Saturday Happy Hour — One Great Bottle: Bittermens Xocoltl Mole Bitters
A surprisingly useful bottle of unusual bitters.
One of the very first bottles of unusual bitters I picked up was a bottle of Bittermens Xocoltl Mole Bitters, a Mexican chocolate bitters with deep, rich notes of cocoa and cinnamon spice.
It’s still one of my favorites, and I end up reaching for it more often than you might think. It’s found in stirred, boozy, complex drinks like the Conference, the Left Hand, the Latin Quarter, and the little-known dark rum Negroni riff, A Light in the Attic.
In general, I find that the inclusion of Mole Bitters in any cocktail recipe is a promising sign. Also, the nifty dropper bottle helps add to the always-desirable impression that every cocktail is some sort of mysterious science experiment.
A brief programming note: In addition to the main weekly newsletter, which will usually come out Thursday or Friday, I’m going to try some shorter weekend posts like this one, highlighting a single ingredient or recipe. These shorter posts will typically go out to both paid and unpaid subscribers. You can make sure you always receive every post by becoming a paid subscriber right now.
What rum would you use in the light in an attic?
I haven't seen this brand at a local shop, but I did pick up a bottle of Fee Brother's Mexican Chocolate bitters recently, and they're really good in a standard rye Old Fashioned... the Old Fashioned tends to be a little sweet for my tastes lately, and I think the Mexican Chocolate bitters add a nice layer of depth and complexity.