Exorcism Bitters

Exorcism Bitters is a bottle of cocktail bitters, a concentrated flavoring meant to be used in dashes, not poured. The details on hand don't list its ingredients, proof, or flavor profile, so the notes below describe how bitters of this kind typically behave, not a measured profile of this bottle. Expect a bitter, aromatic, spice-or-botanical-driven concentrate with little or no sweetness of its own, which is what makes it useful for balancing sweeter drinks. Bitters work as a modifier. Two or three dashes in an Old Fashioned or a Manhattan add structure and a dry, bitter edge that keeps the sugar and vermouth from tasting flat. The same quantity can season a Champagne cocktail on a sugar cube, a whiskey sour, or a Negroni-style drink where you want extra depth. Start with a single dash, taste, and add more only if the drink still reads sweet or one-dimensional. A bottle this concentrated goes a long way. For something simpler, a few dashes in a tall glass of soda water over ice makes a dry, low-sugar drink with a bitter finish. Sparkling water with a citrus peel works the same way. Bitters are not meant to be sipped neat, since the undiluted concentrate is intensely bitter. Use a dasher top or a dropper so each addition is easy to measure.