Getting To Know King Floyd’s Bitters with the Inimitable Josh Burks
For generations, bitters were available in three varieties: aromatic, orange, and rhubarb. These days there are more bitters on the market than you can shake a gentian root at, and it seems like every great cocktail bar is adding to that landscape with coveted secret in-house blends. King Floyds has been adding some great options to the cocktail landscape with Cherry Cacao, Scorched Pear and Ginger, and many more. We recently caught up with Bartender and Brand Ambassador Josh Burks to learn more.
Josh Burks behind the bar photo courtesy King Floyd's
The Origin of Bitters
Historically, bitters began as medicine, Burks explains. “The original bitters were more along the lines of a tincture or a snake oil remedy, and that was basically herbal extracts from a multitude of different plant life,” says Burks. “For a long time, they were literally just to help digestion, and it was the cure-all, fake medicine. Until the better sling was created, I believe in 1806, into which the word or the name and word cocktail came about. The Bitter Sling, to my knowledge, is the first cocktail ever created. It was defined as a spirit, sugar, and bitters, being a mixture to smooth out the harsh flavors that they had as far as liquor profiles back then.”
He adds “Since then (the very beginning of 1806) bitters have basically stayed the lines along two flavors, and that was an aromatic, which was a basic concoction of allspice, clove, star anise, cinnamon, black walnut, etcetera in a mixture. That kind of bitters are aromatic and the most famous one everyone knows is Angostura. That has always entertained me, because during the Civil War, there were two people that were like if there's anything this country needs, it's steak sauce and bitters, A1 and Angostura. After the aromatic was the orange bitters. You couldn't always get fresh citrus back then, so bitters were a way of giving you a citrus note behind the cocktail you were drinking without having the fresh fruit always around. The next one, I believe, to hit the scene was a rhubarb bitters by the name of Peychaud's in New Orleans. There's a big jump in history to get there. That's where the Sazerac was born.”
The Problem with DIY Bitters
Cocktail history, especially when it comes to bitters, can be a little muddled. But as Burks explains, bartenders often had to create their own bitters if they wanted something a little different from those original three types. “I've been bartending my entire life and bitters are used in everything, especially when you start learning how to balance different flavors, and so from when I was a young bartender up until now, you couldn't really get good bitters,” he says.
“There was basically your Reagan's Orange, your Angostura, sometimes a bar had Bitter Truth, which is from Germany. Everything that I know, bitters-wise, and what most bartenders that are worth their salt know is how to make their own bitters. There are two ways to make bitters, and that comes from how you extract the flavor profile. Glycerin is a way to do it. However, the product is not palatable, it can never really taste like you want it to, however, it's dirt cheap to do. And then the other way is through pure grain ethanol. Alcohol extract is the best, and when you're making it in the bar, before we add access to 190 proof grain alcohol, stuff like that, you use Everclear or a very high proof rum, and then you take all your herbs and spices and whatnot that you want, and you just put them into the giant bottle, fill it with rum, and then you let it sit. That's a very crude way of making them, however, it does get an effect. Farm to table bitters were never really available. If you wanted to get your jalapeno-thyme-lavender bitters, you had to make it yourself. That's when King Floyd's came around. I used to run a bar by the name of Peri's Silver Dollar in Fairfax, and I started my career there, and it was almost a 100-year-old bar when I started.”
King Floyd's Bitters line up photo credit King Floyd's
The Birth of King Floyd Bitters
But one day one of Burks’ regulars, Lawrence Batterton, walked into the bar with some homemade bitters, and Burks realized he was on to something. He’d been working to bring high-end cocktails to the best dive bar in Northern California, he recounts, and this appeared to be the missing piece of the puzzle. Batterton had more than two decades of experience as an herbalist and started making his own concoctions after a friend made him an Old Fashioned with pure gentian extract in place of the bitters.
“He wasn't cutting any corners, because he had a company behind him,” Burks recounts. “He was using top-notch organic materials, he started off with 190, and I would bring it down to 45 proof. And he would give them away for holiday presents. His bitters actually got really good, to the point where I would ask him to bring me some in the bar, because that can make my job a lot easier. His hobby had become expensive at that point so he launched King Floyd's. He launched it with his aromatic and his orange. His aromatic was beautiful, it was a blend of 17 herbs and spices, which we have changed to now 13. We've refined it over the years. And his orange, which was very unique when I tried it, and I couldn't even put words to it because it was unlike anything I had tried, he finally told me that it was a bitter orange peel, which are specifically grown for its bitterness, and it's not the type of orange that you typically would eat.”
