Bitters adds bite beyond cocktails
March 3, 2011
News & Observer correspondent, Stacy-Lynn Waddell, recently wrote this article about Angostura aromatic bitters. It piqued my interest enough to go out and buy some myself so I could try her accompanying recipe for Pan-Fried Shrimp with Special Bitters Sauce.
She writes:
If you spend as much time in food stores as I do, you encounter ingredients that intrigue and must be taken home, even if you won’t use them right away.
When I discovered Angostura aromatic bitters, I had not fully invested in cocktail culture. But I bought a bottle because the yellow cap caught my eye and the paper wrapper with its official crest and detailed history signaled something important. Any product that dared flaunt its history in this fashion was bound to be top-notch. Although I knew what bitters was used for, its impact didn’t hit home until I began sampling classic cocktails. Then I discovered the complexity of this potent, dark elixir.
The cocktail, a mixture of liquor, water, sugar and bitters, is genius at easing the stress of the day away or preparing the stomach for a great meal. Developed 187 years ago by Dr. Johann G. B. Siegert, who managed a military hospital in Venezuela, Angostura bitters began as a tonic to ease stomach discomfort. Siegert named the product after the town where he set up private practice. After his death, Siegert’s sons moved Angostura Limited (now known as the House of Angostura) to Trinidad.
Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/02/27/1014072/bitters-adds-bite-beyond-cocktails.html#ixzz1FXjtIwWt
Distillers gin up an old drink with fresh tastes
July 23, 2010
Different gin styles mixed in new cocktails whet the drinker's thirst this summer.
Gin has a point of view. And that’s totally the point of it.
Gin is the Joy Behar of the bar because it can be as opinionated as the feisty co-host of TV’s “The View.” It has flavor, it has aroma, it has personality.
Unlike vodka, which is officially supposed to be odorless, tasteless and colorless, gin bursts with “attitude.” Each brand has its own flavor story, which fits neatly with today’s growing thirst for drinks made with top-notch products – even items from the produce counter.
“The cocktail world is 25 years behind the culinary world,” said mixologist Toby Maloney of Alchemy Consulting in New York City. “Think of the culinary world in the mid-1970s. It was rather dismal. Then Alice Waters came along and started caring about ingredients. The cocktail world is now doing the same thing.”
Depth of flavor is what counts now, he said, and that’s why gin is becoming popular again.
“There are so many different kinds and flavor profiles,” Maloney said. “Each brings something new to a cocktail. Compare the Aviation made with Tanqueray to the Aviation made with Plymouth. They are almost different drinks.”
Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/07/18/584441/ginning-up-an-old-favorite.html#ixzz0uVsx8adf
GIN COCKTAIL RECIPES:
Spices, produce spike new vodkas
June 25, 2010
Made with the country's most popular tipple, the An Autumn Thyme cocktail contains vodka, raspberries, thyme, lime juice and peach bitters.
The more serious citizens of Cocktail Nation tend to look down on vodka. The colorless, flavorless spirit lacks the nervy character of rye or bourbon, the colorful history of gin or rum or the earthy punch of tequila.
But vodka has something going for it that makes those other spirits envy it, even loathe it: Vodka’s like the pretty girl at the party who mixes easily with any crowd and knows all the latest dances. Vacuous, maybe; easy, for sure. But pretty. We want more.
Well, take another sip, America, because vodka’s gonna keep partying.
FACT: Beer, wine and liquors all confer the same health benefits.
The so-called French Paradox elevated red wine to health-food status when researchers thought it was the antioxidants in the drink that protected the foie gras- and cheese-loving French from heart disease. More recent research, however, has shown that antioxidants aren’t the answer after all. Alcohol — the ethanol itself — raises levels of protective high-density lipoproteins (HDL, or good cholesterol), which help protect against plaque buildup in the arteries and reduce clotting factors that contribute to heart attack and stroke, according to Eric Rimm, ScD, associate professor of nutrition at the School of Public Health at Harvard University. Any kind of beverage that contains alcohol, when consumed in moderation (and that means one to two drinks a day), helps reduce heart disease risk.
Source: Cooking Light Magazine, April 2010
