Blood Orange Margarita with Bitters

Just as Diane has her prop collecting obsession, I have my own vice. Well, more like a double vice since most toss drinking into that classification. I am mildly bedeviled by making cocktails.

There is something exquisitely alluring in what has become a combination of ritual and swagger. A little James Bond, a dash of Esquire, and a jigger of Hemingway done up over ice. It may be a vice, but it is a savvy one for a man to have.

As far as my own style and ritual to cocktails, I aim to take care of the details without getting crazy about it. I care not about the newest and funkiest cocktail creations. Give me the classics added with a few sensible modern twists. I’m not going to infuse a batch of simple syrup with lavender or smoke for a cocktail I may make when the full moon happens to land on a Tuesday. But I do want someone to have one of our margaritas, sours or Sidecars, take a sip without any sense of great expectations, and then stop and stare in appreciation.

I want you to have one of my cocktails and be ruined for life knowing that unless you are somewhere that truly cares about its cocktails, you’ll never have another cocktail of that kind quite as good. Sometimes, nowhere near as good.

There is nothing secret or special about how I make cocktails. Like I said, I just take care of the details. Never being fully satisfied or full of my own knowledge, I am always learning or trying to be better at the things I love. Two years ago, I thought I made a mean blood orange margarita, as any guest to the house would concur, but compared to what I make today, they are not even in the same league. How is it better? The little details.

My biggest leap in cocktail making came after reading the book, Bitters. Once I started using bitters regularly in cocktails, any cocktail made without them seemed to lack depth. Combine that with using garden fresh citrus, now we’ve got a cocktail to light up the eyes.

The garden fresh citrus isn’t just for the romantic notion that homegrown it better. ‘Cause face it, sometimes homegrown is better, and other times “not so much”. Oh no, homegrown citrus is all about the oils in the rind. There are amazing flavor in those oils, however it unfortunately doesn’t take long after picking for those oils in the zest to be lost forever. But if you can get the fruit shortly after being plucked from the tree… Baby!  After squeezing them, the oils release to the surface and completely saturate the outside of the rind. It is just one of those little details.

Other little details I do?  Freezing my glasses. There is a shelf in our freezer solely dedicated to chilling a variety of cocktail glasses. A great cocktail should be very well chilled, and a frosty glass is ever so helpful. And I’m a little nutty about my ice. Between the three different sized round ice cube molds, two different square silicone ice cube molds, and the f*^&-ing swankest thing ever, a tray that makes clear ice blocks, I am obsessive with my ice. Its sexy and is has a star role in a good cocktail. Forget the swirly garnish to be tossed out of the way, give me a crackin’ piece of ice.

Finally, finish the cocktail in a glass that has some character. Whether that is from an old-fashioned glass made from recycled glass  to a throwback champagne bowl, serve up that proper cocktail in a glass worthy. While Diane is scrounging the thrift shops and antique stores for bowls and boards, I’m hunting for cool cocktail glasses. Don’t tell Diane but I’m hunting for the boards too, they’re swank.

That’s it. A little obsessive, but hopefully haven’t crossed the line to crazy. Bitters, good fruit, ice, and glass. The details to a great cocktail without pushing the line into becoming a “mixologist”.

Here’s my re-make on our previous blood orange margarita after discovering the magic of bitters. We use a homemade tangerine bitter, but just about any orange bitters on the market are a great addition the the cocktail shaker’s concoctions.

-Todd

More Blood Orange Recipes: Luscious Blood Orange Bars ,  Lime Margarita with Bitters and classic Blood Orange Margarita
Yield: 2 cocktails

Total Time: 5 min

See the post for more cocktail details. Make sure to get the freshest blood oranges you can, and toss a rind or two into the shaker when mixing. To make simple syrup heat an equal amount of sugar and water together until the sugar dissolves completely. Store in the fridge for up to a month. Depending on the sweetness of the blood orange juice, you may need to slightly adjust the amount of simple syrup in the margarita recipe.

4 oz. (120ml) fresh Blood Orange Juice2 oz. (60ml) Resposada or Anejo Tequila3/4 oz. (22ml) Simple Syrup1/2 oz. (15ml) fresh Lime Juicefew dashes Orange BittersKosher or Sea Salt for rimming the glassRub the rim of two old fashioned glasses (or whatever glass you prefer) with an edge of a blood orange wedge or leftover rind. Swirl the rims through a small pile of kosher or sea salt to salt them. Add one or two large cubes into the glasses.Combine blood orange juice, tequila, simple syrup, lime juice, and bitters in an ice filled shaker. Add a left over rind or two from the blood oranges.Shake vigorously for 15 seconds, then strain into the salted glasses. Serve or drink immediately and with leisure.

