Have you ever wondered why something is missing from drinks you make at home, but taste so delicious when you buy them out? It may be the bitters used in a cocktail. However, what exactly are bitters? How do they enhance a cocktail?
Various botanicals are used to create bitters in cocktails, including fruits, bark, roots, and aromatic herbs. Your favourite cocktails will have more flavour, depth, and oomph with their addition. Bitters not only add flavour, but they also have the power to transform a cocktail, giving it a unique complexity and personality.
A variety of bitters are available that pair well with various types of drinks. You can likely find a bitter to enhance any drink you choose. For example, orange bitters are commonly used to add a citrusy flavour to Old Fashioned cocktails, while Angostura bitters add a spicy, aromatic flavour to Manhattans.
Bitters were once popular cocktail ingredients, but they declined in popularity during Prohibition era. In recent years, however, there has been a bit of a resurgence in the use of bitters due to a renewed interest in cocktail making, and of course, classic cocktails like Old Fashioned' have always been bitters-based.
A relatively modern bitter is Ms. Better’s Bitters, Miraculous Foamer. Unusually this isn't a flavour led bitter, it has a practical element in replacing egg white within cocktails, creating a luscious foam.
Their shelf-stable foamer contains "botanical extracts" that aren't chickpea-based (ideal for pea protein sufferers). When dispensed in small dashes, it doesn't add as much volume as egg white or aquafaba, but the foam that it produces is bright and stable, so much so we have had a glass sat for 8 hours at a recent exhibition with no deterioration of foam.
Grab a bottle here, and why not top it off with an Edible Cocktail Topper...
