge drink soda, I did. Eventually, I decided to get healthy and gave up almost all soda. Though a Diet Pepsi was my breakfast most mornings until I quit going into an office. These days, instead of soda being a treat, it’s what I have when there is nothing else to be had. Most of my soda consumption comes on road trips from small gas stations with even smaller beverage selections.

Except of course when I want a highball. Most of the time I use soda water, rum or gin and some citrus. But every so often a Rum and Coke, a Cuba Libre (basically a rum and coke with lime juice), or a Bourbon and ginger ale just sounds too good to pass up. It was with that thought in mind that I picked up the Fever-Tree Distillers Cola from my closest Total Wine. Though it was in shelved with the bourbon, it made me really want a rum and cola. So I tossed it in the cart with everything else.

Fever-Tree Distillers Cola

Purchase Info: $5.99 for a 4 pack of 200 ml bottles at Total Wine, Burnsville, MN.

Details: No artificial sweeteners or high fructose corn syrup.

Nose: Spicy and sweet. Notes of caramel and baking spice. It smells like a Cola.

Mouth: Sweet. Notes of citrus oils, caramel, and a touch of wintergreen as filtered through a cola base.

Thoughts: This is the most interesting cola that I've ever had. I know it was developed as a mixer, but I like it by itself. It's a big step up from a Coke. But since it is a mixer, we need to try a couple of spirits with it. Let's do the Plantation rum from Tuesday in a rum and cola, maybe we will even get fancy and make a Cuba Libre and then let’s mix this with bourbon as well.

To see how this fares when used as part of a highball I made four versions. Two used rum and two used bourbon. Each spirit was combined with either Fever-Tree or Coke. In both cases, the Fever-Tree was the winner when tasted blind. The Coke tasted artificial and almost chemically. I don't normally like bourbon and cola and the Fever-Tree was no exception. I do however like rum and cola and I like a Cuba Libre even more. This paired wonderfully with the Plantation O.F.T.D. so I will be using the rest of this four-pack in that way. I'm very happy with the purchase and this may be my go-to cola going forward.

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Did you enjoy this post? If so, maybe you’d like to buy me a cup of coffee in return. Go to ko-fi.com/bourbonguy to support. And thank you, BourbonGuy.com is solely supported via your generosity.

Of course, if you want to support BourbonGuy.com and get a little something back in return, you can always head over to BourbonGuyGifts.com and purchase some merch. I’ve made tasting journals, stickers, pins, and more.

Smoke Boards: Cocktail Smoking Kit

When I was a kid, my brother and I visited my father every other weekend as part of my parent’s divorce agreement. My dad and younger brother were (and are) avid outdoorsmen. And since I wasn’t interested in hunting, fishing, trapping, etc (like, at all, not even a little bit), that left me at his place watching my even younger siblings from his second marriage.

As you might imagine, Saturday afternoons in a rural trailer park in the middle of Northern Wisconsin weren’t very exciting for a 10- to 12-year-old boy. This rural trailer park was surrounded by a creamery that made cheese, a post office, a bar, a car/farm equipment dealership, and a cemetery. That was the “town” I spent about 52 days a year living in as a child and young teen. And I wasn’t thrilled by it. Mostly because the only things to do were to get into trouble or watch tv. And I did plenty of both while babysitting.

Now, this was long enough ago that rural cable systems were basically non-existent. My dad had a tall antenna that was able to pull in the ABC, CBS, and PBS stations. No NBC station and FOX wasn’t even a thing yet, at least not locally. And while I would watch ABC and CBS for my Saturday morning cartoon fix, the afternoons on those stations were pretty boring. So I’d switch over to PBS and watch what they had on. Basically a lot of This Old House and various cooking shows.

I loved the cooking shows as a kid, which is weird since I was a super picky eater. But that love never went away. As a young adult, early Food Network was my favorite thing for a while. These days about half of my YouTube subscriptions are cooking channels. Which is how I stumbled upon the idea that I wanted to start smoking meat. And I jumped into that whole-heartedly. It’s become my favorite hobby.

