Celery Bitters, Round 1

After making homemade grenadine, I decided to kickstart things into cocktail high-gear and get some other cocktail ingredients going.  I now have some falernum resting comfortably in the fridge for which I used Kaiser Penguin’s recipe (I’m still undecided about whether I like the toasted spices or not).  AND, I have a batch of Pimento Dram on the go, using Lamb’s Navy 151 as the base.  Should be ready just in time for Christmas festivities .

I decided to go one further, and start a couple of batches of bitters — the first one on the list was celery.  I did a fair bit of poking around before putting together a list of ingredients that I hope will have lots of celery flavour.  I’ve used a citrus vodka that has been sitting in the liquor cabinet as the base, Gentian root and cardamom pods as the main bittering agents, and 3 forms of celery, with a hint of citrus.   I’m going to try and let it infuse for a good while: at least 3 weeks.  It looks pretty in the jar now, but could get scary!

Celery Bitters (round 1)

• 500 ml citrus vodka
• 1 small celery root, diced
• 1/2 cup celery stalks and leaves, chopped
• 3/4 teaspoon celery seed
• 1 tablespoon dried lemon verbena leaves
• 6 green cardamom pods
• 5  juniper berries, crushed open
• 5 black peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon dried lemon peel
• zest of 1/2 lime
• 2 teaspoons Gentian root
• 1 teaspoon coriander seed

Next on the list is Cherry Bitters with some 100 Proof Canadian Club (after a bit more research )