Old fashioned, new ways - Garam Masala Bitters

Flavour Notes

On the nose, an intense smell of fresh spices and with each sip a pleasant bitter sweet flavour

Inspiration

Sounds a bit blasphemous? Well we are all about the craziest of ideas. While we all love a good old fashioned and we take great pride that our bartenders make quite a stellar one, it's always fun to add a twist or two while keeping the essence of the classic drink intact! 

The Garam Masala bitter is a #canteentake on a classic old fashioned with a spice mix that is so innately Indian. An old fashioned traditionally has 4 ingredients : Bourbon, Angoustera Bitters, Sugar and water to bring the concoction

Process

• Toast each of the following spices individually for the garam masala. The reason for toasting them separately is because each spice has a different blooming time and toasting them together may cause a few to burn and we don’t want that. You will know your spice is done toasting when it starts to release a pleasant aroma.
  - 7gms of cardamom
  - 3 gms of star anise
  - 5 gms of cloves
  - 10 gms of cumin seeds
  - 5 gms of coriander seeds
  
• Once toasted, transfer the spices to a mason jar. To this add a 50 ml of a neutral spirit. We prefer vodka as it does not have a flavour of its own and allows flavours to infuse well. 
  
• Add 250 ml of angostura bitters as well as a little bit of rose water and toss in some jenshin roots and licorice. What constitutes a bitter is always a root, some citrus and some spices.
  
• Store this in an airtight container in room temperature for 20-25 days so that all the flavours infuse sufficiently.
  
• Once you are happy with how it tastes, strain and use to spruce up your drink with a  few dashes!

Note: Once the infusion process begins, make sure to taste it every week. The flavour keeps intensifying each week and you don’t want to land up with something too bitter. We all love the easy way out, but we would not recommend using garam masala powder to make this for it does not provide the spice forward and aromatic bitter we are looking for. Also, if at any stage you feel your bitters are more citrus forward, you can always adjust it by adding more roots. Which is why tasting is key!

The Bombay Canteen uses this for

 Indian Old Fashioned

You can use this for

The same way! You can also add a few dashes and top it up with soda or tonic