So it was only natural that when I walked past the Smoke Boards booth at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, that I‘d be easily convinced to stop and give their cocktail smoking kit a look. And after talking to the guys manning the booth, I was convinced to grab a kit for myself. I haven’t had many smoked cocktails. But the ones I’ve had are usually more theater than flavor. A local restaurant serves their smoked manhattan in a smoke-filled box. It is dramatic, but the flavor of the drink isn’t affected that much. The folks at Smoke Boards told me that their kit would do better. So let’s check out how it works.

Step 1: Light the chips on fire.

Place a small amount of one of the types of the kit’s wood chips on the smoke board and light them on fire using the provided torch.

Step 2: Smother the fire.

Or wait for it to go out. Place the provided mason jar over the smoldering chips to allow it to fill with smoke.

Step 3: Add your whiskey.

Put the cover on the jar and shake it up to dissolve the smoke. I’ve tried adding just the whiskey and adding the entire cocktail. I got better results infusing the whiskey and then making the cocktail out of the infused whiskey than I did by infusing the premade cocktail.

Step 4: Make the cocktail and enjoy it.

It really is that easy. It took me a few tries to nail down the best procedure for me. But, I tell you what. I have a new appreciation for smoked cocktails. A smoked Old-Fashioned is delightful on a cool Autumn evening. The smoke isn’t as strong as it is in the various smoked American Whiskeys on the market so it doesn’t over-power the drink, it just sort of adds another layer to the drink. All in all, I like this. They do sell extra containers of chips on their site, but I’m actually kind of excited to try some of the many smoking chips I currently have in the house to see how they play. I’m thinking an Old Fashioned smoked over peach wood might be tasty.

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Just A Bunch of Things I Found on Vacation

I am an impulse buyer. Sure, I can make it through a grocery checkout line without buying a candy bar. But it isn’t likely that I will leave a liquor store, festival or distillery without buying at least something. Here are a few of the ones I picked up last month while visiting Tennessee and Kentucky. Even though some of them travelled almost as far as I did to get there.

Lincoln County Reserve Bourbon Barrel Aged Maple Syrup

Until my teenage years, we never bought syrup. My family made it. We tapped the trees and boiled the sap into syrup. But then we had a fire and the sugar shack we boiled sap in burned down. And since it was a collaboration between my grandparents and one of their cousins, the shack never got replaced. My brother has decided to carry on the tradition though, in order to teach his kids. I however buy mine from a 92-year-old lady who has been making it forever.

So, one could say that I am quite the connoisseur of maple syrup. Either that or you could say that I’ve been spoiled by amazing maple syrup my entire life. And I’m pretty biased. I really do think that the best maple syrup comes from the upper midwest. Fight me Canada. That said, I do like trying new things and so when I saw Lincoln County Reserve selling Bourbon Barrel Aged Maple Syrup at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, I knew that a bottle would be coming home with me. And funny thing, that syrup was made in Wisconsin. Merrill, Wisconsin, a city of fewer than 10,000 people and an innumerable number of maple trees. This bourbon was aged in 10 gallon used bourbon barrels from Distillery 291 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

But is it any good? In a word, yes! It’s buttery with a nice bourbon flavor. The bourbon is not overpowering bringing a lot of brown sugar and caramel notes. It has a great mouthfeel, nice and thick. And let me tell you, it is amazing on French Toast and sausage. Highly recommended.

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Freddie's Old Fashioned Root Beer

Let me tell you about my college life. I had a wife, a kid, a job, and a major that was deceptively time-consuming. You might think that a fine art degree would be a cakewalk, but at least at the university I went to, you’d be wrong. Multiple all-nighters per week were extremely common as, due to our finances, I tried to fit a five-year plan for college into as few quarters as possible. One way we saved money was by renting an old farmhouse about a half-hour outside of town. Honestly, it was a pretty nice place. It was maintained by the local student-housing property management company. Meaning it was not maintained at all except by the elderly owner who was paying the property management company to, supposedly, do all of that for him.

Anyway, this farm was near a very small village of about 800 people. There was one grocery store, though it didn’t carry much. But one thing it did carry was Dr. McGillicuddy’s Root Beer Soda. I had no idea that the liqueur brand had lent its name to a soda, but every time I went to that tiny store for something, a bottle of that root beer came out with me. Eventually, I finished college, moved, and couldn’t find anywhere that carried the stuff. Until I first visited the Buffalo Trace Distillery. Apparently, Sazerac was the producer of that root beer, and one of the few places it could be purchased was at the distillery. I was super happy to pick up a six-pack every time I visited.

In 2019, Sazerac rebranded that root beer after beloved tour guide Freddie Johnson. He is a great guy and this is a great root beer. So I think it is a great match. But how does it taste? Caramel at first, followed by wintergreen. Unlike some root beers, the wintergreen is not overpowering though. This is subtle. After that is vanilla. The vanilla lasts long after you swallow. The thing that makes this so good is how well-balanced these flavors are. They're melded together so well that it is hard to tell where one ends and another begins. It has a nice creamy mouthfeel as well. This is my favorite root beer. A good part of that is nostalgia, but let an old man have that, ok?

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MB Roland Kentucky Dark Cherry Moonshine

This was a gift from my friends at MB Roland, but I found a great use for it so I wanted to share. Thought I’d mention that since everything else on this post was purchased.

The folks at MB Roland are some of the nicest people I’ve met. And one side effect of them being so nice, I gave their whiskey a try shortly after they opened. That whiskey was the start of my personal whiskey journey. So I guess what I’m saying is that if you enjoy reading BourbonGuy.com, on some level you have them to thank.

We visited them while on vacation, spent the afternoon just hanging out, and since they are good friends we were given a bottle of MB Roland Dark Cherry Moonshine. Something we hadn’t tried before. I’m a big fan of this in cocktails. Especially this Cherry Manhattan from FoodandWine.com. Scroll down the page, it’s worth it. But since this could be consumed alone, let’s give it the ol’ tasting notes treatment.

Ripe, dark cherries on the nose. The month is sweet with a strong, natural dark cherry flavor. No artificial flavors or cough syrup flavors here. Very little alcohol flavor so be careful drinking neat if you really love cherries. Works great in cocktails like the one above. I could also see this playing nicely with lime juice in a cocktail or even a highball. It does need to be refrigerated after opening, but a little fridge space is a small price to pay for delicious cocktails.

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Old Forester Oleo-Saccharum Lemon Oil Syrup

I first heard about Oleo Saccharum in David Wonderich’s book Punch. I reviewed it here. Spoiler, I really liked it. It’s basically sugar and lemon peels left together until the sugar draws the lemon oils out of the peels and dissolves in it, creating a syrup. Easy to do, if a little time-consuming. So it was with interest that I saw this little bottle of premade Oleo-Saccharum at the Old Forester Distillery Gift Shop in Louisville, KY. I was staying in the Whiskey Row Lofts which are basically upstairs and had the thought that I might make a few cocktails with it. I did not and so it came home with me.

But what did I think of it once I did open it? It has a strong lemon nose. It’s very sweet and lemony on the mouth when you taste it by itself. It does really well in the champagne cocktail on the bottle (1 oz bourbon, 0.5 oz syrup, 4.5 oz brut sparkling wine, ice, lemon twist). It’s good, but at the end of the day, a lemon oleo-saccharum is too easy to make for me to buy this again. Especially since you use a quarter of the bottle for one cocktail. Maybe if I was on the road, travelling. But not for home use.

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Did you enjoy this post? If so, maybe you’d like to buy me a cup of coffee in return. Go to ko-fi.com/bourbonguy to support. And thank you, BourbonGuy.com is solely supported via your generosity.

Of course, if you want to support BourbonGuy.com and get a little something back in return, you can always head over to BourbonGuyGifts.com and purchase some merch. I’ve made tasting journals, stickers, pins, posters, and more.

Elijah Craig Old Fashioned Week and Elijah Craig Old Fashioned Cocktail Syrup

The cocktail syrup reviewed below was provided by Heaven Hill as part of a media kit announcing Elijah Craig Old Fashioned Week. Also included was branded merchandise which I will be holding onto for a future giveaway. These were provided with no strings attached.

