Celery Bitters

Celery Bitters is a savory cocktail bitters — a concentrated, high-proof tincture that captures the green, saline, faintly bitter snap of celery and celery seed, dosed in dashes rather than poured. It belongs to the family of "flavouring" or savory bitters that sit alongside aromatic and citrus styles behind the bar, and it is prized for the vegetal, almost briny lift it gives to gin drinks, Bloody Marys, Martinis and clarified savoury cocktails. The style was a fixture of nineteenth-century American bars, faded from view through most of the twentieth century, and was revived in 2008 when The Bitter Truth reintroduced a celery bitters — a launch widely credited with bringing the flavour back to the modern cocktail canon. Built on a neutral spirit steeped with celery seed and supporting botanicals such as lemon peel, coriander and other herbs, it leads with fresh green celery and warm celery-seed spice over a light, drying bitterness. A dash or two seasons a drink the way a stalk of celery or a pinch of celery salt seasons a dish.