Waste Hack Bitters
Are you at home cutting up endless oranges for the kids? Or just taking advantage of the season and making fresh squeezed orange juice in the morning? In both cases you end up with empty orange skins that could be put to good use.
Our Cornersmith bitters uses traditional bitter herbs and barks for that pungent adventure in flavour, but here we maximise the bitter compounds in citrus pith and skin to make a waste hack version of one of our best selling products.
This version is aromatic, tart, a little heady and just the thing you need to make a gin and tonic, or strong but booze free beverage at the end of another long day in lockdown.
Ingredients
The pith and skin of 4 oranges, lemons, mandarins or 2 grapefruit
5 all spice berries
2 star anise
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 tablespoon juniper berries
1 stalk lemongrass
3/4 cup caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Method
Place the citrus skins, spices sugar and salt to a pot and cover with 2 cups of water. Over a medium heat bring to a boil and then turn the heat down and allow to gently simmer covered for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the ingredients steep overnight.
Strain the tonic into a clean and dry bottle or jar and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
Start with 2 tablespoons of tonic to 30 ml of gin and top with sparkling water for a classic gin and tonic. Add a preserved cumquat to make it fancy.