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I’ll admit it. I’m late to letting folks know about this. In fact, I’d missed the press release when this was announced and only found out about it when a media kit arrived on my doorstep. I don’t normally reprint Press Releases, but I’ll be quoting the included Press Release below as I think that the cause they are promoting is a good one.

Dear Friend of Heaven Hill Distillery,

Welcome to the inaugural Elijah Craig Old Fashioned Week. While we knew the original concept for this week would be great, as 2020 morphed into a banner year of unprecedented times we quickly understood the greater impact we could have on the hospitality industry. Many of our friends and family in this community have felt the effects of COVID-19, so to support them we have committed to raising up to $100,000 for the Restaurant Workers' Community Foundation from this week's events.

You'll see some familiar faces on our schedule at OldFashionedWeek.com, where you can register for events or donate. The event lineup includes 'Old Fashioned Bar Trivia' with Heaven Hill Distillery Ambassadors Bernie Lubbers and Jack Choate, 'The Art of Crafting Ice' with Portland-based bartender and author Jeffrey Morgenthaler, and ‘Elevating Your Home Bar’ with Devin Kennedy, bartender at Pouring Ribbons.

Chef Richard Blais headlines the week as host of an "Old Fashioned Cocktail Hour" on Wednesday, Oct. 21. Included in this media kit are several items to assist in your preparation of an Elijah Craig Old Fashioned, as well as other necessary cocktail accessories for your home bar. The Elijah Craig Old Fashioned Syrup was specifically formulated to highlight the flavor profile of Elijah Craig Bourbon within this classic cocktail. Starting at 8 p.m. eastern time, Chef Blais will take you through a night of discovering the Greatness Within® the hospitality community as he shares recipes, tips and tricks, and Q & A sessions with special guests. This live event will be available on OldFashionedWeek.com, as well as streamed on Elijah Craig's YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.

Join us as we raise a glass to celebrating one great cocktail for an even greater cause through Elijah Craig Old Fashioned Week.

Though my own businesses have suffered throughout the pandemic, I know that there are others out there that have it worse than I do. I still have the income to pay the bills and even buy whiskey. Many, especially in the hospitality industry do not. If you have the means, please join me in helping out by making a donation to the Restaurant Workers Community foundation at OldFashionedWeek.com.

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Elijah Craig Old Fashioned Cocktail Syrup

Purchase Info: This was graciously provided as part of a media kit. Pricing was not included but a google search showed it selling online for about $12.

Details: 4.06% ABV. 40 calories per 0.5 fl. oz.

Mouth: Orange, lemon, ginger, cinnamon, and a bitter note.

In an Old Fashioned: (I followed the recipe on the bottle of 2 oz Elijah Craig to 1 tablespoon of syrup in an ice-filled glass garnished with a cocktail cherry.) Sweet, cinnamon, ginger, Vanilla, mint. As they stated, it plays nicely with Elijah Craig in an old fashioned.

Thoughts: I like but don’t love this. It makes a sweeter Old fashioned than I, personally, care for. But then my favorite Non-Alcoholic drinks are black coffee and soda water with bitters in it. The flavors pair very nicely with Elijah Craig, so if you like a sweet Old Fashioned and don't feel like making a batch of simple syrup, then this is the perfect option for you. I probably wouldn't buy it for my home bar due to the sweetness level, but I can certainly see a place for it for those with a sweet tooth. Or for those who need to make a batch of Old Fashioneds for a gathering... Once we can have gatherings again.

Though when we can have gatherings again, I’ll probably be heading to a bar to have my favorite bartenders make it for me. And tip them generously for their work.

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Did you enjoy this post? If so, maybe you’d like to buy me a cup of coffee in return. Go to ko-fi.com/bourbonguy to support. And thank you, BourbonGuy.com is solely supported via your generosity.

Of course, if you want to support BourbonGuy.com and get a little something back in return, you can always head over to BourbonGuyGifts.com and purchase some merch. I’ve made tasting journals, stickers, pins, and more.

