DIY Bitters

DIY Bitters a how-to-guide that explores the history and health benefits of bitters, and shows you how to make your own bitters at home.

Make your own bitters at home to enhance your medicine cabinet, and your bar!

Used since the Middle Ages, bitters are made by combining various plant botanicals and/or spices with 100-proof alcohol and letting them sit until the bitter and medicinal qualities have been extracted. Just a small amount of the resulting liquid can then be used to stimulate the digestive system and promote healthy digestion. This is why ‘apertifs’ and ‘digestifs’ are so popular–both then and now!

DIY Bitters is a how-to guide that explores the history and health benefits of bitters, and shows you how to make your own bitters at home, to be used alone or in cocktails, tonics, and even main meals.

Herbalists Jovial King and Guido Mase, owners of the bitters company Urban Moonshine, teach you how to make recipes for classic bitters like orange and angostura, or explore more innovative bitters like elderflower-echinacea-honey and chocolate love tonic. You can even find a guide for creating your own unique flavors from the plants and ingredients you have on hand.

Whether enjoyed as an apertif, digestif, or as a remedy to settle an upset stomach, bitters are back!

Note from Cat: This is a really popular book and there aren’t really others like it. Bitters are a key strategy for digestive health (for many people) and are a classic inclusion in many traditional cuisines. This book is a great primer, giving you all the details on how and why bitters work. It also covers lots of common and uncommon bitter plants and includes a tonne of  recipes, as well as giving you a MASTER RECIPE so that you can get creative in your own kitchen. Very cool.