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Margarita Recipe and The Magic Formula – Bitters

Call me suckered, hoodwinked, or duped. I believe in magic potions. A man hawking small bottles of potion, proclaiming outlandish results. Out of curiosity, I skeptically try the potion.

A few shakes in a cocktail. A cocktail I am very familiar with, but with a mere few dashes of this elixir it became something new. Better. Incredibly delicious.

Cocktail Bitters have been known to many much more savvy than I, but for me it is an exciting new world. A mystical potion which marries the ingredients of a cocktail together. Just about anytime I find a bar making exceptional cocktails, it is almost a guarantee that they have a beautiful stock of bitters frequently reached for behind the bar. Often times, there are bitters they are making themselves amongst the bottles.

My dawdling discovery of bitters magic powers recently came to fruition in the pages of a book. Not for the lack of signs trying to tell me the same thing. A reader commented about my use of triple sec in a margarita recipe, disapproving of it’s unctuous sweetness and mentioned it would be much better with some simple syrup and bitters instead. Diane comes home from photographing Bazaar, a hot restaurant in LA known for their exceptional cocktails (among other things), and she is all aflutter talking about their house made bitters.

Time after time, bitters have been under my nose, and yet I’ve passed right over their magic. We’ve even had several bottles of bitters in amongst our golden elixirs of alcohol, but they were almost never used. But all of these subtle and not so subtle hints have taking me along my current path. Ripening me for the moment I laid hands on the book Bitters by Brad Thomas Parsons.

Diane and I were meeting with the publishers of Ten Speed Press to discuss a project we were working on with them, and I spied the Bitters book on their shelf. They must have seen the twinkle in my eye, because the lovely ladies at Ten Speed handed us the book to take home as we concluded our meeting.

As much as I love cocktails, it is rare I get excited about a new book. I have my trusted resource on classic cocktails. Occasionally we’ll come across a beautiful book put out by an upstanding bar, and the drinks will be delicious and creative, yet I rarely make anything out of them. But this book has me excited. Beyond being a great read and resource, it is changing how I make cocktails.

We are in the process of making our own bitters, with the help of Parsons’ book, but there are already a great handful of exceptional bitters on the market. The process of bitters is month long, so until ours are ready, we’ve had fun playing with our purchased potions. Stomach a little uneasy? Some soda water a a few dashes of bitters may be the trick to settling your tummy.

Bitters for a cocktail is like the pepper and salt to a dish. Or the fish sauce to Vietnamese cuisine. By themselves it is a bit overpowering, but when added with the other ingredients they season it perfectly. Make two classic cocktails, one with bitters and one without and see which you like better. I can almost guarantee it will be the one with the bitters. For us, any cocktail I usually used triple sec in, I’ve now replaced that with a bit of simple syrup and a few dashes of orange bitters. Sidecars have never been so good.

Like most everything good in cocktails there is always folklore and mystery involved and bitters are no exception. It is part of the beauty. One legend which I’ve yet to try but is fun to share, is the no-fail cure to hiccups. Soak a sugar coated lemon wedge with Angostura bitters and take a bite. Hiccups will be gone.

Since our limes are going ape nuts right now, here’s a margarita recipe sans the triple sec and with bitters and simple syrup balancing the lime and tequila.

-Todd

*a basic simple syrup is simply a 1:1 ratio of sugar and water. One cup sugar dissolved in one cup of water. This can always be modified for preferred taste and experimentation, but this is a good starting point.
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Margarita Recipe – restored to being a pre-triple sec classic
Note how the cocktail smells before you shake it. Soon you’ll recognize the scent of a well made margarita and will be able to make up a batch of them sole by scent.  1 1/2 oz  Resposada or Anejo Tequila1 1/2 oz fresh Lime Juice1 oz Simple Syrup3 dashes Orange Bitterskosher salt or sea salt for the rimRub the rim of an old fashioned glass (or whatever glass you prefer) with an edge of a lime slice.  Swirl the rim through a small pile of kosher or sea salt to salt the rim. Add one or two large cubes into the glass.Combine tequila, lime juice, simple syrup, and bitters in an ice filled shaker.Shake vigorously for 15 seconds, then strain into the salted glass. Serve or drink immediately and with leisure.

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