Description
These digestive bitters are a great way to support your digestive system or add a 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.
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
- Plain vodka (at least 100-proof)
Instructions
Weigh out all of your herbs and combine them in 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 to 1 3/4 cups).
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 day, for 3-4 weeks for cocktail use, or, 4-6 weeks for dietary use. (I’ve let mine steep as long as 8 weeks with some batches!) Strain your bitters through a sieve or cheese cloth 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.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes