Before cocktails, we had punch, a communal drink usually shared from a bowl. Punches required a fusion of five flavors that followed a specific formula, and we still see these echoed in the modern cocktail:

1 part sour
2 parts sweet
3 parts strong (i.e. spirit)
4 parts weak (i.e. diluting liquid like water or tea)
and an unspecified amount of spice

It’s that last part that we’re focusing on today. While the earlier punches featured spices like ground nutmeg, the movement from the communal bowl to the individual glass also involved the movement toward bitters as a more manageable flavoring agent than ground spice.

Originally developed for medicinal purposes, bitters are a highly concentrated concoction of spirits, herbs, spices, and dried fruit. While bitters always contain at least one legitimately bitter element (like fruit peels or lavender or birch leaf), it would be a mistake to think of them as being literally bitter; a more accurate description might be spicy or herbal. Early in their history, bitters were diluted in water or even drunk straight as a stomach tonic, and in some places, this tradition continues (and yes, as research for this article, I have done this with both aromatic and orange bitters— the former being far less pleasant). When it comes to cocktails though, bitters are a way to round out a drink, similar to how spices were applied to the larger punchbowl.

When working with bitters, don’t just think of them as a way to contrast the sweetness of sugars or syrups; bitters can fulfill a wide range of flavor needs. The licorice-like taste of Peychaud’s bitters perfectly complements the absinthe rinse of a Sazerac. The highly herbal Angostura aromatic bitters give the traditional Old Fashioned that added punch. The cinnamon kick of apple bitters has livened up many a fall or winter cocktail. And this is just a snapshot. Bitters come in many flavors and functions, and as such, they’re one of my favorite ingredients to play with. Often, more complex flavors and labor-intensive ingredients can be jerry-rigged with a $10 bottle of bitters. For example…

A while back, my brother Jay devised a ginger variant of the Gold Rush cocktail with the nickname “The Banker” in honor of his profession. The ginger cocktail was delicious, but it called for a honey ginger syrup, and that’s a pretty specific ingredient. Even though Jay quickly figured out his own spin on the syrup (and I won’t divulge his recipe), it has limited applications and a limited shelf life. Of course, our response was to simply have an entire season of Bankers whenever he had the syrup on hand, but if you want to sample this cocktail at home without making such a specific syrup, you can break out the flavored bitters. In this case, I’ve substituted Hella ginger lemon bitters and a 1-to-1 honey syrup to fairly similar results. Here’s the recipe:

The Imitation Banker
2 oz bourbon
3/4 oz lemon juice
3/4 oz honey syrup
ginger lemon bitters to desired spice level

Shake all ingredients and strain into chilled rocks glass over ice ball.

By keeping the honey syrup as a traditional 1-to-1 and restricting the ginger to the bitters, I’ve made sure that the syrup is versatile enough to be used in many other recipes, and those bitters are 35% ABV, so they’re not spoiling any time soon.

This is just one example of many though, and with new varieties of bitters coming out all the time, there are far too many types for me to cover in just one article. Stay tuned though, because when St. Paddy’s Day rolls around in a few weeks, I’ll be breaking out the newest additions to my bitters shelf and to the herb garden!