Making Bitters Using a Sous Vide Cooker

A long time ago I found a set of instructions online that detailed how you could make infused vodka in an afternoon instead of in weeks. It was written by a bartender at what seemed to be a high-end bar. Now you might wonder why anyone, much less a skilled bartender, would want to make an infused vodka. Today, that might be a good question, but flavored vodka was a big thing at the time. And, hopefully, there will be always a certain kind of establishment who will take pride in offering a house-made product to discerning patrons.

But back to those instructions. I found these long enough ago that they no longer exist online. But they were so stupidly simple that I never had to go back to look for them again. Now I didn’t know this at the time, but the instructions were describing a large industrial-grade Sous Vide cooker. I didn’t know what Sous Vide was, but I could understand the concept behind it. Keep a water bath at a precise temperature for a determined length of time. Easy peasy. Using a very large stockpot, a thermometer, and a quick hand on the stove controls, I used those instructions to make a lot of infusions. I was mostly just playing around, but the lemon peel infusions were the first step in some mighty tasty limoncello.

Now being the kind of guy who likes to make things for myself, I’ve been making orange bitters at home for years. I even wrote about it way back in 2014. Originally I used the Orange bitters recipe in Brad Thomas Parson’s book Bitters: A Spirited History of a Classic Cure-All. But these days, I’ve modified the recipe some.

A couple of years ago I bought my first Sous Vide cooker. I love to cook, I’m a gadget guy and heck, Sous Vide cookers were finally available for less than $100. I’ve made the best steaks I’ve ever tasted using that thing.

This year, I finally realized that I could put these two things together. Instead of waiting for three weeks for my bitters to be done, I could use the Sous Vide cooker to easily make warm infused bitters. Now the warm infusion method doesn’t work for everything. Just like a cold brew tea and coffee taste different than a warm brew, using the warm infusion method will change the flavor. If you are infusing fruits, the result will taste more like cooked fruit than it will fresh fruit. But in some cases, this is actually beneficial so just keep that in mind.

And since this experiment worked so nicely, I thought I’d share my recipe with you.

Spicy Blood Orange & Tangerine Bitters

Ingredients

• 2 Cups Old Grand-Dad 114

• 2 oranges

• 2 tangerines

• 2 Blood oranges

• 4 Whole cloves

• 1/2 star anise

• 8 green cardamom pods, cracked

• 1/2 tsp cassia chunks (or broken cinnamon stick)

• 1/2 tsp gentian root

• 1/4 tsp Black peppercorns

• 1/4 tsp coriander seeds

• 1/4 tsp whole allspice

• 1 cup of water

• 1 ounce rich (2 to 1) simple syrup

Equipment 

• Sous Vide Cooker 

• Food Dehydrator (optional)

• Y-shaped fruit peeler

• 2 mason jars

• Measuring spoons

Instructions

1. Read all the directions and gather your equipment. 

2. With a Y-peeler, zest 1 orange, 1 blood orange, and 1 tangerine. Make them a nice, thick zest and don't be afraid to get some pith on them. Give the zest a rough chop with a large knife. Keep the pieces kinda big as they will shrink.

3. Dry your chopped zest. I use a food dehydrator, but you can also use a baking sheet in a 200° oven.

4. After your dried zest is finished, zest your other three citrus fruits. I avoid the pith on this step, but it won't hurt if some comes along for the ride, you are making “bitters” after all. A little extra bitterness isn’t the end of the world.

5. Place your fresh zest, 1/4 cup of dried zest, and all your spices in a quart-sized Mason jar. Add 2 cups of Old Grand-Dad 114. Close the jar and give it a shake. Make sure all the ingredients are covered, if not add more bourbon and close tightly.

6. Fill your stockpot (or whatever you use for sous vide cooking) with water, set your cooker to 160° F and float your mason jar in the stockpot. There should have been enough headspace in the jar to allow it to float upright. Once the water comes to temperature let it cook for an hour and a half, shaking occasionally. After the cook is complete, do not empty your water bath unless you are finished for the day. You will need it again. 

7. Strain the solids out through a piece of cheesecloth. Set the infused bourbon aside. 

8. Place the solids and one cup of water in a second Mason jar and float in your water bath. Set temp to 160° F and let infuse for 45 minutes. 

