How do bitters work?

[TAPrice]

Maybe this is obvious to everyone with more cocktail experience than me, but recently I've started to wonder about how to classify and understand bitters.

I used to think of bitters as an added flavor. And I like the flavors, so I go heavy on the bitters in my drinks and even add a few dashes to sparkling water and juice.

I recently started buying some very bitter, not from concentrate grapefruit juice for breakfast. Naturally, I eventually added some Angostura bitters to a glass of grapefruit. Yes, I got the Angostura flavor, but the bitters also completely rounded out and balanced the juice. The bitters, in other words, counteracted the bitterness of the juice.

So should I be thinking of bitters as something to balance other flavors, in the same way that sweet balances sour? If so, then what would the bitters balance out?

Could it be that this effect comes from the small amount of alcohol in the bitters and not from the aromatic components? I tried some Peychaud's, and the balancing effect was not as pronounced.

[thirtyoneknots]

I'm not sure I can adequately explain the mechanisms at work here, but I feel like it has to do with the intense flavor of bitters which can help cover the rough edges in a cocktail or tame it's more potent additives, bringing it into balance without necessarily making the 'bitters' flavor pronounced. It's interesting to me to try a Cocktail that would normally contain them without, then gradually add some in, drop by drop, and watch what they do.

The uses for bitters to balance are legion, but I think that their greatest and most common use is to balance against sweetness by adding a deep richness. Try a Japanese Cocktail (2 oz Cognac, 1/4-1/2 oz Orgeat, 2-3 dashes bitters, up with a twist) without the bitters: it's a sticky, cloying mess (not to mention no longer a true cock-tail). Dash in from the white-labelled bottle, and suddenly it's a magnificent, complex, rich drink; still with sweetness, but not cloying-- merely rich. Before it skates perilously close to a lot of the crap passing over bars there days (see: Chocolate Martini). Add the bitters and it's a marvel, and one of the best ways to close a huge meal I know.

I have seen some scholarly evidence and have performed much of my own testing to show that bitter flavors, even when they are not necessarily percieved as such by the palate, stimulate the appetite by triggering the release of digestive juices. And so the Cocktail, by way of the bitters in them, found it's rightful place as America's Aperitif.

[Robert Heugel]

I think Andy is dead on. But, also, if you are asking for a way to think about bitters in relation to cocktails, you might want to think of them as the "seasoning" for drinks. For example, you might use salt, pepper, or something else in a dish because it helps to make the dish less bland or merge two ingredients together. Bitters serve the same function in drinks and are used generally in similar amounts. Too much and you can ruin a drink; leave them out and the flavors are less prominent, complex, and cohesive. Anyway, that's kind of how you can think about them. It's not a technical response, but I do think it is a good way to use bitters in cocktails.

[Peter the eater]

Good discussion - I recently came across some interesting words about bitters on Chicago Chef Laurent Gras's L.2O blog: click.

(the entry is dated January 18, 2008 at the bottom of the page)

The recommendation here is to get some bitters recipes and to start simple. Herbs and citrus dissolved in alcohol can add tremendous interest and dimension to a drink.

What I want to know is where does one get recipes for bitters to make at home?

[jmfangio]

Perhaps one could say that "bitters are the Umami of the cocktail world."

I have no idea if that analogy will hold up to scrutiny, but I do like the sound of it.

Peter - there's a good collection of bitters recipes at The Art of Drink that should help you get started.

Edited February 13, 2008 by jmfangio (log)

[helenjp]

An interest in herbs made me wonder why so many naturally sweet plants have a bitter principle along with the sweetness. I often wonder why people seem to naturally like a balance of sweet/bitter flavors.

Please excuse my iggerant science, but it seems that bitter flavor compounds are more likely to dissolve in fat or alcohol (while sugars and starches tend to dissolve in water). Adding bitters to your juice probably "grabs" and modifies/mellows the fat-soluble aspects of the grapefruit taste. Since bitters also include some water and water-soluble flavors, it does also modify the grapefruit sugars to some extent.

Highly aromatic chemicals are also often fat/alcohol soluble, so no doubt bitters have at least as big an impact on the aroma of a mixed drink as on the taste.

