Compiled by Sam Bygrave
Photography by Rob Palmer
Aromatic bitters perform a weird kind of liquid alchemy when used in drinks. A drop here, a dripper there, and they can transform otherwise bland and uninteresting drinks into things of beauty.
That use, however, wasn’t exactly what bitters were originally made for. They were designed more as a curative for whatever ailed you — well, that was the official story. If you ask us, it was probably a convenient excuse to get your daily dose of grog first thing in the morning. But we digress.
The essential thing to know these days is that there are few cocktails that are complete without an element of bitterness. It draws flavour over the palate and adds length to the finish. It might be vermouth that is used, it may be an Italian amaro like Campari. But more often than not, it’s a drop of these concentrated, layered bitters.
Take a look at three drinks that are nothing without their bitters.
Vermouth Panache
60ml dry vermouth
30ml sweet vermouth
2-3 dashes of Angostura Bitters
Add vermouth to ingredients to glass over good ice, and stir down.
Adapted from a recipe in To Have and Have Another by Philip Greene
This recipe comes not from the pages of a hallowed cocktail book, though it was repeated in Philip Greene’s very fine cocktail book. No, this one comes from the pages of writer Ernest Hemingway. Old Hem, despite his aversion to sugar, was some fan of vermouth. Note the doubled proportion of dry vermouth to sweet vermouth. The drink is all for nought, however, without the addition of bitters. We reckon two or three dashes brings the drink alive; a nice, and not very Hemingway-esque, lower alcohol cocktail.
Sazerac
60ml Sazerac Rye
1 teaspoon sugar
4 dashes of Peychauds
Absinthe to rinse
Chill an old fashioned glass.
In mixing glass, mix Peychaud’s with sugar and a little water. Add ice and rye and stir down.
Rinse chilled glass with absinthe.
Strain. Garnish with a lemon twist.
Strangely enough, for a drink that only rises an inch in the glass and looks so simple, it sure is a hard one to perfect. The way in which the rye whiskey, bitters and absinthe rinse combine can lead to startingly different drinks depending on the brands used. There’s one brand that is central to this drink, however, and that’s Peychaud’s.
Pisco Sour
50ml Pisco
20ml lemon juice
10ml sugar syrup
egg white
2-3 dashes of the Bitter Truth Old Time Aromatic Bitters
Shake all ingredients — except the bitters — hard with ice. Garnish with three drops of the bitters on top for aromatics.
As it is with cocktail history, there is some conjecture about the origins of the Pisco Sour. What we do know is that Victor Morris, an American bartender who opened Morris’ Bar in Lima, Peru sometime around 1916, certainly popularised the drink.
But like the other drinks in the story, it’s incomplete without bitters. Remove them, and the drink tastes thin; include them, and you’ve got a rounded, refreshing drink, known down the cocktailing ages.
Three handy bitters
What’s one ingredient you’ll find in each of these bitters? Gentian is one of the primary bittering agents used for these tasty additions to your drink. They’re all layered, complex drops, and that’s what makes them so good for marrying together flavours.
Angostura Aromatic Bitters. One of the most commonly found bitters — and with good reason. Angostura is found in just about every bar the world over and has a long history. It’s been served in bars-cum-apothecaries during Prohibition in the States, and is, in our opinion, just as good as stomach-settling shot (that’s what they were originally created to aid) as it is as an ingredient to bind together flavours. Island2Island
Peychaud’s Bitters. Invented by an apothecary from New Orleans by the name of Antoine Amédée Peychaud, it’s vibrant, reddish-pink hue is most famously required in a proper Sazerac. SouthTrade
Bitter Truth Old Time Aromatic Bitters. This is one of the newer all-purpose cocktail bitters that have arrived on the bartending scene. You’ll notice prominent clove and Christmas cake characters, but they’re versatile enough to use in a wide array of drinks. Suntory