Citrus Bitters

INGREDIENTS:
- 5 g Lemon Peel
- 5 g Cedro Lemon Peel
- 5 g Lime Peel
- 5 g Orange Peel
- 5 g Pomerans Orange Peel
- 5 g Blood Orange Peel
- 5 g Ruby Red Grapefruit Peel
- 5 g White Grapefruit Peel
- 5 g Bergamot Peel
- 5 g Marrakech Limonette Peel

- 150-200 ml Vodka (ABV 50%)

PREPARATION:

• Peel the citrus. Be careful to remove as little pith as possible. I recommend trying straight peeler instead of the Y one.
• Put the peels into an airtight container, then pour vodka in, start with 150 ml.
• Seal the container and shake briefly.
• Keep in a dark place for approximately a month (your liquor cabinet will do perfectly).
• Sometimes peels absorb more vodka than others, so keep an eye on it. If the mixture starts getting very very dry try topping up with further 50 ml of vodka after a couple of weeks.
• Gently shake the container once every day to stir things up and help vodka infuse.
• After one month, strain the solids out and, optionally, run the liquid through a coffee filter.

For months now, I had an idea of combining different citrus fruits into a single bitter’s recipe. My chance came along in the beginning of this year, when I managed to get the hold of a bunch of different fruits, that are not usually available at my local supermarket.

Naturally, it all started with the usual suspects: orange, lemon, grapefruit and lime; common staples of the cocktail world. At first, I thought of combining just these four flavours, but eventually it started getting more and more evolved. Incorporating less common flavours of Marrakech limonettes, pomerans oranges and cedro lemons was an interesting exercise. End result was a delightfully fresh and surprisingly bright cocktail bitter. Great for simple refreshing cocktails, that sometimes end up a bit too sweet or lack that extra layer of depth.

If you decide to give this recipe a try, it is pretty straight forward. Try removing as little pith from the fruits as possible. I like to use straight peeler in stead of the Y one, it gives me a better result with less effort. While steeping peels in vodka, keep an eye on the colour of the peels and level of liquid remaining. Sometimes the peels can start oxidising, if too much light is present, in that case reduced steeping time might be appropriate. (However, I would not consider steeping less than 2-3 weeks, unless you can get the hold of higher ABV vodka). Other times peels might absorb more liquid than usual, depending on how fresh the fruits were. In that case consider topping it up with just a bit more liquid. I have tried a couple of different ratios, but for simplicity’s sake decided to stick to equal parts, which yielded a great result. On the other hand, with more time to experiment, ratio is likely to change.