Almond Bitters anyone?

I have a vintage cocktail recipe that calls for Almond Bitters. I am using Orgeat or almond extract as a sub, but wondered if anyone had seen such a thing out there in the wild.

not me. my guess is the extract will be the way to go. orgeat will be too sweet.

On 2011-08-09 12:41, Swanky wrote:
I have a vintage cocktail recipe that calls for Almond Bitters. I am using Orgeat or almond extract as a sub, but wondered if anyone had seen such a thing out there in the wild.

What recipe???? I know in baking there is Bitter Almond Extract or oil. Same thing? I always think of cyanide though whenever someone mentions "bitter almond".

The recipe is by Mariano Licudine. A secret. And this is a small part of th erecipe, so, it won't kill it. But I just wonder if there ever really was an almond bitters, or if it is being used here like other things to just mean a dash of something, like an extract.

Well, honestly, I am more intrigued by what recipe you're hiding. cough cough PM cough

Anyhow, Fees has a black walnut bitters. So, I can imagine someone, somewhere made almond bitters. Call Mai Kai and see if they have such a potion? Make your own? If you make your own, I reckon the almonds need to be toasted. Something about raw almonds that I'm not remembering.

give these guys a holler

http://bittermens.com/

Tim, I don't think you're going to find any contemporary commercial version of it. And I'm not sure if it ever really existed as a commercial product in the past. But if you're really interested in researching the historical accuracy of it (and I imagine you probably are), I'd suggest getting in touch with the guys at The Bitter Truth, Stephan Berg and Alex Hauck. Or Avery Glasser at Bittermens.

And I too am intrigued with the "hush hush" recipe you've gotten your hands on. :wink:

Yeah, I wonder if I asked Kern what they currently use for this ingredient if he'd tell me... My version tastes just fine with my sub of Orgeat.

However, all through the recipes there are dashed of stuff, some of which are obviously bitters, and some are not, like herbsaint. This may be a non-bitters dash. THings get foggy after 70 years...