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As long as cocktails have been around, so have bitters—the very definition of a cocktail, according to Jerry Thomas’s 1862 book “Bar-Tenders Guide: How to Mix Drinks,” includes bitters, plus spirit, sugar, and water. These potent little bottles typically contain neutral alcohol—though alcohol-free brands do exist today—that’s been infused with any number of herbs, spices, botanicals, and roots, adding instant complexity to a cocktail. After all, an Old Fashioned without a couple of dashes of Angostura bitters just isn’t the same drink, no matter how delicious the whisky is you’ve chosen to mix with.
“Think of bitters as the spice cabinet of your home bar,” says Laura Unterberg, former head bartender at The Fox Bar & Cocktail Club in Nashville. “Adding richness and depth of flavor, bitters are an indispensable part of your cocktail, especially for mixing with spirits like whisky that have no added botanicals or flavors.”
Just like using spices when cooking, the amount of bitters you use in your cocktail matters. “Less is more—start with just one drop, taste, and then add more to your preference,” Unterberg advises. “If you’re making cocktails for a crowd and looking to save time, feel free to pre-add the bitters to your sugar syrup, but don’t be tempted to add bitters to your whisky in advance. Bitters have tiny micro-particulates of bitter herbs and botanicals. They will continue to extract or ‘bloom’ and change with time. Adding them to alcohol and letting them sit can expedite this process in an unpleasant way.”
Angostura was the first mass-produced bitters brand—its founder Johann Gottlieb Benjamin Siegert originally intended for the product, with its gentian-root base, to be a digestive tonic when he introduced it in 1824. Similarly gentian-based, the aromatic bitters brand Peychaud’s came around by the 1850s and both Angostura and Peychaud’s are must haves on a whisky fan’s home bar.
Beyond these two staple aromatic bitters, there are seemingly endless brands and flavors available today, from citrus and other fruits to tobacco, mole, and even umami. “At generally under $20 a bottle, bitters can be a great way to experiment and try new flavors in your cocktails,” Unterberg says. “I tend to prefer bright, citrusy bitters like lemon or bergamot with spicier, rye-forward whiskeys; rich dessert-y bitters like chocolate, cinnamon, and cardamom with corn-based whiskeys like bourbon; and fruity plum, hibiscus, and celery bitters with a whisky that has a malty backbone.”
Making your own bitters isn’t much more complicated than mixing up a cocktail, though it requires some patience as you allow your ingredients to infuse to achieve the right potency. “The No.-1 rule for making bitters at home is to infuse your ingredients separately,” Unterberg says. “For example, for cooler weather, I love making what I call Breakfast Tea bitters, which contain cinnamon sticks, orange peel, and black tea, but cinnamon and orange peel extract more slowly than black tea, so if I were to add all those ingredients to the high-proof solvent at the same time I’d be left with unbalanced bitters.”
Once you’ve nailed your DIY bitters, try them out in a delicious whisky cocktail. For her Breakfast Tea bitters, Unterberg recommends her Breakfast Old Fashioned, comprising 2 ounces malt-forward rye, like Willet or Old Forester, 1/2 ounce maple syrup, and two dashes bitters, and her Breakfast Toddy, which mixes 2 ounces fruit-forward finished bourbon like Angel’s Envy, 5 dashes bitters, 2 ounces hot water, and a lemon wheel.
Breakfast Tea Bitters
by Laura Unterberg
- 1 3/4 oz. fresh cracked cinnamon sticks
- 3 1/2 oz. unflavored loose-leaf black tea*
- 1 3/4 oz. dried orange peels
- 4 cups overproof vodka
In three separate sealable containers, like mason jars, soak cinnamon sticks, black tea, and dried orange peels in enough overproof vodka to fully submerge the dry ingredients (roughly 1 cup for each container except the tea, which requires 2). Allow the black tea infusion to steep for 2 weeks, and the remaining infusions for 4 weeks. Strain each, then combine the cinnamon tincture, orange tincture, and black tea tincture in a sealable container and store in a cool, dark place.
*Unterberg typically uses Keemun or Nilgiri tea, but any good quality English breakfast tea is suitable, and even tea bags are fine in a pinch, they just won’t extract as much flavor because they’re generally a bit staler than loose-leaf tea.
