Here’s a little Manhattan-adjacent drink I whipped up yesterday, sort of inspired by one I had at a restaurant long ago:
- 2oz Forty Creek whisky
- 1/3 oz Barolo Chinato sweet wine
- 1/3 oz Strega
- 2 dashes Sichuan peppercorn bitters
I like it a lot! Between the spice and the Strega, there was a lot going on, and the Forty Creek has its own bit of spice to join the party. I made a batch of two, so the 1/3 oz measures were actually 3/4 oz ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Oh I want those bitters!
My husband has an odd reaction to Sichuan pepper, he’s usually a little less spice tolerant than the rest of us, but not by much. But when I make mapo tofu, he almost can’t eat it, finds it so, so, so hot and he thinks we are trolling him, but none of us find it super spicy at all. We perceive it as pleasantly picante but he is on fire. I’m sure it’s that one pepper, because I don’t use it in much else.
Love Barolo with pizza or spaghetti, yum.
The bitters are so good. It gives a drink some heat, but somehow not the same spice as some of the other spicy bitters on the market (some tiki ones, I have a habanero one that’s pretty good). It’s more warm and full-bodied I think.
Aside: I love mapo tofu. It’s one of my go to crowd pleaser recipes, and I can make it as hot as I please (I do not live in a spice tolerant place 😩)
This sounds really good. I’ve never seen Sichuan peppercorn bitters, but that sounds really interesting. Do you have a recipe?
I didn’t make the bitters, but I’d imagine you could soak roughly cracked peppercorns in some neutral high-proof spirit for a week and end up with something tasty! Here’s what I was using: https://www.dashfire.us/cocktailbitters
Sichuan peppercorn bitters
It isn’t a recipe, but the bottle from the image is found on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Dashfire-Sichuan-Peppercorn-Cocktail-Bitters/dp/B071XH6G4G
Good catch! Thanks, I didn’t even see that.