News

January 24, 2018 Patrick Smith

A cocktail for when someone tells you not to touch something, and all you can do is touch it
The Daiquiri. Rum, lime, sugar. One of the simplest, most elegant, basically perfect cocktails, deserving an elevated position in the pantheon of classics alongside the Martini and the Manhattan. It's a bartender's favorite, and Cuba's greatest, most influential contribution to the drinking world. A drink like the Daiquiri, the Manhattan, or the Martini needs no serious alteration, tweaking, or updating. We should theoretically be able to live the rest of our lives endlessly quaffing these simple delights with unceasing joy, in their classic form. But alas, we are a broken people.
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January 22, 2018 Preston Lai

The perfect dreamy cocktail for a nostalgic TBT
It's that bittersweet moment the morning after waking from a pleasant dream. A fond yet fleeting memory of something that felt so real, leaving you with an equally brief moment of sadness, and just like that it's gone. Named for a sweetheart from days past, Aimee's Dream is a refreshing cocktail that utilizes the winner of Best New Cocktail Ingredient from Tales of the Cocktail, Italicus (A bergamot and rose liqueur hailing from Italy). The strong citrus and floral notes of this cocktail give you a pleasant start, eventually giving way to a well bodied cocktail that finishes with just the slightest bitterness.
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January 22, 2018 Mish Sukharev

A G&Tea recipe to keep calm and cocktail on
Recently I spent some time driving around the UK with a dear friend. We tasted excellent scotch, ate loads of black pudding, and I for one (while fighting off a cold) consumed literal liters of tea.
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January 22, 2018 Meredith Lantz

What to mix when it's time to find a new planet: Saturn Cocktail Recipe
The calendar says winter is coming, but the chill might turn to a permanent freeze based on yesterday's Presidential nuclear declarations. We're hoping to keep our drinks on the rocks, but our planet neat. As professional merrymakers, we've got the perfect way to stay optimistic and keep your glass half full.
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January 22, 2018 Meredith Lantz

B+B Team picks, SF Summer Edition: Bottles so good they barely make it to the floor
We get new arrivals weekly, and deciding which one to take home is as hard for us as it is for you. This summer there have been dozens of new arrivals, and we've loved them all.

Occasionally, though there are bottles that struggle to make it to the floor because so many of our Bitters + Bottles team stock their home bar with them first. We save the limited edition whiskey for y'all. The bottles we tend to covet are the flavor packed cocktail workhorses whose cocktail possibilities are limitless.

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January 22, 2018 Meredith Lantz

Engagement Lemonade Recipe - a not so modest proposal for a swift knee drop
If you’re familiar with “engagement chicken”—the roast chicken recipe that continues to take certain corners of the internet by storm (it’s so good, allegedly, that it guarantees a marriage proposal)—you’ll recognize the flavor profile here, because this is its cocktail counterpart. A quencher to serve up or over rocks for summer’s final few weeks, it’s super easy to make, and also incredibly tasty and impressive. *Someone* will end up on their knee(s).
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January 22, 2018 Melissa Watson

Three Kinds of Vermouth People
When it comes to vermouth, there are three kinds of people in the world: people who think it is all terrible (aka people who have almost certainly only had vermouth that had gone bad), people who think it is all the same (aka people who have yet to experience how a different vermouth totally changes a cocktail), and people who won’t bat an eye at all if I say something like “Well, this is my favorite vermouth for a Manhattan but this over here is my favorite vermouth for a Negroni.”
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January 22, 2018 Mish Sukharev

Not Your Basic Birch, Liqueur
I first fell in love with Birkir when a good friend shared the birch snaps with me upon returning from Iceland. I was instantly enamored with the uniqueness of the spirit — a warmth and softness that I did not expect were at the center of a familiar but ineffable flavor that quickly immersed me in memories of childhood afternoons spent in the birch groves of suburban Moscow.
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January 22, 2018 Joe Barwin

I Found Religion in Barcelona, It Was at the Gin & Tonic Bar
The idea of adding 6 blueberries and 3 basil leaves into a Gin & Tonic doesn’t instinctively get me thinking, "oh Joseph get ready this is going to be soooo great!" Then it is. A sip that totally catches me by surprise will always be one of my favorite things about cocktails, when something incredibly simple adds up to so much more in the glass than it does in my head. It’s the sense of a totally new and slightly incomprehensible result that makes me think mixology-mixschmology, this is some alchemy shit. AND with Gin Tonics you don’t even have to muddle, squeeze, shake, or strain a single thing.
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January 22, 2018 Preston Lai

How to make a Rosemary flavored cocktail: Romero Pacífico Recipe
With the slow transition from the summer months into the fall (or not so slow in SF), it’s great to have a cocktail that can be sipped in the heat of July or in the midst of a November chill.

The Romero Pacifico is an egg white sour that brings together the tart fruit of a sherry and the deep herbs of St. George’s Terroir gin. The flamed rosemary garnish adds a delicious aroma with every sip, all the flavors reminiscent of a Thanksgiving feast, yet still refreshingly light with the egg white.

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January 22, 2018 Joe Barwin

3 Classic Whiskey Cocktails Worth Adding to the Mix
When you ask someone for 3 whiskey cocktails, they’ll probably give you a whiskey sour, an old fashioned or a Manhattan. These classic drinks, while absolutely delicious, can get a little boring sometimes. So it’s time to expand your horizons and try these next 3 whiskey cocktails that most may not know by name, but can easily be made at home, or by your favorite bar tender.
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January 22, 2018 CJ Best

Viking Cocktails : How is this not a thing?
Since attending a Viking themed Tiki party and having some friends visit Sweden and Norway I’ve become enthralled with my ties to the region and baffled by how little of its culinary wonder has penetrated the American landscape.

Two of my Great-Grandparents immigrated to America from Norway and Sweden. I can still remember my Great-Grandfather singing the Swedish National Anthem at his 100th birthday.

But besides great genetics I don’t see a lot of other imports from the Northern European countries especially in the cocktail scene. Which is a shame because there are so many fun flavors to play with.

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