When Bitters Are Better
The outsized role of a little bottle of botanicals
Bitters were once just medicine: spices and herbs and ground-up roots, dissolved into alcohol. Like any medicinal, it can taste rather harsh. But one of the most important lessons I’ve learned in my fumbling quest to understand cocktails is that a few drops can transform a drink.
I’ve accumulated a hefty collection of little bottles — but there are only two that I reach for with any frequency. The most important, by far, is my bottle of Angostura bitters. These, produced in Trinidad and Tobago following a secret recipe, are the archetypal aromatic bitters and provide drinks with a sparkle of spiciness.
My second go-to is orange bitters. These, and citrus bitters generally, do well with unaged spirits. (Throughout the early decades of the 20th century, the fashion was to dash orange bitters into a martini, a practice I still endorse.) They can be paired with aromatic bitters to add a second layer of flavor to a darker drink.
I’ve got plenty of other flavors, too: celery, hot pepper, clove. Despite their infrequent use, I regret none of these. They’re relatively cheap, and fun to play around with. Whenever I buy a bottle, I try to get a sense of its taste. My favorite way to do this is to get my hands dirty: I place a few drops into one palm…
