Berber bitters

In a previous post, I mentioned my first attempt at homemade bitters. The incarnated concoction was, at once, haphazard and finely tuned. The haphazard came at the beginning; the fine tuning came at the end. Let me explain.

A week before I left for Africa, I placed more-or-less arbitrary amounts of several common suprasaharan spices in 95% ethanol (Everclear), and I let these steep for about a month.  In general, I placed about 1 fluid-oz-worth of substrate in approximately 2 oz of Everclear, added a dash of water, and let it be.  Herbs and spices were cloves, coriander seeds, cinnamon sticks, cardamom seeds, whole and crushed peppercorns, whole cumin, ground allspice, and ground paprika.  When I returned from abroad, the solutions were ready for extraction.  

I assembled a homemade Buchner vacuum filtration apparatus to separate the liquids from the particulate matter, and I isolated the infused solutions.  Next, I had two considerations: first, the flavor profile I wanted to create by combining the solutions; second, the fact that I had severe tinkering limitations due to the finite (and small) volumes of the infusions.  

After a little experimentation, I set my course and settled on this ratio:

 

*The base of nearly all bitters is a combination of infusions created from bitter barks and roots. I use a solution created by combining equal parts of quassia, calamus, and catechu in 95% ethanol for 1 week.    

The result was a delightfully complex and flavorful bitter solution which solidly stands its ground against the traditional players.