PrintCocktails: It's a Bitter, Bitter World
Let's get this weekend started right. Here's a cocktail to kick things off. Need more than one? Here you go. Cheers!
Five years ago, if you were looking for a bar that could mix you a martini, 1930s style—that is, replete with a dash or two of orange bitters—in all likelihood you were just out of luck. Trying to find orange bitters in the dark days of 2002 was asking for disappointment.
Bitters of different styles and with different flavors have a special place in the history of mixology and are a defining ingredient in the original definition of the cocktail. But while the hardy souls at Fee Brothers in Rochester, New York, and Sazerac in New Orleans kept the bitters flame alive during the ingredient's darkest days, and paper-wrapped bottles of Angostura bitters could always be found next to the margarita salt at Safeway, bitters entered a long, steady decline beginning in the 1960s. For all the drinks that utilized bitters' seasoning power at the dawn of the 20th century, by the dawn of the 21st, they were all but extinct.
Now, as the Chicago Tribune noted last week, bitters aren't just creeping back--they're the new kudzu of the back bar. Bars such as the Violet Hour in Chicago, Bourbon & Branch in San Francisco and Vessel in Seattle carry assorted house bitters made with cherries, grapefruit, chilies, lavender, key limes and just about anything else you can imagine. Fee Brothers, the bitters standard bearer for many years, has recently released bottles of lemon bitters, grapefruit bitters and an especially delectable old-fashioned aromatic bitters that's been aged in used whiskey barrels. And in Germany, bartenders Alexander Hauck and Stephan Berg have created remarkable aromatic bitters, orange bitters and lemon bitters, worthy of the overseas shipping expense.
Cocktail expert Robert Hess is fond of comparing the use of bitters in a cocktail to the use of salt in a soup: if you taste it you've used too much, but if you don't use it at all, the flavor just seems flat. Given the work being done by bartenders and home mixologists, it's becoming a bitter, bitter world, and everyone can drink to that.
What's it look like from your perspective? Do you see more bitters in your favorite bar, or when you ask your bartender for bitters in your Manhattan, do you receive only a shrug?
About the author: Paul Clarke blogs about cocktails at The Cocktail Chronicles and writes regularly on spirits and cocktails for Imbibe magazine. He lives in Seattle, where he works as a writer and magazine editor.
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2 Comments:
For almost a quarter of a century my father's bar has had a bottle of Angastura Bitters on it. Growing up, I was always fascinated by the paper label on the small bottle as well as the fact that no one ever requested that it be added to their drink. When I asked my father why he always had a bottle when no one seemed ever to want it - I was told that the Bitters were used for medicinal purposes only and that he only entertained healthy guests. Is there any truth to the 'medicinal' part of the story and what's the purpose of adding it to an already flavor-filled drink?
drbehavior at 2:31AM on 08/23/07
As blends of different botanical extracts and tinctures, bitters were originally devised for medicinal purposes--indeed, the venerable Peychaud's bitters were created by Antoine Peychaud, a pharmacist. Bitters shares this distinction with other potables such as vermouth, absinthe, and a whole array of bitter and herbal liqueurs, which were believed to contribute to the drinker's health.
As far as the reason for adding bitters to an already flavorful drink, it's useful to think of bitters as a seasoning--you don't necessarily want to have a whole drink that tastes like bitters, but in small doses, they add depth, complexity and character to a cocktail. With more types coming on the market, this means endless opportunities for exploration.
Paul Clarke at 1:24PM on 08/29/07