Oh, the rabbit holes down which I go.
Of late, I’ve been attempting to make my own bitters. It has been rather easy to make the initial one-ingredient extractions. Taking things to the next level of blends has been a bit more challenging … and not as alluring as I might have to actually think about what I’m doing rather than splish-splash-and-a-dash-ing of my ingredients.
I’ve made a few bitters blends. They’ve ranged from ghastly to mildly ok. I still consume them.
But, and at least as of now, I’m most content with the classic Angostura aromatic bitters.
I drink it, straight.
Not in a cup, per se. Just out of the bottle. Glug, glug.
It delights me so.
***
A factoid about the bitter taste I heard/encountered some time ago fascinated me.
One can adjust up or down, one’s tolerance for the taste of sweet and sugars.
One can adjust up or down, one’s tolerance for the taste of salt.
And one can adjust up or down, one’s tolerance for fat.
But bitter foods? That’s genetic. You have it, or you don’t. And I clearly have it.
In my young adult years when I got more curious about health and supplements, I encountered a few rather bitter tinctures. I didn’t find them terrible. I automatically assumed they were better for me. I could feel my body going, “Yeah, yeah, we-me like.”
And I remember taking a spoonful of some fake-cherry-flavored cough syrup at one point and thinking, “Super gross. Give me the bitter herbs any day over this abomination.”
I also really like my fats in food. Oil, butter, animal fat. Gimme, gimme, gimme.
Bitter foods stimulate the gall bladder, which then produces more bile. Bile helps break down fat, which increases its surface area and makes it more digestible. Bile helps the body absorb important vitamins and get rid of waste products such as old red blood cells.
Bitter is also one of the tastes we need in balance in our food consumption. Bitterness is part of life. It ain’t all sweet, and it ain’t all salty.
Beyond the obvious bitter foods that, well, taste bitter, you might be surprised to discover foods categorized as bitter by TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine):
* Lettuces and all the dark leafy greens
* Most of the citruses
* Artichokes, Brussels sprouts and broccoli rabe
* Cranberries
* Some nuts
* Some mushrooms
* Ginger
As well as –
* Yup, chocolate and cocoa
* Coffee
* Beer
What about you? Do you like bitter foods? Love them? Tolerate them?
