12 days of homemade Christmas presents Day 7, Spiced Orange Bitters

12 days of homemade Christmas presents
Day 7, Spiced Orange Bitters

This feels like a bit of a grown up, fancy one – a little bottle of homemade spiced orange bitters for Christmas/New Year cocktails etc . You could even gild the lily and give the bitters with a few oranges, a small bottle of vodka and a little card with instructions on how to make a seriously good Screwdriver (see below). But the bitters on their own is a pretty cute prezzie too.

Spiced Orange Bitters

4 cardamom pods
8 cloves
4 fennel seeds
1 cinnamon stick
Peeled rind of two oranges
1 tsp brown sugar
400ml vodka

Combine the cardamom, cloves and fennel seeds in a mortar and pestle and pound just until broken up a little bit. Place these in a jar with the cinnamon stick, orange rind, sugar and vodka. Pop on the lid and give a good shake.

Leave in a cool dark place for two weeks, shaking the jar every day.

Strain and decant into small dropper bottles or a small jar. Store in a cool dark place, will keep for ages, but for best favour use within a couple of months.

To use;

– My favourite is to add a few drops of spiced orange bitters to a Screwdriver; freshly squeezed orange juice with a shot of vodka (or not), then you could add a bit of really nice ginger beer (eg @lovestrangelove Hot Ginger Beer) to give it a little fizz. Yum. So good.
– or for a low, practically zero alcohol cocktail, mix up ice, soda water, a slice of fresh or dried orange and add about a tsp or less of bitters. The bitters gives the drink a really lovely bit of oomph without the oomph. If you know what I mean.
– A few drops into your standard G&T is a nice twist