Don's Little Bitter

1 oz Rum, Barbancourt (8 yr)

1⁄2 oz Fernet Branca

1⁄2 oz Lemon juice

1⁄2 oz Simple syrup

1⁄4 oz Bitters, Angostura

1⁄8 oz Peychaud's Bitters

1⁄8 oz Orange bitters, Angostura Orange

Instructions

Shake with ice and double strain into a coupe glass.

Cocktail summary

Created by

Don Lee, PDT, New York, NY

Year

2008

Is an

authentic recipe

Reference

http://cocktailclassics.blogspot.com/2009/03/dons-little-bitter.html

Curator

4 stars

Average

4 stars

(20 ratings)

Cocktail Book

From other users

Subbed agave for the simple syrup and used a quarter of the amount - not enough as it turned out. — ★★★★
This is one smooth cocktail. Made with Appleton 12 and dark simple.
Augie had at Drink June 2016
Nice cocktail; I will make again. Reminds me in some ways of an industry sour.
Cut back the Angostura a bit, and served this down (chilled glass, no rocks) as the link suggests as an option. The medicinal aspects of the fernet are strong. Interesting. — ★★★★★
Really nice. Strong Angostura. Surprisingly, it needed the simple. Made again with Barbancourt; better with Clement VSOP. — ★★★★★

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Comments

Made this tonight for Repeal Day, and I'm wondering where it's been all my life. I subbed St. James Hors d'Age for the Barbancourt. Weirdly enough, the Ango Orange drives this cocktail - it's got a strong bitter orange peel/vitamin aroma and flavor, but considering all the bitter in this, it is only mildly so. This is really delicious stuff.

Thanks,

Zachary

Finally got around to trying this. Excellent, although I think it can use more rum. I used 2 oz, unless I measured wrong (which is possible).

Made again. Don't use more rum, at least not more Barbancourt. It results in a flatter cocktail. Consider less Angostura and more of the other bitters as it dominates.

This is amazing. It's complex yet refreshing. I used Fee Bros Orange instead of the Angostura orange. Not sure how different they are. Also, per Dan's recommendation, I used a teaspoon each of the 3 bitters.

A great after dinner cocktail. All the bitters, including Fernet, are great for digestion and overall is very balanced. I thought about adding more Barbancourt 8 rum, and sweetener after I tasted what was in the shaker tin before adding ice. But before I crossed the Rubicon and shook it up with ice I decided to try the cocktail as created, and am enjoying each slightly bittersweet sip as I type. Next time I'll alter the three bitters' ratios as Dan suggested, going with one tsp each.