A Conversational Guide to Bitters

Bitters—the 40ish% ABV, cocktail staple, packaged in paper-wrapped hot sauce bottles, sold to humans of all ages on Amazon—are strange. They’re also popular. NA beer-like growth forecasts , a longstanding presence in many of the world’s most drunk cocktails, and the alarmingly positive reaction this article (still) receives whenever we share it on Instagram all surely suggest that bitters have escaped the micro-tattooed clutch of Mr. & Mrs. Mixologist and returned to the mainstream.

This is a good thing. Bitters make cocktails—like martinis, Manhattans, and rum punch—better. They keep stomachs (somewhat) functional by way of transforming soda water into something drinkable. And these benefits aren’t trapped behind some insurmountable price tag: A four ounce bottle of bitters, which can last you months, costs less than a Chipotle burrito, sans guac.

So grab a bottle. Or three. After all, we’re living at a time where there are more producers, types, and flavors of bitters than there’s been since Prohibition. That’s something to a) celebrate and b) best enjoy with a working knowledge of bitters’ most fundamental ingredients, history, brands, and people. To address the former: We recommend Feegan’s. For the latter, see the below glossary. Cheers.

Five: The number of living people who know the exact recipe of Angostura’s industry-leading aromatic bitters. With its products accounting for an estimated 90% of the global bitters sales, Angostura’s recipe secrecy—and sheer market domination—are Wonka-life. So is the company’s miracle-laced history.

For example, Angostura’s iconic, over-sized, paper label is the accidental byproduct of brotherly miscommunication. Per Vinepair, when second generation owners—brothers Carlos, Luis, and Alfredo Seigert—rebranded Angosutra in the early 20th century, one brother designed the bottle while another worked on the label. Naturally, the brothers never agreed upon—nor even discussed—the sizing of either component. The fated size discrepancy didn’t stop the brothers from presenting their ill-fitting rebrand to a panel of experts—one of which recommended they keep the paper too big for the bottle. Which, of course, they did.

1806: The year the editor of The Balance and Columbian Repository penned the world’s first definition of the word cocktail as “a stimulating liquor composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters.” Our takeaway: Erika Kotite is right—your gin martini becomes a proper cocktail when it’s got a few dashes of orange bitters.

Celery: Per James Beard Award winning-author and world renowned bitters scholar Brad Thomas Parsons, celery bitters are among the category’s best offerings. Particularly adept at accentuating the savory notes of martinis or Bloody Marys, veggie-versions are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to unorthodox bitters concepts. BTP also endorses bitters with leading flavors like cucumber, umami, and Xocolatl mole.

Christmas: What a shot of Angostura tastes like, say the thousands of Wisconsinites who drink this stuff by the ounce. Why Wisconsin? Well, you can attribute much of the state’s affinity for shooting Ango to Tom Nelsen, the late owner of Washington Island tavern, Nelsen’s Hall & Bitters Club.

When Prohibition started in 1920, Tom didn’t want to shutter his bar—so he found a paper-wrapped loophole. Since Angostura Bitters are legally classified as a medicinal product (which is the same reason they’re sold to all ages at Walmart today), Tom obtained a pharmacist’s license, and, in turn, began prescribing hefty pours of bitters to the droves of stomach-sick “patients” descending upon the bar. This regulatory ingenuity not only kept the bar alive through the dry crusade, but it transformed Nelsen’s Hall into an ongoing tourist attraction—a place where Washington Island visitors can stop by, crush an ounce of Angostura, and receive a thumb-stamped membership card to the bar’s Bitters Club.

And if you can’t make it to a bar on a remote island off the coast of Wisconsin but still want to shoot some bitters in public, there’s always Best Intentions—a Chicago bar slinging enough Angostura to warrant having it on tap.

Feegan’s: When you combine the two leading orange bitters brands—Fee Brothers and Regan’s—into a single solution. Similar to split-basing a cocktail’s liquor, bartenders will combine different bitters brands styles—especially within the category of orange bitters—to manipulate a drink’s ultimate flavor.

Gentian Root: The herb that flavors many of the world’s most popular bitters. If you want to make bitters at home (which we’ll cover later), you’ll need to get your hands on this stuff. Luckily, since it exists in the world, it can be on anyone’s doorstep two days from now.

“Half of a tad:” Somehow, what’s quoted is a legitimate form of measurement. Also, it’s equal to an eighth of a teaspoon, which, more importantly, is the estimated volume of “a dash” of bitters.

Sazerac: According to a vote by the Louisiana House of Representatives, New Orleans’ official cocktail is the Sazerac. As anyone that’s crawled their way through French Quarter can tell you, a Sazerac’s only a Sazerac if it’s got Peychaud’s Bitters coursing through its glass. Why? Antoine Peychaud—the founder of the eponymous bitters brand—invented the drink in 1830.

Ingredients

2	ounces rye whiskey
1/4	ounce simple syrup
3	dashes Peychaud bitters
	Ice
1	barspoon Herbsaint or absinthe (sub Pernod in a pinch)
	Lemon twist

2	ounces rye whiskey
1/4	ounce simple syrup
3	dashes Peychaud bitters

	Ice
1	barspoon Herbsaint or absinthe (sub Pernod in a pinch)
	Lemon twist

Nonalcoholic bitters: There’s plenty of reasons why people wouldn’t want anything with any amount of alcohol in their homes. For that group, there’s zero-proof, alcohol-free bitters—like Seasn. Of course, it’s worth mentioning that a few dashes of bitters mixed into a pint of soda water is well below the nonalcoholic threshold of 0.5% ABV.

Singapore Sling: A cocktail with gin, Bénédictine, Cointreau, grenadine, cherry, pineapple, lime, soda water, and a healthy dose of bitters. Drink this in the desert.

Three weeks: Roughly how long it takes to make bitters at home. If you’re an avid home bartender, we recommend taking the plunge, following this Serious Eats recipe, and whipping up a few batches of DIY orange bitters—they’ll make great gifts and better drinks.