Cocktails with Peppermint bitters
Peppermint bitters is a high-proof cocktail bitters flavoured around peppermint, used in small dashes to season drinks rather than consumed on its own.
ABV44%High, but negligible in practice since it is used only in dashes.
Taste profile
Cooling menthol dominates the aroma, over a sharp, sweetish peppermint core with only a light bitter edge.
How it's used
Dashed into a build or stir, it seasons a drink with a cooling mint lift; a few drops go a long way, so it works as a background aromatic accent rather than a measured component.
Substitutes for Peppermint bitters
Where mint is only a background lift, another aromatic or herbal bitters can stand in, or the note can simply be dropped; where the peppermint is the signature, only a peppermint-derived source such as fresh mint, a mint liqueur or a peppermint tincture will reproduce the cooling menthol aroma.
Description
Distillers infuse botanical material in a high-proof alcohol base that both extracts the flavour and preserves the concentrated result; here the defining botanical is peppermint (Mentha × piperita), a mint whose essential oil is dominated by menthol and menthone. As a single-flavour herbal style, it need not carry a classic bittering root such as gentian.