9. Strain the solids out through a piece of cheesecloth. Give the solids a squeeze to remove as much liquid as possible. Discard solids.

10. Combine the infused bourbon and infused water together. Add rich simple syrup. Let run through a coffee filter to remove any sediment. Let cool.

11. Decant into small bottles. It is natural for more sediment to settle out, just give it a shake before using. If something starts to grow in the bottle, please discard it. For best flavor, use bitters within a year or so. 

So, right after I finished this, I realized that I didn’t have any bottles. I’d been reusing the same old Angostura bottles for years and had finally tossed them thinking that I’d easily have emptied more when the time came to need them. Well, I did. But then I tossed them too not remembering that I need to save them. After some searching online, I found out that they were called Woozy Bottles and are the same bottles used in hot sauce. The smallest amount that I could get from Amazon was a case of twelve. Needing only four, I wondered to my wife what I would do with the other eight. It was then that she said the most mind-blowing thing: “You know, you could always make other kinds.”

I’m going to be honest with you, that thought had never crossed my mind. So I set out to think of what other kinds of bitters I might want to make. Well, my wife likes cherry bitters in her Old-Fashioneds so that was a no brainer. And I knew just the thing to base it on: my Orange-Spiced Cocktail Cherries. These have been a big hit with everyone who has tried them ever since I developed the recipe. And, since I already had many jars of these cherries in storage, I could even use them to make the bitters. Once again I got out my trusty food dehydrator and got to work sucking the moisture out of them.

Spiced Cherry Bitters

Ingredients

• 2 Cups Old Grand-Dad 114

• 1/2 Cup Dried Orange-Spiced Cherries

• 1/4 cup Orange-Spiced Cherries

• 1 TBSP Dried Orange Peel

• 1 TBSP Gentian Root

• 1 TBSP Cassia Chunks (or broken cinnamon stick)

• 1 TBSP Whole Allspice Berries

• 1 TBSP Juniper Berries

• 1 Star Anise (broken up slightly)

• 1 cup of water

• 1 ounce rich (2 to 1) simple syrup

Equipment 

• Sous Vide Cooker 

• Food Dehydrator

• Small knife

• 2 mason jars

• Measuring spoons

Instructions

1. Read all the directions and gather your equipment. 

2. With a small knife, cut about a cup of Orange-Spiced Cherries in half. Dry your cherries in a food dehydrator (I got impatient and pulled mine out when they were about three-quarters dry, they still worked great).

3. Place your dried cherries, 1/4 cup of non-dried cherries, and all your spices in a quart-sized Mason jar. Add 2 cups of Old Grand-Dad 114. Close the jar and give it a shake. Make sure all the ingredients are covered, if not add more bourbon and close tightly.

4. Fill your stockpot (or whatever you use for sous vide cooking) with water, set your cooker to 160° F and float your mason jar in the stockpot. There should have been enough headspace in the jar to allow it to float upright. Once the water comes to temperature let it cook for an hour and a half, shaking occasionally. After the cook is complete, do not empty your water bath unless you are finished for the day. You will need it again. 

5. Strain the solids out through a piece of cheesecloth. Set the infused bourbon aside. 

6. Place the solids and one cup of water in a second Mason jar and float in your water bath. Set temp to 160° F and let infuse for 45 minutes. 

7. Strain the solids out through a piece of cheesecloth. Give the solids a squeeze to remove as much liquid as possible. Discard solids.

8. Combine the infused bourbon and infused water together. Add rich simple syrup. Let run through a coffee filter to remove any sediment. Let cool.

9. Decant into small bottles. It is natural for more sediment to settle out, just give it a shake before using. If something starts to grow in the bottle, please discard it. For best flavor, use bitters within a year or so. 

Of course since I’d gone this far, it’d be silly to not do an Aromatic Bitters as well, right?

