Cardamom-Lemongrass Bitters

I didn’t really have a reason to make this, I just knew I wanted to. The inspiration however came from messing around with some curry recipes. While doing that, I realised at some point lemongrass and cardamom are amazing together. To confirm I chewed on a cardamom pod and took a pinch of some pre-chopped lemongrass puree kinda thing (from a little jar). Damn good right there. So besides incorporating it in a curry, I figured there ought to be a good chance to make a nice cocktail-food pairing. 

That particular cocktail is a story for another time (it remains my most complex cocktail to date, in terms of ingredients, and it probably needs some work to simplify), but it cemented the idea for this bitter. 

Now, there were 2 things keeping me from attempting this. Thing 1: Boker’s style bitters already exist and have a big cardamom component. Thing 2: according to Dave Arnold’s Liquid Intelligence, a fresh lemongrass infused vodka will only last a couple of weeks in the fridge until it turns soapy. 

So I got myself some Boker’s style bitters from Fee Brothers first. Have to confess, didn’t like it much. Fine in a Improved Brandy Cocktail (cognac, maraschino, Boker’s, Absinthe), but it does have a distinct medicinal-ness, maybe even soapy-ness to me. In fact, the mysterious cocktail I alluded to above contains fresh cardamom pods because it didn’t work with Boker’s. 

Next, a happy accident. I found some dried lemongrass while browsing the herbal tea section. Had no idea this was a thing, so I brought a pack home immediately, figuring that since it was already dried, maybe it wouldn’t suffer from the “soapy onset problem”. I did brew a cuppa with it, not particularly interesting, but yes it does taste of lemongrass albeit much less citrus-forward.

Now I was ready to try and bring this figment of my imagination into reality. I haven’t made many bitters myself yet. A couple of non-alcoholic ones: one aromatic and one pimento, based mostly on Kevin Kos’ and Dave Arnold’s recipes. They turned out medium-fine. So I’d better start practising more!

First, getting my copy of Foodpairing out to help me make some lists. What pairs well with Lemongrass, and what pairs well with Cardamom? Here’s the shortlists I came up with:

• Lemongrass: cumin, coriander, plum, juniper, bay leaf, thyme
• Cardamom: rosemary, almond, pomelo and basically all the chai spices (cinnamon, star anise, nutmeg, close, fennel, black pepper)

Next I peruse some existing bitter recipes, cross-matching with the above list, trying to rein myself in not to get too crazy. 

I settled on trying the following recipe, which yielded about 280 ml:

• Quassia Bark – 5g
• Gentian root – 2.5g
• Dried orange peel – 5g
• Cardamon seeds – 20g
• Dried lemongrass – 25g
• Caraway seeds – 2g
• Bay leaf – 3 leaves (although they were a bit old)
• Cloves – 3 whole
• Juniper – 5 berries
• Rosemary – 1 small fresh twig

I went for quassia as the main bittering agent, because I was already using cinchona and gentian in a bunch of other drinks. Okay, a little gentian for support because it’s so nice and I figured it would match the tone. Orange peel also to support the bitterness, bring some warmth and some bitterness, but I refrained from lemon peel and the fresh variant because I want to control the citrus separately in the drinks I will make with it. 

The main ingredients are pretty clear. 25 grams of dried lemongrass is a lot of dried lemongrass in volume. My initial guess was 60 grams but that would’ve been plain silly. I also cut back on my first guess of 40 grams of cardamom, to a mere 20 grams of seeds. I was vacillating on whether to use whole pods or go to the trouble of removing the seeds. I think Dave Arnold mentioned explicitly seeds removed from the pods in one of his recipes, but there is no reasoning given. It was a slow day so what the heck. It probably took me about an hour to get the seeds out and separated from the husks using a mortar and pestle and a coarse sieve. The 20 grams of seeds are the yield from 30 grams of whole pods. My guess is you can probably use the whole pods, just make sure to crack them open first. Probably 20-25 grams of whole pods in that case. Your final liquid yield might be lower though as the husks absorb more liquid. 

All the other ingredients are to add some depth and warmth, and you’ll notice they were all on the short list, and most are common bitters ingredients anyway. Lightly crush the cloves and juniper berries first. 

I’m using a rapid infusion technique here, which many of you will have heard of, it’s described in Dave Arnold’s Liquid Intelligence. If you haven’t tried this yet, please look it up in the book or on youtube first. Again taking a cue from his recipes, here is the procedure I followed:

• Fill a half-liter ISI whipper with all the solids
• Add 350 ml of 60% neutral alcohol
• Prepare a pan of simmering water
• Add 1 NO2 charger to the whipper, shake vigorously for 30 seconds, then place in the water for 25 minutes (I turned of the heat when I placed the whipper in it)
• Take out the whipper, let it cool for 15 minutes to room temperature (in cold water as necessary)
• Release the pressure rapidly as usual, then leave it sitting until most of the bubbling has subsided
• Filter and strain

I’m pretty happy with how this turned out. Tasting a couple drops of it pure, it is plenty bitter, with plenty of taste of our main ingredients, but it’s a bit ‘thin’ compared to what I’m used to from commercial bitters. This does not stop it from being good in a drink though! Have a look at the first cocktail I created with these bitters, The Intergalactic. One dash in a drink definitely provides the intended effect. 

I will certainly experiment a little more with this recipe. I’m curious if I can increase the amount of the supporting ingredients to broaden the base and make it a bit richer. I’ll also try adding a little demerara syrup to make it feel a little thicker.