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Comment by A_D_E_P_T | Hacker News Reader

Angostura bitters are seriously magical. They improve everything. A few dashes are basically non-alcoholic, too.

The best mocktail, which even a grown man can enjoy without feeling silly, is as simple as bitters + tonic.

Mocktails taught me what an _incredible_ solvent alcohol is. It's hard to replicate alcohol for flavor extraction. Luckily, the mocktails I'm making are fine to have a tiny amount of alcohol (my wife just doesn't drink, but it's not religious or health related). Bitters make things so much easier.

IMHO Angostura bitters have specific applications where they excel but are far from universally great. Their serious astringency and bitterness really step on other ingredients depending on the cocktail. I keep the following on hand (despite having retired my home bar a few years back):

  - Fee Brothers Old Fashioned
  - Fee Brothers Aztec Chocolate
  - Fee Brothers Grapefruit
  - Bittermens Hellfire Habanero Shrub
  - Peychaud's
  - Urban Moonshine Original

As far as NA beverages go I like making spiced chocolate sodas, grapefruit tonics, pink lemonade (via Peychaud's), and just bitters and soda with these. The only thing I'm missing is a good orange bitter as I find the Fee Brothers one to be too aggressive.

It really is great, and something that can be ordered at just about any bar anywhere. Excellent as a stand-in between alcoholic beverages to avoid getting too plastered, or if rolling completely alcohol-free, enough to feed the oral fixation that comes with being in any typical drinking situation.

When I realized that drinking a cocktail every night wasn't great for my health, I found the bitters + soda to be a great substitute. A shot of apple cider vinegar can add a bit of complexity to it as well.

Bitters and soda is a cocktail, though. I guess the poison is in the dose.

The book Zero by alinea has recipes for spirit free bitters as well,I'm sure you can find similar recipes online for free

I bought just now some liquid smoke and I wanna try it so much for spirit free whiskey

Liquid smoke is a poor substitute for smoke in food I can't imagine mixing it for effect in a drink. For humans?

They sell little bits of pre-charred and corrugated wood that you can put in "crappy whisky to make it taste fancy", which is what I'd use, except I'd use a bernzomatic and a piece of oak from my yard.

I bet lump charcoal would work, too, if you had a filter stage afterward.

I've never tried it, so it might suck. If it does, I'll just use it for food and buy toasted oak chips

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