Abbott's Bitters
By: Jenny Richards
Published: Thursday, December 10, 2009 - 4:28pm

Ingredients




5 grams Star Anise crushed
15 grams Bay laurel leaves, fresh
10 grams Green cardamom pods (crushed)
10 grams Whole cloves, crushed
1 large piece Indonesian cinnamon
4 leaves Spearmint
3 grams Lavender
1 teaspoon Dried Gentian
2/3 cup Ginger ( chopped)
1 1/2 Whole nutmeg seeds (ground)
10 grams Allspice (crushed)
1/2 Madagascar vanilla bean, scraped and added whole
1 bottle Rye Whisky (100 Proof)
Pinch Corsican mint

Preparation

1 Place all ingredients in a jar and store for 2 weeks, shaking daily. 2 Strain the solids out and squeeze them dry. Reserve the alcohol. 3 Put the solids back into a saucepan with water and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer (covered) for 10 minutes. 4 Put the solids and the water in another jar and store in a cool dark place for 1 week, shaking daily. 5 At the end of the week, strain and discard the solids and reserve the water. 6 Dilute the reserved alcohol with the water - making up half of the volume of the liquor with water (if you have 2 c liquor, dilute with 1 c water). 7 Add caramelized sugar syrup to the mixture for color and allow it to rest for a few days (to dissolve the sugar and mellow the flavor).

About


Abbott's is a brand of bitters that is no longer made commercially, but there are a number of classic cocktails that still call for the stuff. If you're looking to recreate it, this recipe is a reverse-engineering effort of it, and is by no means absolute. Try variations to suit your needs!
Here are some other sites that describe Abbott's Bitters:
Reverse engineered recipe on Art of Drink (http://www.artofdrink.com/bitters.php?ingredients=Abbotts+Bitters)
Mark Sexauer's Cocktail blog entry on Abbott's Bitters (http://marksexauer.wordpress.com/2008/09/07/abbotts-bitters-kinda/)
Abbott's Bitters entry in the Internet Cocktail DB (http://www.cocktaildb.com/ingr_detail?id=14%20)

Comments:
Melissa Peterman

Oh this is TOO cool Jenny! Thanks for sharing!