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The Top Things to Know about Cocktail Bitters
1. Bitters Are the Seasoning of the Cocktail World
Cocktail bitters are intensely flavored mixtures made by infusing combinations of herbs, roots, bark, spices, fruits, seeds, and botanicals in alcohol. They're used a few dashes at a time to add depth and balance. Think of bitters like salt and pepper for cocktails. You don't necessarily taste them separately—you notice when they're missing.
2. Bitters Started as Medicine
Long before bartenders were dashing bitters into Old Fashioneds, bitter herbal preparations were sold as medicinal tonics and patent remedies for everything from digestion to general aches and pains. Eventually somebody added booze to the medicine—or medicine to the booze—and things got considerably more interesting.
3. Bitters Helped Define the Word “Cocktail”
One of the earliest famous printed definitions of a cocktail, published in 1806, described it as a mixture of spirits, sugar, water, and bitters. In other words, bitters weren't an optional fancy ingredient. They were there when the cocktail got its job description.
4. Angostura Is the Big Name
Angostura bitters is probably the world's best-known cocktail bitters. It was created in 1824 by Dr. Johann Gottlieb Benjamin Siegert, a German physician working in the Venezuelan town of Angostura. The formula remains a closely guarded secret. And yes, that oversized label is intentional today and has become one of the most recognizable packages behind the bar.
5. Angostura Bitters Don't Contain Angostura Bark
Despite the name, Angostura aromatic bitters aren't named for an ingredient. They're named after the town of Angostura, now Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela, where Dr. Siegert developed them. So if you've been searching the ingredient list for Angostura...You can stop now.
6. Peychaud's Is a New Orleans Classic
Peychaud's Bitters was created by New Orleans apothecary Antoine Amédée Peychaud in the 1800s. Its lighter, slightly sweeter, anise-forward character became essential to the Sazerac. Angostura may rule the world, but in New Orleans, Peychaud's has home-field advantage.
7. Orange Bitters Were Once a Bar Staple
Orange bitters were an important cocktail ingredient in the 19th and early 20th centuries before largely disappearing from American bars during the decades following Prohibition.
The cocktail revival brought them roaring back.
Today, orange bitters are once again common in Martinis and many classic and modern cocktails.
Apparently orange bitters just took a very long vacation.
8. A Dash Isn't an Exact Measurement
A “dash” of bitters sounds wonderfully precise until you try measuring one.
Dash size varies by bottle, dasher top, angle, force, and how full the bottle is. Generally, you're adding a very small amount, not pouring bitters like a spirit.
That's why recipes often say “2 dashes” rather than “0.173 ounces.”
Sometimes bartending still gets to be fun.
9. Bitters Come in Hundreds of Flavors
The modern cocktail revival created a bitters boom. Beyond aromatic and orange, you'll find flavors such as grapefruit, chocolate, celery, lavender, peach, walnut, cherry, coffee, cardamom, mole, rhubarb, and tiki bitters.
If you can imagine a flavor, somebody has probably put it in a tiny bottle with a fancy label.
10. Cocktail Bitters Usually Contain Alcohol
Most traditional cocktail bitters are alcohol-based and can have a surprisingly high ABV. But because only a few dashes are normally used, the amount added to a cocktail is tiny.
They're also extremely concentrated, so drinking them straight is generally not the point—although there are cocktails, famously the Trinidad Sour, that turn that idea completely upside down and use Angostura bitters in much larger quantities.
That's the wonderful thing about bartending:
Every time somebody establishes a rule, another bartender invents a cocktail that breaks it.
A Bittered History
No one knows the exact time bitters began, but it’s widely agreed they were first used medicinally. In 1712, British clergyman Richard Stoughton received a patent for Magnum Elixir Stomachicum, an alcohol-based herbal infusion. It was the second compound medicine in the world to receive a patent. Soon, the public was calling it Stoughton’s Bitters. In 1730, he exported it to America.
Bitters is made of selected herbs, spices, seeds, dried fruit peels, flora, barks, botanicals, or roots of one’s choice—a witch’s brew of sorts—then preserved in a base of high-proof alcohol. However, some bitters are nonalcoholic and made with glycerin. In the 1800s, these elixirs were advertised as cure-alls and sold in 750 ml bottles. Today, thanks to the cocktail revolution, there is a huge assortment of bitters on the market, just like in the 1880s.
