Tastiest accident ever? Miracle Mile Bitters Clusterfuck bitters.

With regards to Miracle Mile Bitters Co. Clusterfuck Bitters, there IS such a thing as a happy accident. Miracle Mile Bitters owner Louis Anderman was doing up batches of his Toasted Pecan Bitters and his Orange Bitters when he accidentally poured half a finished batch of the orange bitters into the just strained Toasted Pecan bitters batch. “Actually, they ain’t half bad,” he wrote on his Facebook page. “I may soon be introducing a very limited edition ‘Kitchen Snafu’ series.”

And a legend was born. Soon friends and customers were begging for a bottle. So Louis obliged and packaged, labeled and dropped off the bottles at Bar Keeper in Silver Lake. Needless to say they sold like crazy, selling out in 24 hours. Unfortunately, he says that for the life of him, he can’t replicate the flavor to make more batches. Even the bottle lists “magic” as an ingredient; right up there with “stupidity.”

I know, it’s mean of me to tell you about this limited edition one-off but Louis says that folks can still replicate something close to the Clusterfuck flavor by using “2 dashes pecan to one orange. That’s about the rough ratio I mixed up the two batches.” And lucky for you Bar Keeper currently has both those flavors in stock.

Louis likes to use it in an American Trilogy cocktail.  “I think the nuttiness is a nice complement to both the rye and applejack, and the tannins are a nice foil to the sweetness, bringing a bit more dryness to the finish,” he said.

Or you can try it in these Old Fashioned variations which were inspired by the Clusterfuck flavor. FYI, bartender Ricky Yarnell is currently serving his C-F cocktail at the Parish, so get ’em while you still can. Sounds so good. “I previously made a version of this drink with the toasted pecan bitters so I thought I’d try with the the Clusterfuck because I thought that the orange tones in the bitters would match well with the orange oils from the garnish. Obviously I had to tweak the original recipe a bit, but it works and it’s tasty,” he said.

Clustercuss Old Fashioned
by Ricky Yarnell, The Parish

• 1.5 oz Wild Turkey rye 101
• 0.25 oz Benedictine
• barspoon demerara syrup
• 3-4 dashes Miracle Mile Bitters Clusterfuck bitters
• Dry Irish stout

1. Combine first four ingredients in an Old Fashioned glass.
2. Add a big rock of ice and top with a dry Irish stout (we use O’Hara’s).
3. Garnish with an orange peel.

Cari’s Clusterfuck Old Fashioned
by Cari Hah, Cole’s/Neat

• 1 brown sugar cube
• 1 oz Irish whiskey
• 1 oz applejack
• 3-4 dashes Miracle Mile Bitters Clusterfuck bitters

1. Drop the brown sugar cube in an Old Fashioned glass and add 3-4 dashes of the bitters to it.
2. Muddle it into a paste and then add the rest of the ingredients to the glass.
3. Add a large cube of ice, stir and garnish with an orange peel.