MASTERING BITTERNESS OR ARE BITTERS STILL A THING?

Dear curious readers,
Did you notice that everyone is talking about bitter, but do everyone know what it is?

Bitters are made by infusing a neutral spirit with botanicals, like seeds, bark, aromatic herbs, roots, fruit as well as coffee or chocolate. Sometimes sugar is added. The alcoholic strength of bitters varies widely across different brands and styles.
At the origin, bitters were developed for medicinal purposes, with ingredients generally thought to provide good health preserved in a neutral liquor, from helping with digestion to having a better blood pressure. Actually wine were already perfumed with herbs before then, less for medicinal purpose than for impacting a new set of flavour.
More recently, thanks to consumers’ renewed interest in craft cocktails, and the craft distilling boom there is a new interest for those. So let’s check what they are today.

The word bitter is confusing for two reasons:

1/because they’re not necessarily bitter (some are actually very sweet)

2/because some are drinkable as such (digestive bitter) and other can’t be drunk neat (cocktail bitter)

Indeed there are two categories of bitters! 

1/ Cocktail Bitters which are very bitter alcoholic liquids that started out as medicinals but are now used to bring a bitter flavour to cocktails 

2/ The other category of bitter refers to "the collective class of Italian-made aromatic, herbal, bittersweet liqueurs traditionally served as a digestif after a meal.”* Amaro indeed means « bitter » in Italian. This category, which we gonna name « Digestive Bitters » here exist in other country that Italy: in Germany, they are referred to as Kräuterliqueurs, in French as « un amer » (amer=bitter). The style varies widely across different brands and styles



Attention !
Digestive bitters are liqueurs. Cocktail bitters are made in the same way, but with a stronger infusion. Both bitters and amari use the same types of ingredients such as bitter barks, herbs, seeds, spices, citrus peels, and other botanicals.
If they share the word, it is also because they have a lot in common.

Digestive bitters

Digestive bitters tend to be made with neutral spirits or wine just as most bitters (there are no rules) but they have more sugar and more the ratio of liquid to ingredient is higher.
Some of the Digestive bitters’ brands listed in Wikipedia:


* Alomo Bitters (Ghana)
* Amaro Lucano (Italy)
* Amaro Montenegro (Italy)
* Aperol (Italy)
* Araucano (Valparaíso, Chile)
* Averna (Italy)
* Balsam (Eastern Europe)
* Becherovka (Czech Republic)
* Beerenburg (Netherlands)
* Blutwurz (Bavaria)
* Calisaya (USA)
* Campari (Italy)
* Cynar (Italy)
* Fernet-Branca (Italy)
* Fernet Stock (Czech Republic)
* Gammel Dansk (Denmark)
* Gran Classico Bitter (Switzerland)
* Jägermeister (Germany)
* Jeppson's (United States)
* Killepitsch (Düsseldorf, Germany)
* Kuemmerling (Germany)
* Pelinkovac (Balkans)
* Quinquina (France – originally from South America)
* Ramazzotti (Italy)
* Ratzeputz (Germany)
* Riga Black Balsam (Latvia)
* St. Vitus (Germany)
* Schierker Feuerstein (Germany)
* Schwartzhog (Germany)
* Sirop de Picon (France)
* Suze (France)
* Tubi 60 (Israel)
* Underberg (Germany)
* Unicum (Hungary)
* Wódka Żołądkowa Gorzka (Poland)
* Wurzelpeter (Germany)

About KRAUTERLIKÖR

The EU recognises the category of Kräuterlikör, and those from Bavaria but it doesn’t say much about th processus of fabrication.
However the production is relatively easy. Most of the neutral spirits come from either wheat or sugar beet. One the base is selected, the flavouring agents needs to be added. Thery are extensive lists of potential ingredient. It is possible to say, though, that the most common are cinnamon, clove, gentia, juniper and fennel.
Unlike other bitter liqueur Kräuterlikör tend to to add fresh fruit and berries. They macerate in the base spirits for a while, in a controlled temperature room. 
When the desired flavoured profile is reached, the liquid is filtered, diluted and often a sweetening agent is added.

Cocktail bitters

Bitters are not meant to be consumed neat or on the rocks. Bitters can also be used in cooking: soups, salad dressings, pumpkin and apple pies, fish, etc. Some come in a dark red or orange colour but most a pitch black. As said above they are the result of a stronger infusion. Traditionally they all contain alcohol but there are alcohol free bitters and low alcohol bitters on the market now. Good bartenders make their bitters themselves.

About Angostura

Possibly the most popular brand of bitters, Angostura should be considered a must when stocking a bar of any seriousness. The story begins with Johann Gottlieb Benjamin Siegert, a German doctor who found himself in Angostura, Venezuela in 1824 where he created this secret blend of tropical herbs and plants with the intent of curing a variety of illnesses. The brand is now produced in Trinidad and the blend is still a well-kept, but much appreciated secret. The oversized, awkward label has also become a trademark of the brand. It's said that the wrong size was ordered and everyone in the facility thought someone else would fix the mistake, no one did and the label remains.

About PEYCHAUD

Antoine Peychaud was an apothecary in 1830's New Orleans and began his mixing career after hours in his pharmacy. It was at that time that Peychaud mixed up his secret-recipe bitters with brandy and absinthe and created the first Sazerac, a cocktail that defined and influenced future cocktails. Peychaud's bitters are used today in a number of cocktails, and the aromatic blend is considered one of the must-have's of any well-

source for the story of angustura and peychaud bitters