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Bitters have existed for millennia, going back thousands of years to ancient Egypt and China, where tinctures and fortified wines were enjoyed for their medicinal benefits.
It seems like bitters have been established behind most bars for just as long. They constitute a staple even as their popularity ebbs and flows. The popularity of these adjuncts is high right now, perhaps in equal measure because of consumer preference for classic characteristics and new, bold, and useful expressions that allow bartenders to readily express their creativity.
Classic Bitters, Classic Cocktails
Let's start at the beginning, with the classics: Angostura, Peychaud’s, and orange bitters. In a modern era including glass domes over activated charcoal, of muddled sage, and boba, these bitters are old school and familiar, like a handshake with an old friend.
Josh Warrener, a mixologist at The Black Cat on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, says, "Bitters add unique depth of flavor to my cocktails. Without bitters, an old fashioned would just be whiskey and sugar.”
However comforting, they’re still being used to push the envelope and are all still found at the forefront of craft cocktailing.
Angostura Bitters are spiced, sweet, and piquant. They are most perfect for whiskey drinks, but a staple in cocktails with all kinds of base spirits. Peychaud’s, a New Orleans specialty, tastes similar but with a bit more star anise and herbaceousness. Orange bitters taste like their name sounds, adding a zip of orange rind to the drinks they’re in—perfect for balancing the sweetness inherent in most popular liqueurs like chartreuses and amari.
The old fashioned, the manhattan, the sazerac, the tuxedo #2, and the whisky sour are ubiquitous, and all beg for a couple dashes of one or more of these three bitters. Hence, their inclusion on any serious back bar is basically required.
Classic Bitters, Creative Applications
The big three bitters aren’t only used to mix the best classic cocktails. Walk into any cocktail bar with a thoughtful house menu containing cocktails of their own invention and check out their stirred whiskey drinks. It’s rare to find a menu that doesn’t include at least one whiskey drink that uses a “big three” bitter, Angostura in particular. Stirred gin drinks, such as variations on martinis and white negronis that use liqueurs like St. Germain and Green Chartreuse, love a dash of orange bitters to complement those liqueurs’ sweet and bitter flavor.
It’s also becoming increasingly popular to dash some Ango or Peychaud’s into your refreshing, citrusy, shaken cocktails as well; they both cut some of the sharp acids of the citrus and sweetness of the syrups, while also adding a nice depth of color to your drink’s appearance. Angostura is even used as a base spirit in the popular neo-classic Trinidad Sour.
Innovative Flavors, Innovative Applications
As useful and necessary as classic bitters are, you’ll find back bars and cheater caddies at your favorite cocktail spots populated with all kinds of unique, niche, and downright strange bitters products.
Fruit-based bitters like grapefruit, lemon, lime, peach, passionfruit, and blackberry can be used in everything from refreshing shaken cocktails to stiffer, more spirit-forward drinks (Scrappy’s has a particularly tasty line of citrus bitters).
Darker bitters like chocolate, black walnut, and molé inhabit the opposite end of the flavor spectrum and add a rich depth of flavor to dessert cocktails and after-dinner drinks like those resulting in unique espresso martinis or white cacao manhattans.
Though not a traditional bitter, a product called Fee Foam (made by Fee Brothers, a leading bitters manufacturer) is a flavorless foaming agent that is starting to replace more traditional foamers like Bailey’s for espresso martinis or egg whites in traditional sours. This product is convenient, vegan, and avoids the dangers of consuming raw eggs.
Similarly, concoctions like Scrappy’s habanero tincture have cut out the tedious process of muddling fresh jalapeno or habanero for every spicy margarita, much to the relief of bartenders who are already nursing shaker’s elbow. These and similar products provide many new options behind the bar and simply require a few dashes to work their magic, streamlining the process of making the cocktails they’re used in.
“Options” is the name of the game with this new generation of bitters products. Perhaps no field of bartending needs more options than the non-alcoholic space. Most of the new generation of fruity, citrusy bitters is completely alcohol free, a welcome change for those abstaining. Classic flavor combinations from the alcohol space can be easily applied to non-alcoholic cocktails. No-alcohol grapefruit bitters are a perfect complement for an alcoholic gin.
Some of the most creative, thoughtful cocktail bars are making their own bitters. Typically these formulations are developed for special uses in specific drinks. Next time you go to a craft cocktail bar that makes its own bitters, order a drink they’re in—you’ll experience brand new flavors. They might also inspire you to try your hand at making bitters of your own.
Whether you’re going with the classics, experimenting with some new house cocktails, or breaking into the mocktail scene, bitters are a small but mighty addition to your flavor arsenal.
“A little goes a long way. Too many drops are like getting punched in the face,” Warrener joked.
When used properly, bitters hold your cocktails together and provide the punch that elevates them to new heights.
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