At Everything But the Bottle, we encourage you to explore all that crafted beverages have to offer. A little knowledge about ingredients, materials, and techniques makes that a lot easier. Plus, it makes for great conversation at parties (never mind bringing home the win at trivia night). And so, today we unravel the mystery of bitters. Because, for those 80s and 90s kids….the more you know….
Probably the biggest question is also the most basic- exactly what are bitters, anyway? Sure, they are tiny little bottles, and you only add a few drops of them to your beverage, but what’s in there that is so important?
Bitters are really just extracts – like the almond or peppermint extract that you might add to baking. (Hint – you can use bitters in baking, too!) Bitters are for beverages what a spice rack is to food. They are made in much the same way; the nuts, herbs, fruits, or spices are added to alcohol, which then, through the magic of chemistry, extracts the all the tasty bits, leaving a highly concentrated flavoring.
Does that make bitters alcohol? Nope. Bitters are considered a food, just like other extracts. If you read the ingredients on your bottle of vanilla extract (go ahead, we’ll wait…), you’ll see that alcohol is a prime component. Most extracts, including bitters, are then diluted with water; if they weren’t, the flavoring would be so concentrated that it wouldn’t be able to be dispersed within your batter or drink evenly.
That doesn’t mean that you can’t drink bitters straight – go ahead and try it sometime. Because they are super concentrated, they really aren’t all that tasty on their own. Of course, that didn’t stop people from drinking them. Bitters were once sold as patent medicines, believed to have medicinal properties and were purported to cure everything from dysentery to cancers. While we do know today that many spices, nuts, and fruits do have actual beneficial properties, this was during a time when people routinely gave cocaine to teething babies, and there was no regulation of any sort, so it’s doubtful that there were any real health benefits.
How did bitters go from patent medicine to cocktail component? That is not super clear – there is evidence that all the way back in ancient Egypt, bitters were added to wine, but probably still being used as a health benefit. And remember, everyone drank wine back then – water could kill you. Water = dysentery = the need for bitters. If only we had bitters in our wagon on the Oregon Trail…
Some of the first written references to bitters in drinks are from the early 1800s, when early descriptions of a ‘cocktail’ started appearing in publications in the US. A cocktail contained liquor, sugar, water, and bitters. This didn’t start a run on bitters, though. They were still primarily sold for their purported medicinal properties. In fact, probably the most well-known and widely used bitters, Angostura, were created in 1824 by a doctor in Venezuela as a stimulant for military troops.
Eventually though, as cocktails became more popular throughout the 1800s and early 1900s, the use of bitters to add flavor to drinks grew and became a key part of the bartender’s apothecary.
Like quite a bit of everything fun and interesting at the time, Prohibition put the brakes on the widespread use of bitters in the US. Technically, as a medicinal product, they were not outlawed, but as they were now associated more with (gasp!) alcohol consumption, the influence of bitters outside the cocktail scene decreased. They were legal alcohol, though, in a time when people were taking their chances with the possibly lethal liquor their neighbor just made in their bathtub, so that likely helped bitters weather the temperance movement.
And we are thankful that they did. Today, you can find bitters flavored with everything from fruit to chiles, which means that the variety of beverages you can make is almost endless. Bitters are fantastic, of course, in cocktails, but also add a touch of wonder to lemonades and juices. Love flavored water? Add a dash or two of your favorite fruit bitters to sparkling water and your taste buds will dance. (Btw, there is a science-y reason why carbonation is key to so many cocktails, too. More on that in the future.)
Coffee, tea, soda, and yes, even milk – all are elevated with a bit of bitters. Go ahead and try them out. And drink in the extraordinary.
Questions about how to use bitters? Interested in more uses for these and other ingredients? Reach out to us at ebtbcincinnati@gmail.com, sign up for emails, and follow us on social.