Reddit reviews Bitterman's Field Guide to Bitters & Amari: 500 Bitters; 50 Amari; 123 Recipes for Cocktails, Food & Homemade Bitters (Volume 2)
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This is a side-by-side-by-side review / overview of three different bitter liqueurs.
General Notes & Methodology:
Amaro is an Italian word that simply means bitter. The word amari is the plural of amaro. It is a word used to describe a broad class of liqueurs that have a distinctive, bitter note as part of the flavor profile. Though technically the words amaro and amari are Italian, they can be used (and often are) to describe bitter alcoholic preparations from all over the world.
Most of these products have recipes that are generations old, steeped in mystery and legend. Most were originally developed for medicinal purposes, or as apertivo, to stimulate appetite before a meal, or digestivo, to be taken after a meal to aid digestion.
Because enjoyment is largely personal taste, rather than rating on a 0-100 scale as one might in a spirit review, I will assign a value between 0 and 4 and give some tasting notes on several characteristics. In each case, a 0 rating on a given characteristic means it is non-existent in that spirit, where a 4 means it a primary characteristic and thus very strong.
All spirits are poured, rested, and sampled neat at room temperature unless otherwise noted.
JÄGERMEISTER
Jägermeister... what can one say about it? We likely all have at least one questionable memory that involves it. Thanks to an aggressive marketing plan involving scantily clad Jägerettes, beefy Jäger Dudes, and the seemingly unquenchable desire for college "dare shots", this German digestif has forged a solid presence in popular culture. It is the rare college bar indeed that does not have it well stocked in the freezer, or set up on specially designed frozen shot dispensers.
Originally designed to be taken after a heavy meal to aid digestion, it has been produced since the early 1930's in Germany. The name literally translates to English as "hunting master", thus the iconography of the stag and cross representing Saints Eustace and Hubertus, the patron saints of hunters, and the verse from Oscar von Reisenthal's poem Weidmannsheil on the label.
Though its recipe of 56 botanicals is a secret, it is known to include, licorice, saffron, anise, ginger, juniper berries, and poppy seeds. After blending, Jägermeister is aged in oak barrels for approximately a year before being bottled in its iconic, green, rectangular bottle.
On the nose Jägermeister is rich and herbal with a hint of bitter spice. It is sweet on the palate, but packs a strong herbal and medicinal punch. There are strong notes of menthol, eucalyptus, and cinnamon, with a bit of allspice and burnt caramel bitter-sweetness.
I know you've probably had a frozen shot, or perhaps a Jäger Bomb (a shot dropped in Red Bull), but I would encourage you to try a sample neat at room temperature. There is a great deal of complexity and nuance that is lost when served ice cold, though that is the recommendation on the back label.
Jägermeister is having a bit of a renaissance behind the bar, and beginning to be taken a bit more seriously as a cocktail ingredient. Beyond just the college drinks like the Liquid Heroin and Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, there are now some more civilized uses as well. This Liquor.com article does a good job introducing a few.
At $20 or so for a 750mL bottle, this is easy to add to the bar
UNDERBERG
Underberg, the digestif shot you might even be able to pick up in the grocery store. These iconic mini-bottles, wrapped in brown paper and shipped in bright green boxes and tins, have long been available even in places without liquor licenses because of a quirk of US government classification. It is also available in bulk packaging on Amazon, even in the US.
Each bottle contains 2/3 oz of an intensely bitter herbal mixture that even according to the label "... is not a beverage. Not to be sipped, but taken all at once, and quickly, because of its aromatic strong taste".
The things I do for science... sitting here sipping my Underberg!
On the nose it is hot and earthy, with a spicy note combining star anise, allspice and something herbal, perhaps oregano or marjoram. On the palate it is brightly bitter, with a blast of rooty gentian followed by that same star-anise/allspice finish. If I take time to pick it apart a bit, I also get cloves (with their lip numbing quality) and pepper on my tongue.
This is gorgeous taken neat (either as a shot, or sipped) and does indeed settle the stomach after a heavy meal. It is also becoming more popular as an ingredient in a few remarkable cocktails.
The Snowball in Hell from Mark Bittermans Field Guide (see link below) is a boozy, bitter root beer float with Underberg and other bitters.
