rowanberry bitters

 
I recently participated in a class put on by Sophia Rose on making mulled and infused wines, cordials, and liqueurs. We tasted many delicious concoctions, but one of the most interesting things we did was make bitters. Commercially available bitters often contains gentian, but we used rowan, or mountain ash berries since they grow around here and are sometimes used for bitters. The trees are very common--I've often wondered if the berries were edible.

To make the bitters, just infuse gin or vodka with macerated berries. We used vodka, but will probably add in some juniper berries to make it more gin-like.

Here's a great booklet with many other uses for rowanberries.