With the reemergence of the speakeasy and the emphasis on perfecting many of the classic cocktail recipes, many mixologists are branching out with what they can do with bitters and fiddling around with making their own. Bitters are a highly flavorful aromatic potion created by blending one or more of the main bitter principles (angostura bark, cascarilla, quassia, gentian, orange, or quinine) with other herbs and botanicals. Bitters were first created in the 16th century and were drank alone as medicine, but as they were slightly caustic it became more and more popular to mix them with wine to make them more palatable. People soon enjoyed the flavors of these new concoctions and the tainted wines soon became popular aperitifs. By the 18th Century, distilleries in Italy began studying how to distill numerous herbs and spices and such favorites as Campari, Fernet Branca, and Cynar were born. France too was taking an interest in the aperitif market and soon France and Italy had a “bitter” rivalry as to the quality of production and the quantity of consumption.
Any cocktail historian will tell you that the Sazarac is the first cocktail created in America. The original recipe was an easy-to-make concoction of cognac and Peychaud bitters. Peychaud invented his bitters in Santo Domingo and brought his recipe to New Orleans in the 1830’s. He opened a drugstore where he sold cocktails that he served in an egg cup, which in French is called a coquetier. The English speakers around him mispronounced the word leading to one of the greatest words in the American bar scene, cocktail.
Every bartender knows the magic of Angostura Bitters, it makes manhattans sparkle, cures stomach aches, and dispels the hiccups. But none of them know its secret recipe as it is highly guarded; rumor has it that only five people in the world know its secret. Named Angostura for the Venezuelan town they were developed in, they also contain the bark from the Angostura tree, which is highly astringent. They were developed in 1824 by a German doctor who was the Surgeon General under Simon Bolivar’s military in Venezuela. Most likely, he stole the medicinal secrets of the Amerindians and began producing his bitters on a local level. Everyone who tried them loved them and encouraged him to travel the world to sell his bitters. By 1850 he had resigned his military post and was selling his bitters on an international level.
Making bitters is not difficult, but rather just time consuming. To begin with, many of the ingredients are obscure and difficult to come by. Furthermore, most herbs must be left sitting for weeks to allow for the alcohol to slowly take on their flavor. As it is difficult to know how different flavors will impart in alcohol, it is best to steep the ingredients separately as each spice will relinquish its flavor in the alcohol at its own pace. These separate tinctures can then be mixed together to achieve the desired flavor.
Bitters are one of the great establishments of mixology. They give a depth and complexity to cocktails that can’t be achieved any other way. They also make you feel good, as there are hundreds of years of herbal medical beliefs in every drop. Next time you mix your favorite cocktail, drop a drip or two of bitters in it to make it something new, exciting, and invigorating.
- Columbine Quillen I am a mixologist bartender and this is my blog.