These chai-spiced digestive and cocktail bitters can be used to help support digestion or to add a hint of chai flavor to cocktails and mocktails! They’re made with whole spices like cinnamon, cardamom, and star anise and get their bitter flavor from dandelion and angelica roots. The whole spices are covered in plain vodka then left to steep for 3-6 weeks.
I’ve been on a rather loooooong journey of healing my gut over the past decade and often turn to supplements like digestive bitters for support. Over the years I’ve started to make my own batches of digestive bitters at home which allows me to play around with combinations and make it more cost effective. This particular recipe is a chai-spiced variation of my usual bitters that can either be used for digetive support, or in cocktails and mocktails. If you’d like to make them, keep in mind they have to steep for 3-6 weeks before they’re ready!
Notes on Ingredients and Substitutions
This recipe uses whole dried spices in addition to dried orange peel and dried angelica and dandelion roots. Most of the whole spices should be available at your local grocery store while the more specialized items can be sourced from herb purveyors like Mountain Rose Herbs. I do not recommend using powdered/ground spices here as you will not be able to strain them out easily and they will give the bitters an odd gritty quality. You can use any plain vodka here that you like. I prefer vokda as it doesn’t impart a flavor and lets the spices shine through.
Tips for Steeping your Digestive and Cocktail Bitters
Everything needs to steep for a minimum of 3 weeks in order to allow the alochol to extract the flavors and herbal constituents from all of the spices. If I’m making these strictly for use in cocktails or mocktails, I’ll let everything steep for 3-4 weeks total and give the jar a gentle shake every couple of days. For use as a digestive supplement, I typically go for a longer steep, anywhere from 4-6 weeks total.
Using These Bitters in Mocktails and Cocktails
You can use these in a similar way to Angostura and orange bitters in cockails and mocktails. Recipes typically measure these in dashes, though I usually will measure by a dropper since it’s easier! For a super simple mocktail style drink, I love combining sparkling water with orange or grapefruit juice and a full or half dropper of these chai bitters. If you like to imbibe, you can try subbing these in for Angostura or orange bitters in an old fashioned. Or, you can add some to a hot toddy!
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Chai-Spiced Digestive and Cocktail Bitters
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: about 8 ounces 1x
Description
These chai-spiced digestive and cocktail bitters can be used to help support digestion or to add a hint of chai flavor to cocktails and mocktails. They’re made with whole spices like cinnamon, cardamom, and star anise and get their bitter flavor from dandelion and angelica roots. The whole spices are covered in plain vodka then left to steep for 3-6 weeks.
Ingredients
- 7g dried dandelion root pieces (un-roasted)
- 7g dried angelica root pieces (or more dandelion root if you don’t have access to any)
- 5g cinnamon chips (i.e. broken cinnamon stick pieces)
- 5g dried ginger root pieces (don’t use powdered ginger!)
- 5g whole green cardamom pods
- 5g dried orange peel
- 3g whole star anise
- 3g whole cloves
- 2g whole black peppercorns
- 1 pint jar
- 1 to 1 1/2 cups plain vodka
Instructions
Weigh out all of your herbs and add them to a clean pint-sized glass jar. To make intensely flavored cocktail bitters, cover the herbs with 1 cup of vodka. If you plan on using these as digestive support, fill the remaining space in the jar with the vodka, about 1 1/2 cups total.
Cover your jar with a lid and park it in a spot away from direct sunlight. Allow the herbs to steep, gently shaking the contents every couple of days, for 3-4 weeks for cocktail use, or, 4-6 weeks for dietary use.
When everything has steeped for your desired legthe of time, strain your bitters through a sieve or cheesecloth into a clean bottle. Label with the contents and date then use how you like! Bitters taste best when used within a year.
The best way to use these is with a dropper bottle or a bottle with a reducer cap (like you see on bottles of essential oils). Here’s a good source for those types of bottles as well as bulk medicinal and culinary herbs.
Notes
- As with any new supplements, if you plan on using these as dietary support, do so slowly to see how your body reacts. I take a small dropper-ful of digestive bitters before or after meals which is equivalent to about 20-30 drops.
- You will need a kitchen scale in order to measure out the spices and herbs accurately. I do not recommend trying to convert to volume measurements instead.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Steeping Time: 3-6 weeks
Ot sounds wonderful– and thank you for such a thorough explanation!
A great article.
Thank you.
So glad you liked it! 🙂
Sounds wonderful — I love vanilla chai tea, and want to make this recipe. Thank you so much!
Sounds wonderful — I love vanilla chai tea, and want to make this recipe. Thank you so much!