bitters and infusions June 18th, 2012
Matt and I took a “Bitters and Infusions” class through the Libations Bar School, held this past Wednesday night at The Spice and Tea Exchange in Georgetown. In the most basic terms, we learned that you can add almost anything to an over-proofed liquor (like moonshine), let it soak for a few weeks, shaking it daily, and then voila! You have yourself a bitter than can be added to a cocktail. They were traditionally made as medicines to cure all sorts of ailments, then people commonly started adding them to gin or wine, and that’s where the cocktail came from.
We got in small groups, and chose several flavors from throughout the spice shop to put in tiny flasks of moonshine. I think ours ended up with ginger, some sort of berry (looked like a blueberry, but smaller, can’t remember its name), and gentian root. Not sure what that is going to end up like, but it was fun to concoct. We got to sample a variety of other bitters that had already been marinating for while… I am talking “sample” as in one medicine dropper worth on the tongue — that stuff can be POTENT. Whew. For someone who loves to smell strange things, this class was awesome for me, I was in my own little happy place. So if you happen to start seeing all sorts of little strange bottles popping up in our kitchen, don’t think it’s all weird and all, just ask for a taste.
tags: DC, drinks, georgetown, recipes
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