The Ice-Berg, which I first saw in Brad Thomas Parsons, Amaro (again, see link below) is a riff somewhere between a Margarita and a Mai Tai that uses the bitter in the recipe and the bottle as a garnish. Here is the recipe on Lucky Peach
At a buck or two a bottle (cheaper when you buy in bulk) you can collect as many green and red caps as possible and trade them in for some cool "loyalty" prizes, including stemmed digestif glasses, metal signs, and even a bandolier to hold you bottles.
HOFLAND MEESTERBITTER
I really wish I had something unique to say about this. I picked up a 750mL bottle for $13 at Total Wine, hoping to have another unique flavor profile to add to my cabinet. No such luck.
If given this blind, I would 100% believe it was Jägermeister. Even side-by-side with Jäger, I can only detect a very faint difference. Nose is nearly identical. Palate of the Hofland seems murkier somehow, not as crisp and defined as Jägermeister, but the notes are very similar. Biggest difference to me is on the finish. Hofland is thinner and a bit tannic, where the Jäger lingers with a sweet, herbal, slow fade.
Ahh well, it's a good sub for my couple of friends that love Jäger Bombs, and like I said, it's dirt cheap.
Wrap Up:
Amari, and other bitter liqueurs... Test them, try them, see what your palate likes. There are lots of good resources out there (see a couple below) but nothing replaces actually tasting it.
I strongly recommend the following:
Thanks for reading. Again, I welcome any feedback you might have. Next up... back to a couple more bottles of single malt, and then perhaps a few blends over on r/Scotch
~Cheers!
Your options vary from 40 - 95% ABV (vodka, Everclear/NGS and other spirits as well). Your choice will depend on several factors:
I generally tincture with a base of 80% 151 proof spirit and 20% lower proof spirit(s). This yields me a base @ 60 - 68%. Given a base in this range, when tincturing is complete, I can usually expect a batch of bitters around 50% ABV. Just where I like 'em. I tend to extract components individually and blend a final bitters. For fresher components (read: with higher water content), like fresh citrus peels and herbs, lean closer to a 68% base. For dried components, like spices, lean closer to a 60% base. With a 60-68% base range, I can normally control the extraction process entirely with time. I can overextract if I want to, or be more controlling with less time.
I hope this makes sense.
I highly recommend Mark Bitterman's Bitterman's Field Guide to Bitters & Amari. At <$9 for the epub version, it may be the best resource currently available. I also recommend Brad Thomas Parson's Bitters: A Spirited History of a Classic Cure-All, with Cocktails, Recipes, and Formulas.
~Good luck!
I have a copy of this book, and it's pretty thorough:
https://www.amazon.com/Bittermans-Field-Guide-Bitters-Amari/dp/1449470696/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1491065472&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=bitterman%27s+field+guide+to+bitters+%26+amari
He goes into a lot of detail about he whole process. I recently did a modified recipe out of that book using tonka beans and cacao, and it turned out awesome. Being a bar, you might not be able to use tonka beans though, as the final product is for sale.
Garbage in, garbage out. If you use something like everclear, you're probably going to end up with bitters that have that harsh everclear edge to them. Bitterman himself usually uses alcohol that is about 50%. He uses a blend of higher proof and lower proof alcohols to make the mix. When I made my above mentioned batch, I used Wray and Nephew overproof and El Dorado 3 year. I made mine with rum drinks in mind, so I used rum as a base. You could use bourbon, or whatever else tickles your fancy as your base. Rittenhouse comes out of the bottle at 100 proof.
Any way, read the book. It's full of good info. It's not difficult to make your own tasty bitters. There are several places online to buy your herbs. Mountain Rose herbs had everything I needed except for the tonka beans, which I got off Amazon.
Have fun!
Yes, as well as Bitters: A Spirited History by Brad Thomas Parsons and especially Field Guide to Bitters and Amari by Mark Bitterman. All three excellent reads with a little different focus. If you're wanting to DIY, Field Guide is the way to go. As far as gardening tips go, I can't say I'm as well-versed in that category.
Field Guide to Bitters and Amari
Bitters: A Spirited History
Liquid Intelligence also has some neat infusion and bitters-making sections, but it's mostly centered around rapid infusions w the iSi Whipper.