A revival of bitters? Sweeeet!
LATELY, one Angeleno has been telling bartenders to keep adding bitters to her Champagne cocktail "until it's the color of my prom dress." That's way more than a dash or two -- it takes about a teaspoon of Angostura to turn Champagne pink.
She positively likes bitters. How about that? Not too long ago, bitters seemed just a weird leftover from the golden age of 19th century quack medicines -- an evil-tasting liquid that came in tiny bottles with wordy, antique labels. It may have been traditional in certain cocktails, but many people had taken to leaving it out.
Today, though, these bitter extracts of roots, barks and other botanical ingredients seem to be making a comeback. Just a few years ago, liquor stores usually carried only one brand of bitters, Angostura, but now you can easily find five or six, with radically different flavors, including orange, peach and mint.
The fact is, you can get tired of all the simple-minded cocktails being invented in this flavored-vodka-plus-fruit-juice age. Bitters clean up after too much sweetness.
Still, the taste for bitterness might seem surprising. We all think bitterness is unpleasant -- but is it? Children certainly don't like it, but as grown-ups we learn to love coffee and chocolate. In fact, these days we're actually going for more bitterness -- espresso, ever darker and more bitter chocolate.
"From a taste standpoint," says Peter Birmingham, bartender-sommelier at Norman's in West Hollywood, "a bitters makes the mouth water and promotes visual and smell pleasures, because it contains concentrated flavor essences. The bitterness itself makes the flavors [of a drink] extend. Here at Norman's, we hang our hat on a Manhattan made with Peychaud bitters, sweet vermouth and Joshua Brook bourbon."
The Manhattan is a classic cocktail because it harmoniously amplifies the rugged, woody flavor of whiskey with the fruity sweetness of vermouth and the perfume and bracing astringency of bitters. Birmingham's particular version relies on the exotic flavor of Peychaud.
"Most bars don't even bother using Angostura bitters in their Manhattans anymore, which is a real shame," says Jeremiah Doherty of Grace in Los Angeles. "Try the two side by side and you'll be able to tell the difference, I promise."
