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The notion here is India Pale Ale, taken and run, run, run, run, run (amok) until it became an extremely unique herbal bitters.

It all started when Rob was at Magnolia in San Francisco, drinking a “Proving Ground IPA”, enjoying it so much that he had a eureka moment. He decided to ask Magnolia's brewer/founder Dave McLean if he could buy a few hundred gallons of Proving Gound so he could distill it as the base of a bitters he was dreaming up even as they were talking. Rob knew he had access to truly astounding quality pears that were about to be ripe and ready, and this seemed like the perfect place to integrate them.

The base of the bitters is the whiskey that was made when Rob distilled Magnolia's IPA. It is pungent, with heavy notes of turmeric and citrus, which inspired the botanical blend that the whiskey would then be extracting.

The primary punch of course is a balanced acidity and sweetness from the pears which came from Mt. Hood, the only biodynamic pear orchard in Oregon, and also happen to be a true pleasure to work with.

Many of the other plant additions we picked ourselves. A favorite is the organic buddha’s hand fruit and leaf from Tenalu Farms, an organic farm in Southern California. Rob and his former housemate Collin Hilton, who at the time was the epic chef at ABV in San Francisco, together made the delicious excursion down to Tenalu. The itinerary naturally involved both business and pleasure: to meet and experience both the farmers and their truly stupefying forest of healthily grown rare citruses.

You may ask, why mix pears and citrus? We liked the differences in their acidic profiles, which mixed together to make something tantalizing and potent. Acidity in cocktails is very important and often overlooked, so we try to give our bartenders easy quick tricks up their sleeves.

The layers of flavor start with pear, citrus of many kinds (pink variegated lemon and finger lime predominately), and amchoor (dried young mango). Secondary hits are celery seed funk, bracing mace, ajwain seed, salinity from Piran sel gris from Bitterman Salt Co, tropical hop notes, and bitterness from ashwagandha. The backbone comes in the form of fresh turmeric, ginger, cubeb pepper, fenugreek, holy basil, and green cardamom. The current batch features spices from the world renowned top quality and ethically minded sourcing company Burlap & Barrel.

All told, there are over 30 thematically appropriate botanicals in this concoction. Sometimes we make bitters from just a handful of ingredients, sometimes a lot more. This was a case where we embraced maximalism.

Distilling hopped beers is not something we’ll do to bottle and drink as-is, due to the final profile being quite odd and herbaceous. But using that pungency in a blend is quite lovely, much like a perfume has multiple components that aren’t necessarily palatable on their own. So to make it more friendly, we cut the IPA spirit with our CA rye and some organic Mexican cane spirit which, as always, we make from scratch and do not purchase from the pharmaceutical industry as is most common. No added water or colors or chemicals besides those naturally in whole plants.

"This isn’t your run of the mill bitters that focus on one or two flavours; they’ve managed to combine elements and spices from many different regions of the world and come up with a product that is at both times very Mediterranean and distinctively Asian in its flavour profile. Nothing overwhelms you and even the ingredients that tend to hijack flavour profiles like cardamom and ginger find their place and play nice with their contemporaries."
-Whiskey Writes
Click here to read full review.

Best uses: 

• Ultimately because of their complexity, the uses are infinite… from a provocative sipper carrot brandy based cocktail made at Maison Premiere in Brooklyn to a simple summer crusher like a Scotch old fashioned made by The Alembic in SF, many bars have made many many interesting cocktails with these since their launch in 2015

• Anything involving rum, from an Aged Rum Old Fashioned to a Daiquiri

• Agave and other flavorful unoaked spirits (Bacanora, Apple Brandy) or lightly oaked (Japanese or Scotch Whisky) spirit cocktails

• Soda and tonic water

• Austere sherry, cider, or dry vermouth based cocktails

• Bright curry, especially with coconut milk and vibrant vegetables

• Vinaigrette: add 1-3 sleeves per person in the dressing or lightly drop right on top of a salad

• Iced oat, sesame, or coconut milk lattes and teas

• With Saison or any light beer, just dropped on top or in beer cocktails

Cocktail photos by Betsy Allen