Bitters can be dashed into fizzy water and drunk to calm a stomachache, and you can use bitters in food and drinks to add flavor. Bitters doesn’t taste bitter as the name implies. When used in cocktails, it simply adds a dash of concentrated flavor. Most say it seasons the cocktail in the same way salt seasons food. The best way to taste test bitters is through your nose. No, do not sniff. Dash a couple drops in your palm, rub your palms together, then cover your nose and mouth and smell.
If you’d like to experiment with making your own medicinal bitters, then these herbs and other plants may be worth exploring: amla berry, ashwagandha, astragalus root, bamboo stem, burdock root, Bupleurum, dandelion root, ellagitannin, fo-ti, gotu kola, gubinge, holy basil, Indian gooseberry, Japanese knotweed, jiaogulan, kudzu leaf, licorce root, maca, mallow leaf, moringa leaf, pine bark, pine needles, pine pollen, red clover, rosehip, sea buckthorn, Siberian ginseng, suma, watercress, and yellowdock root.
Angostura Bitters
Since 1824, Angostura bitters has stood the test of time. In 1862, Don Carlos Siegert from Trinidad first exhibited it at the Great London Exposition. The cocktail Pink Gin was invented at the same time and was called Amargo Aromatico. Angostura bitters won a medal at the 1873 World’s Fair in Vienna, Austria. Many cocktails call for the bitters, including the Champagne Cocktail, Vieux Carré, Pisco Sour, Old-Fashioned, Pink Gin, Manhattan, Rob Roy, Singapore Sling, Planter’s Punch, and Zombie.
Peychaud’s Bitters and Boker’s Bitters
The next two most popular bitters in the 1800s were Peychaud’s Bitters (1857) from New Orleans and Boker’s (1828) from New York. Peychaud’s is the red bitters used in a Sazerac or Vieux Carré cocktail. If you ever visit New Orleans, just pop into the local grocery store and take a bottle or two home with you. Boker’s bitters appeared in many cocktail recipe books before becoming extinct, but thankfully Dr. Adam Elmegirab's Bitters has raised it from the dead. Some of the vintage cocktails that called for Boker’s include the Japanese Cocktail, Martinez, Manhattan, and Crusta.
Orange Bitters
Orange bitters were called for in the first known Martini recipe seen in print, in 1862. From Prohibition until the early 2000s, Angostura was the only bitters available. When Regan’s Orange Bitters No. 6 was produced in 2005 by cocktail author, historian, and bartender Gary Regan, it opened the bitters floodgates.
Bitters Bottles
You may have noticed many little bottles all around the drink-making station of your local bar. Those are bitters bottles. Some will be purchased bitters and some will be made from scratch by your bartenders.
Bitters Around the World
Today, there are too many bitters companies to mention and many bartenders are making their own bitters. Never in the history of cocktail culture have there been so many flavors to choose from. Check out these flavors: Gumbo, Tex-Mex, Memphis BBQ, Holiday Pie, Figgy Pudding, Mi Casa, Creole, Celery Shrub, Hellfire, Winter Melon, Orange Cream, Hoped Grapefruit, Jamaican Jerk, Cherry Bark, Blackstrap, Roasted Macadamia, Wild Mountain Sage, Palo Santo, Vanilla Chai, Hair of the Dog, Bitter Frost, Smoked Chili, and Wormwood Bitters.
Some of the top companies producing bitters around the world include AZ Bitters Lab, Basement Bitters, Bittercube Bitters, Bitter End Bitters, Bittered Sling Bitters, Dr. Adam Elmegirab’s Bitters, Dram Bitters, El Guapo Bitters, Fees’s Brothers Bitters, Hella Bitter, Old Men Bitters, Scrappy’s Bitters, the Bittered Truth Bitters, the Cocktail Experiment Bitters, and Urban Moonshine Organic Bitters.
Digestive Bitters
Some spirits also have bitter qualities, and many countries have their own. Bartenders measure them in ounces, not dashes. The most popular include Amer Picon, Aperol, Averna, Becherovka, Campari, Cynar, Fernet, Branca, and Jägermeister.
DIY Bitters Recipes
• Before you turn your kitchen into a DIY bitters lab, it is best to prepare. Here are some items to gather.
