What bitter goes with
Bitters and herbal liqueurs are steeped on herbs, roots and peels. That bitterness is not an aftertaste but the whole point: it cleanses the palate.
The light, red bitters come at the start of the meal, with ice and sparkling water or in a spritz. The heavy herbal bitters come afterwards, neat and cold.
Bitter and sweet reinforce each other. A bitter next to something sweet tastes less bitter than the same drink next to something savoury; you can use that to steer.
How to serve it
- Glass
- Beforehand in a wine glass with plenty of ice; afterwards in a small shot glass.
- Temperature
- Cold, from the fridge or over ice.
- Neat or mixed
- Light and red: with prosecco and sparkling water. Rich and spicy: neat, in a small glass.
What it goes with
- olives and nuts
- Serrano ham
- aged cheese
- bruschetta
- fried bites
- coffee after dinner
This applies to the type as a whole. What an individual bottle does is on the page of that bottle.
All 114 bitters on the shelfAll recommendations from ’t Bockje
With every bottle of bitter, its own recommendation
The page of every bottle of bitter from the shop has a recommendation of its own: something for the meal or the drinks, a cheese and something for afterwards, with the shopping list and the preparation.