Mr. Bitterness - Part the Second

With the tinctures ready to go, it was time to mix up some batches and see what happened. Coming as I do from a grand lineage of scientists, I just threw things into jars. Sort of. I took the time to measure as I wanted some sense of control over how the bitters would come out. Flavor-wise I really was just sort of throwing darts at a blind raccoon. I ended up with three different mixtures, and let them sit for a couple of days to let the flavors get to know each other. I gave them another try, and made some slight adjustments which were rather sloppy in as much as I didn't bother to measure - I just sort of added what I thought would be right. A bit of a habit I picked up when I started getting into cooking mublety years ago.

Then I introduced the Red Bull.

Yes my friends, I'm attempting to make Red Bull bitters. The first two batches are very subtle on the Red Bull tip. The first batch has a RB bite at the end, while the second batch has it more on the front. I added a bit more RB in the third batch to see if I could intensify the flavor without bringing too much sweetness in. That - Didn't turn out so well.

On the plus side, this (so far) has proved to be a good proof of concept that I can use to make more delectable and respectable bitters in the future (I hope). In fact I've got some more tinctures working away even as we speak. Or you read this. Whatever man!

With any luck I'll be able to get some feedback from some guinea pigs - er - helpful souls, later this evening. I suspect I’m going to have to go back to the drawing board, but with any luck I just might have me some real life bitters.

Comments always welcome, or feel free to e-mail us at drinkaweek [at] gmail [dot] com.