MEET THE MAKER: BITTER, BITTER SUCCESS
The sun is shining on Rob Kaczanowski and Brandy Newman, who started Black Cloud Bitters as a business venture and a means of elevating cocktail culture.
The sun is shining on Rob Kaczanowski and Brandy Newman, who started Black Cloud Bitters as a business venture and a means of elevating cocktail culture.
like so many fun things in life, Black Cloud Bitters started with a cocktail. Probably several, truth be told. And some late- night experimentation with recipes. Research, they call it. “I’m a bit of a cocktail aficionado,” says Rob Kaczanowski with a chuckle. “I like making them at home in my spare time.” The concepts of work and leisure have become a little mixed up for Kaczanowski and his wife, Brandy Newman, since they founded Black Cloud Bitters, which offers handmade artisanal bitters for cocktail lovers, earlier this year.
Bitters, for the uninitiated, are alcoholic extracts flavoured with plant extracts and botanicals. They’re used as cocktail ingredients, in food, and for their medicinal properties ( some claim they improve digestion). Bitters differ from, say, vodka or gin in that they’re not generally the sort of thing you want to sit around and sip. As the name implies, they’re bitter, and they’re best when used sparingly, as a supporting actor, not the star. But when made and used with care, bitters can elevate your drink— or dish— to a new and fascinating realm.
Black Cloud Bitters just might do the same for the couple. The idea for the company came about when Newman, a communications professional, realized she wanted a new job, something that would combine her professional skills with her life as the mom of three children, all of whom are under the age of 10.
The company is likewise in its infancy, and Kaczanowski hasn’t quit his day job, about which he is a wee bit vague. (“Let’s just say I’m a finance guy in the energy sector,” he says.) But when he’s not in the office, he loves to spend time in the kitchen. “I’m the flavour consultant. The midnight chemist and bitter- maker,” he says. “I was making bitters just for fun, spending a bunch of time coming up with recipes and trying new things.”
The couple talked about the idea for a couple of months and then, earlier this year, decided to create Black Cloud— the name refers to the dispersion that occurs when bitters are added to a cocktail. “It was the best way to marry my evening hobby with Brandy’s desire to start a business,” Kaczanowski says.
On May 29, Black Cloud released its first product, a charred cedar bitter made with Canadian cedar in a bourbon base, which gives it rich caramel and smoky notes. “We hand- char it and then combine it with a range of botanicals and spices, and we infuse it in a high- proof spirit for up to a month,” says Kaczanowski. “That’s when all the magic comes out.”
Extending the magical metaphor would make the 25- litre vats that Kaczanowski stirs in a commercial kitchen in southwest Calgary, cauldrons, but the results are far from a witch’s brew. Kaczanowski tests and retests until each is perfect, and the couple favours a more scientific approach to using their product.
Both hope that people will experiment with bitters in more than just cocktails. Newman says the charred cedar goes well on chocolate- vanilla ice cream bars; she also likes a few drops in a glass of Prosecco. Shazam.