King Floyd's Bitters photo courtesy King Floyd's
King Floyd’s Today
Now Burks’ crew from Peri's works with him at King Floyd's. The plan was to originally name the company Bitterton's, but after a trademark search the company moved on to other options, including that of the founder's grandfather and his own middle name, Floyd. Eventually, after a night with friends, the King Floyd name was born. The photo on the label was later found at a swap meet and they had their branding.
The company found itself switching gears at the start of Covid as the bars closed, and they found a new market in home mixologists. However, now that the bars are opening back up demand for new products, particularly those that have a single flavor in them, is growing once again.
“What covid created was a bunch of at-home bartenders, so we started making more kitschy flavors like the Grapefruit Rosemary and the Scorched Pear and Ginger, the Cherry Cacao, because people always want great things even if they don't know how to follow each step, and that's what those kinds of bitters did, it was a great blend of flavors that were a one-stop-shop,” he says. “But now all of the bartenders have started requesting single-source bitters, that is, rather than having the scorched pear and ginger, they just wanted the ginger by itself, or rather than having cherry cacao, they wanted the chocolate by itself. They wanna build their own flavor profiles rather than having to work around a blended bitter to begin with.”
Cocktails with Bitters
With so many options, does Burks have a favorite? “I don't have a favorite truly, because I've been making drinks so long that I don't think there's really a wrong way to make a cocktail as long as it tastes good,” says Burks. “I'm just cooking in a pint glass and the bitters are my spice rack, so it's just what kind of flavor you want to bring forward. Our Flagship is going to be barrel-aged aromatic. I think I have five barrel-aged, and I have little hand-written notes on them like ‘This is from 2019’ because they're so different each batch. Everything else, could be pretty consistent on the flavor profile, but the barrel-aged is a unique style of aromatic bitters, and it has been a pleasure to have so many of them out through the years. I have the exact same bitters theoretically, however, I'll blend this one with this Bourbon, or this one with this Rye, because it's so different.”
King Floyd’s Cocktail Recipes
King Floyd’s Bloody Mary
In a pint glass combine the following:
4-5 dashes of Worcestershire sauce
2-3 dashes celery salt
3-5 dashes of black pepper
1 teaspoon horseradish sauce
5 dashes King Floyds Green Chili Bitters
Juice from half a lime
Fill with Ice. Fill the remainder of the glass with Tomato Juice. Shake. Rim another pint glass with King Floyds Sriracha Salt. Pour shaken cocktail with ice into the rimmed glass. Garnish with celery stock, olives, pickled green beans, bacon, etc.
King Floyd’s Traditional Manhattan
Add ice to a martini glass to chill and set aside. In a mixing glass combine the following:
2oz bourbon of choice
1oz sweet vermouth
3-5 Dashes King Floyd’s Barrel Aged Aromatic Bitters
Add ice. Stir until mixing glass is frosty. Strain & pour into a chilled Martini Glass. Express Orange oil over the top of the glass.
King Floyd’s Cardamom Martini
Add ice to a martini glass to chill and set aside. Add Ice to a shaker and combine:
¼ oz dry vermouth over the ice, shake
Remove excess vermouth by straining and add:
2 oz gin of choice
1/3 oz Saint Germaine liqueur
2-3 Dashes King Floyds Cardamom Bitters
Stir. Strain and Pour.
King Floyd’s Upside-Down Julep
Simple syrup
2 cups of sugar
1 cup of water
1 Tablespoon almond extract
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
Stir over medium heat until dissolved. Chill
In a Collins glass combine the following:
12 mint leaves
6 Dashes King Floyds Chocolate Bitters
4 Dashes King Floyds Orange Bitters
Muddle. Pack the remainder of the glass with crushed ice and:
1 oz Homemade Simple Syrup
2 ½ oz Bourbon of choice
Place an opened Underberg bottle upside down into the ice.