Arok’s Aromatic Bitters

Ingredients

• 2 Cups Old Grand-Dad 114

• 1 TBSP Molasses

• 1 TBSP Gentian Root

• 1 TBSP Cassia Chunks (or broken cinnamon stick)

• 1 TBSP Blade Mace

• 1 TBSP Whole Allspice Berries

• 1 TBSP Dried Orange Peel

• 1 tsp Green Cardamom Pods (cracked)

• 1 tsp Whole cloves

• 1 Star Anise (broken up slightly)

• 1/2 tsp black peppercorns

• 4 pieces Dried, Sliced Ginger Root

• 4 Orange-Spiced Cherries

• 1 cup of water

• 1 ounce rich (2 to 1) simple syrup

Equipment 

• Sous Vide Cooker 

• 2 mason jars

• Measuring spoons

Instructions

1. Read all the directions and gather your equipment. 

2. Place your molasses, cherries, and all your spices in a quart-sized Mason jar. Add 2 cups of Old Grand-Dad 114. Close the jar and give it a shake. Make sure the molasses is dissolved and all the ingredients are covered, if not add more bourbon and close tightly.

3. Fill your stockpot (or whatever you use for sous vide cooking) with water, set your cooker to 160° F and float your mason jar in the stockpot. There should have been enough headspace in the jar to allow it to float upright. Once the water comes to temperature let it cook for an hour and a half, shaking occasionally. After the cook is complete, do not empty your water bath unless you are finished for the day. You will need it again. 

4. Strain the solids out through a piece of cheesecloth. Set the infused bourbon aside. 

5. Place the solids and one cup of water in a second Mason jar and float in your water bath. Set temp to 160° F and let infuse for 45 minutes. 

6. Strain the solids out through a piece of cheesecloth. Give the solids a squeeze to remove as much liquid as possible. Discard solids.

7. Combine the infused bourbon and infused water together. Add rich simple syrup. Let run through a coffee filter to remove any sediment. Let cool.

8. Decant into small bottles. It is natural for more sediment to settle out, just give it a shake before using. If something starts to grow in the bottle, please discard it. For best flavor, use bitters within a year or so. 

So there you have it. Four bottles each of three different kinds of bitters all in one afternoon. Not too shabby. If you are curious, I got all my spices from my local Penzey’s Spices location except the Gentian Root which I ordered from Mountain Rose Herbs. Neither of them are sponsors, I don’t take sponsors, I just like these stores. Oh and the labels above are original Eric Burke designs cut out using my Cricut. I told you like making things myself.

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Copper Mule Cup from MoscowMuled.com

A couple of weeks ago, I got an email from the proprietor of MoscowMuled.com. They were wondering if I would like to take a look at them and maybe showcase them on the site. Now, I’ve never had the chance to make the Moscow Mule cocktail. Mostly because I do not stock vodka in my house. So I was going to pass on this opportunity.

But before I did, I wanted to do my due diligence and checked out their site. When I got there, I realized that these were beautiful mugs. I also saw that they were relatively inexpensive at less than $20 for a set of two. I sent the link over to my wife, and she responded with, “ooh! Pretty!”

Now, if you’ve met my wife, you will know that she loves glassware. We have so much that we can’t use them all. And when I suggested that maybe we sell or donate some of our extras, she responded with, “but they are our friends!” So she might have a glassware problem. That said, I suffer from at least a touch of it myself, so who am I to talk?

Once my wife was on board, I got to looking through the site a little more. One of the first things I noticed during this expanded look through the website was a link in the top navigation that says “Giving Back.” Moscow Muled, as a company, is set up as a Social Enterprise. This means that their primary goal is not just to make a profit, but also to make the world a better place. In this case, Moscow Muled gives 15% of its profits “to several non-profit organizations that work to stop impaired driving.”

I thought that was pretty cool. So I let the company know that instead of taking up their offer of a review unit, that I’d be placing an order instead. And I did. $19.50 + $5.50 shipping, and a couple of days later, I had two very pretty mugs arrive in my mailbox.

