What Are Bitters? How to Use Them in Cocktails, Baking, and Beyond
Keeley Ardman DeSalvoThere’s a good chance you already own a bottle of bitters, and a good chance it has only ever made an Old Fashioned. It came in a cocktail kit or a gift basket, did its job a few times, and moved to the back of the cabinet.
It deserves a better spot. Bitters are a seasoning, and like any good seasoning, they work in more places than one. Here’s what they are, how to use them in a drink, and how a few dashes can change a lemon pound cake, a bowl of whipped cream, or a weeknight marinade.
What are bitters?
Bitters are botanicals (roots, bark, citrus peel, spices, herbs, and flowers) steeped in a high-proof base until their flavor is pulled out and concentrated. Most use alcohol as that base, and a growing number use glycerin instead. Either way, the result is intense, which is why recipes measure bitters in dashes.
The easiest way to think about them is as vanilla extract for drinks. Nobody sips vanilla extract on its own, but a few drops change everything around it. Bitters work the same way. That bitter edge balances sweetness and pulls flavors together, the way a pinch of salt makes a chocolate chip cookie taste more like itself.
They started out as medicine. Angostura, the bottle with the oversized label, was first sold in 1824 by Dr. Johann Siegert in Venezuela as a remedy for upset stomachs. Bartenders figured out what it did for a drink, and it has been on back bars ever since. You can browse every flavor we carry in our collection of cocktail bitters.
What do bitters taste like?
Angostura is what most people picture, but bitters now come in nearly every flavor you can think of. It helps to sort them into families.
- Aromatic: warm baking spice, clove, and cinnamon over a bitter root base. Angostura Aromatic Bitters is the classic and the first bottle to own.
- Citrus: bright, clean, and full of peel. Fee Brothers West Indian Orange and Dashfire Lemon both live here.
- Warm spice: holiday baking in a bottle. Holiday Pie (sweet potato, apple, pumpkin, and pecan), Spiced Apple, and Double-Strength Cardamom.
- Chocolate and coffee: cocoa, roast, and dark fruit. Big Bear (coffee and cocoa), Chocolate, and Cherry Cacao.
- Floral and herbal: garden flavors with a savory side. Lavender and Rizzo (rosemary, grapefruit, and peppercorn).
- Heat: chile warmth that builds slowly. Fuego and Spicy Pepper.
If you’re buying your first bottle, start with aromatic. If you’re buying your second, pick the flavor family you already love in food.
The six flavor families of bitters
Start on the left. Then follow the flavors you already love in food.How to use bitters in a cocktail
A dash is one quick, firm shake of the bottle, a little under a quarter teaspoon. Most cocktails call for one to three.
In an Old Fashioned or a Manhattan, bitters are what make the drink taste finished. Leave them out and you’ll notice something is missing, even if you can’t name it. Our guide on how to make a perfect Manhattan walks through the ratio, and both The Classic Manhattan Cocktail Kit and The Old Fashioned Cocktail Kit come with the Angostura.
The simplest place to start doesn’t need a recipe at all. Shake a few dashes of bitters into a glass of sparkling water over ice and add a twist of citrus. Bitters and soda is an old bartender’s standby, and it’s the clearest way to taste what a bottle actually does.
More than cocktails: cooking and baking with bitters
This is the part most people never get to. The same things that make bitters good in a drink make them good in food: the base carries aroma, and the bitterness balances sweetness and richness. A few dashes can do for a cake or a sauce what they do for a Manhattan.
Three things to know before you start:
- Start small and taste. It’s always easier to add another dash than to fix too many.
- Keep the heat gentle. Long, hot cooking drives off the aroma and leaves only the bitterness. Bitters shine brightest in the parts of a recipe that never see the oven: glazes, frostings, whipped cream, syrups, and dressings. Stir them into sauces near the end.
- Swapping for an extract? Start at half. Use half the amount of extract the recipe calls for, then taste and adjust.
With citrus
Orange bitters are the easiest place to start in the kitchen, because they already taste like something you cook with. A few dashes in a citrus marinade for chicken, shrimp, or pork add depth behind the brightness.
They’re just as good on the sweet side. Stir orange or lemon bitters into the glaze for a lemon pound cake, or into the warm syrup you brush over it, and the citrus carries a little further. The same trick works in the glaze on a fruit tart. Fee Brothers West Indian Orange and Dashfire Lemon are the two to reach for.
In whipped cream
This one comes from a friend of the shop: whip a few dashes of lavender bitters into cream and spoon it over fresh fruit. A bowl of berries becomes dessert with almost no effort. Come the holidays, try Holiday Pie bitters in the whipped cream for a pumpkin or pecan pie.
In everyday baking
- Brownies and chocolate cake: Chocolate or Cherry Cacao bitters in the frosting deepen the chocolate.
- Banana bread: a teaspoon or so of aromatic bitters in the batter brings out the warm spice.
- Glazes and icings: almost any flavor works. Add a few dashes at a time to a simple powdered sugar glaze.
At breakfast and beyond
- Coffee: a dash of Big Bear or Double-Strength Cardamom in your morning cup.
- Maple syrup: stir aromatic or Spiced Apple bitters into warm syrup before it goes over pancakes.
- Vinaigrette: Rizzo already tastes of rosemary, grapefruit, and peppercorn, so a few dashes in oil and vinegar do most of the work.
- Popcorn: Chicory Pecan bitters stirred into the melted butter.
- Lemonade and iced tea: lavender bitters, for something a little floral on a warm afternoon.
Which bitters for which dish
Bitters shine brightest in the parts of a recipe that never see the oven.Do bitters have alcohol?
Most do. Traditional bitters use a high-proof base, and Angostura is 44.7% alcohol, about the same as many gins. But you’re using a dash or two at a time, and in the US, bitters like Angostura are sold as non-potable flavorings, the same way vanilla extract is.
If you’d rather skip the alcohol entirely, you have good options. El Guapo makes alcohol-free bitters, and three are on our shelves: Holiday Pie, Chicory Pecan, and Fuego. They work in mocktails, in bitters and soda, and in every kitchen idea above. For more, see our roundup of the best non-alcoholic gifts for the mindful drinker.
Do bitters go bad?
Not in any hurry. Bitters made with alcohol keep for years and don’t need refrigeration. Keep them capped and out of direct sun. Over a long stretch the aroma fades, so a bottle that has been open since 2019 may taste flatter than it used to. Alcohol-free bitters are different, so check the label for how to store them.
Bitters make a better gift than you’d think
Bitters are small, good-looking, and almost always under $30, and they’re one of those things people love to have but rarely buy for themselves. That makes them an easy stocking stuffer, a thoughtful add-on to a host gift, or a nice surprise tucked into a tin of holiday cookies with a note on how to use them.
For someone just getting started, the Crude Bitters Sampler Set gives them a few flavors to explore. For the reader on your list, Bitters: A Spirited History of a Classic Cure-All tells the whole story. If you’re building something bigger, our gifts for cocktail lovers pair bitters with everything else a home bar needs, and our guide on how to choose the best cocktail gift can help you narrow it down.
Or browse the full range of cocktail bitters and pick the one that sounds most like them. Every gift can go out with a handwritten note.