• A few quart-sized Mason jars.
• Any high-proof liquor (80 proof or higher). Many beginners like to start with vodka because it’s neutral. But later you can try other spirits such as whiskey and tequila. Just keep in mind they will add to the flavor.
• Filters of some sort, like cheesecloth, a fine strainer, or a coffee filter.
• Small dropper or bitters bottles of your choosing.
• Fancy or plain labels of your choosing, or just use masking tape.
• A small funnel to fit into the small bottles.
• Your choice of herbs, spices, seeds, dried fruit peels, whole fresh fruit, flora, botanicals, roots, etc. To help you get started, think dried fruit, dried citrus peels, dried flora, coffee beans, peppercorns, star anise, cracked whole nutmeg, juniper berries, cherry bark, etc. Barks may be easier to find online.
• Once you hunt and gather your ingredients, put them in the jar and fill it with the spirit. It will need to infuse for several weeks to draw out the flavor. Each day, agitate the jar to mix everything. When ready, strain the mixture into another jar using cheesecloth or a very fine strainer. Some people will use both.
• Put the solids you catch in the strainer into a pot with some water, bring to a boil, then simmer for fifteen minutes. Put all of that mixture into a separate jar and let it sit for one week.
• When ready, strain out the solids. The solids can be thrown away. Combine the two jars of liquid you’ve made, and if the end result has sediment at the bottom or floating in the mixture, strain it again.
• Lastly, you can add a little sweetener to make it more palatable. You can use honey, maple syrup, molasses, or rich simple syrup (two parts sugar to one part water dissolved into a syrup). Shake it all up, and now you are ready to bottle.
Basic Bitters
Makes 16 ounces
Pinch cardamom
Pinch caraway
Pinch of coriander seeds
1 cup dried bitter orange peel
2 cups grain alcohol
2 tablespoons honey
Combine all ingredients in a sterilized jar with a lid and let it sit in a cool, dark place for three weeks, shaking it daily. When ready, strain through cheesecloth or a fine strainer into another jar. Bring the solids caught in the strainer to a boil with water and then simmer for fifteen minutes. Put the mixture into a lidded jar and let it sit for one week. When ready, strain and combine with the first strained jar. Add the sweetener, shake, and then funnel into a dropper or bitters bottles.
Bourbon Pecan Bitters
Makes 16 ounces
1/2 cup roasted pecans
2 whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1 vanilla bean, split
1 tablespoon wild cherry bark
1 tablespoon gentian root
2 cups high-proof Bourbon
2 tablespoons maple syrup
Combine all ingredients in a sterilized jar with a lid and let it sit in a cool, dark place for three weeks, shaking it daily. When ready, strain through cheesecloth or a fine strainer into another jar. Bring the solids caught in the strainer to a boil with water and then simmer for fifteen minutes. Put the mixture into a lidded jar and let it sit for one week. When ready, strain and combine with the first strained jar. Add the sweetener, shake, and then funnel into a dropper or bitters bottles.
Lavender Bitters
Makes 16 ounces
1 cup dried lavender
1/2 cup orange peels
1 vanilla pod, split
2 cups grain alcohol
2 tablespoons agave nectar
Combine all the ingredients into a sterilized jar with a lid and allow to sit in a cool, dark place for three weeks, agitating it every day. When ready, strain through cheesecloth or a fine strainer into another jar. Bring the solids caught in the strainer to a boil with water and then simmer for fifteen minutes. Put all that mixture into a lidded jar and allow to sit for one week. When ready, strain and combine with the first strained jar. Add the sweetener, shake, and then funnel into a dropper or bitters bottles.
Orange Bitters
Makes 16 ounces
1 cup orange peels
2 cardamom pods
Pinch of coriander seeds
1 teaspoon fennel seed
10 drops gentian extract
2 cups grain alcohol
2 tablespoons rich simple syrup
Combine all ingredients in a sterilized jar with a lid and let it sit in a cool, dark place for three weeks, shaking it daily. When ready, strain through cheesecloth or a fine strainer into another jar. Bring the solids caught in the strainer to a boil with water and then simmer for fifteen minutes. Put the mixture into a lidded jar and let it sit for one week. When ready, strain and combine with the first strained jar. Add the sweetener, shake, and then funnel into a dropper or bitters bottles.