So how are they? Well, I really like them. They are really pretty (have I mentioned that yet?). An iced drink stays cold forever, even though these are not insulated mugs. At 16 fluid ounces in capacity, these hold enough for spirit, mixers, and a generous amount of ice. The company says you can use them for hot or cold drinks, but they do transfer heat or cold quite well, so I’m not sure I’d really want to use them for a hot drink. It was bad enough holding them after washing in hot water. My only nitpick is the size of the handle. I have pretty big hands and think that these would be much more comfortable to hold if the handle was a little wider as it rested on my pinky finger. Overall though, this was $25 well spent. After having used them quite a bit in the last couple of weeks on Kentucky Mules, I honestly wouldn’t have blinked if they had charged one and a half to twice that.

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Did you enjoy this post? If so, maybe you’d like to buy me a cup of coffee in return. Go to ko-fi.com/bourbonguy to support. And thank you, BourbonGuy.com is solely supported via your generosity.

Of course, if you want to support BourbonGuy.com and get a little something back in return, you can always head over to BourbonGuyGifts.com and purchase some merch. I’ve made tasting journals, stickers, pins, and more.

Underberg Natural Herb Bitters

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! If you are like most Americans, today you overate. You had turkey and stuffing and cranberries and potatoes and gravy and pie and mac and cheese and maybe a little wine. Or maybe you are like me and the only turkey you had was the WIld Turkey that you picked up at the liquor store last night that you sipped while you made a nice lasagna instead of any of the traditional fixings. In any case, there is a high probability that you had more food than was comfortable for you. And it is in the spirit of that overindulgence that I present to you a magical remedy for such a feeling.

Underberg Natural Herb Bitters.

This is a truly magical digestif that really does settle ease the stomach after a good meal. I first learned about it in the book Bitters by Brad Thomas Parsons. The book itself is fascinating and I reference it every time I make a new batch of bitters for myself. Anyway, Mr. Parsons lends an entire two page spread to the topic of Underberg. And it was with descriptions like the following, I was immediately intrigued.

The inky elixir within the distinctive straw-paper-shrouded 20-milliliter single-serving bottle isn’t meant to be sipped or added to a cocktail, but instead is designed to be tipped back in one quick shot, either straight from the bottle or poured into an ornate drinking vessel designed specifically for this purpose. (Parsons, B. T. (2011). Bitters: a spirited history of a classic cure-all, with cocktails, recipes, and formulas. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press. p 98-99.)

It wasn’t until I stopped at Binny’s Beverage Depot in Bloomington, IL on my way back from Kentucky that I finally found the stuff in the wild. One taste and I was hooked. The flavor was unlike anything I’d had before. And true to its promise, having one after a meal became my favorite way to help settle a too-full belly.

But it wasn’t long before I thought to myself: “I know this isn’t marketed as a cocktail ingredient, but it could be used that way, right?” And so I set upon the googles to see if I could find myself a recipe that satisfied my curiosity. A site called the Humble Garnish posted the following article: Underberg – The Unusual German Bitters and 7 Cocktails to Use It In which featured the following cocktail recipe:

View fullsize

As a fan of Underberg, I thought the cocktail was great. It really showcased the Underberg. IT was very bitter and had a ton of baking spices. The drink was a bit mouth-numbing. I have to say though that this is the type of drink that I would find fascinating in a craft cocktail bar, but it left a little to be desired at home. I guess it just needs a bit of ambiance.

After I tried that, I decided to just swap it for the Angustora in an old fashioned. There, it worked great. I’d recommend going a bit heavier than usual on the simple syrup and I liked bourbon more than rye. But with that in mind, I thought it was great. I really liked it.

That said, the best use is probably the original. Throw it back as a shot after a good meal and welcome the peace it brings to both the mind and the belly.

Wondering what it tastes like?

Underberg Natural Herb Bitters

Purchase Info: $5.99 for a 3-pack of 20ml bottles at Total Wine, Burnsville, MN or $24.50 for a 15-pack on Amazon.

Details: 44% ABV

Nose: Menthol, anise, clove

Mouth: Licorice, cinnamon, menthol

Finish: Cinnamon, cloves, mint, lingering warm

Thoughts. I really like this. I usually buy it as a 15-pack from Amazon. Minty and warm. Lots of spices. It works great after a big meal. And being as it is Thanksgiving, we can all probably use that.

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