[TAPrice]

Please excuse my iggerant science, but it seems that bitter flavor compounds are more likely to dissolve in fat or alcohol (while sugars and starches tend to dissolve in water). Adding bitters to your juice probably "grabs" and modifies/mellows the fat-soluble aspects of the grapefruit taste. Since bitters also include some water and water-soluble flavors, it does also modify the grapefruit sugars to some extent.

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Assuming this is true, would that mean that bitters are functioning differently in cocktails with citrus?

And why do bitter help flavors merge and draw out tastes sometimes in the way that salt does? I understand the chemical process with salt (actually, McGhee understands it and I can more or less follow), but I don't know what's happening with bitters.

[thirtyoneknots]

Please excuse my iggerant science, but it seems that bitter flavor compounds are more likely to dissolve in fat or alcohol (while sugars and starches tend to dissolve in water). Adding bitters to your juice probably "grabs" and modifies/mellows the fat-soluble aspects of the grapefruit taste. Since bitters also include some water and water-soluble flavors, it does also modify the grapefruit sugars to some extent.

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Assuming this is true, would that mean that bitters are functioning differently in cocktails with citrus?

And why do bitter help flavors merge and draw out tastes sometimes in the way that salt does? I understand the chemical process with salt (actually, McGhee understands it and I can more or less follow), but I don't know what's happening with bitters.

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The salt thing is a useful analogy, but the mechanisms are not the same. It's simply (in my understanding) using it's intense, sharp, and concentrated flavor to obscure the rough edges of the liquor and add extra depth from the potent spice extracts.

[slkinsey]

I don't know that it's scientifically possible to explain how bitters accentuates a cocktail the way we can with, e.g., salt added to a bowl of chicken broth.

You're adding (usually) very small amounts of a liquid that is highly concentrated with millions of taste and aroma compounds. These taste and aroma compounds, some of which are fairly apparent and others of which are present on a more subliminal level, influence the taster's perception of the drink as a whole. As others have observed, they tend to round out rough edges, marry flavors and add an extra "special" dimension to the drink. One reason may be that these intense compounds in some ways make up for the "loss" of certain of the spirits' tastes and aromas that are inhibited by cold temperatures.

But, again, since I think it's far too complex to say what they do in any way scientific way, poetry, metaphor and allusion may be more useful. jmfangio's "umami" comparison might be a good start. I'd suggest that bitters often work the same way that veal stock works when added to a sauce: There is some contribution of flavor that is noticable, but mostly one notices that the sauce seems to be more tied together, unified, fuller in flavor and satisfying while seeming, in some ways, to taste more of what it was supposed to be before.

[helenjp]

bitters are functioning differently in cocktails with citrus

No, I don't think so - just that the alcohol-soluble (fat-soluble) aromatic compounds will marry with the oily elements in the citrus juice (most likely a little bit from the peel), in the same way that they would marry with the alcohol than with the syrup or juice in a cocktail. (In other words, fat/oil/alcohol are similar).

Just to out of interest, I chased up the sweet/bitter thing a bit more, and discovered that this research claims that we actually sense sweetness and bitterness using the same biological structures. Makes me more and more amazed that sweetness and bitterness so often go together in plants.

So while we know that bitterness will increase the flow of bile, and sourness will increase salivation, a purely sour and bitter aperitif would take a lot of getting used to.

We know that certain tastes influence our perception of other tastes - sweetness is different depending on what we taste along with it, and also depending on what we taste before or after it. Something incredibly complex is happening when we use bitters in a mixed drink...but I'm a long way from knowing just what that is!

Aromatic chemicals are entering our bloodstream through our nasal mucous membranes and our lungs, too, and possibly do things like stimulate or suppress heartbeat or respiration as well as influence our appeites, though I hesitate to say that bitters are going to alter your state of mind or induce fits, etc etc.!

Other people understand it and I just about follow it so true! Can't even explain clearly what I know from herbs, which is that the taste is an important part of their availability to our bodies. You can chew an aromatic and bitter herb, or you can drink it in a tincture or solution, or you can grind it up and put it in a capsule, but the herb will be less effective in a capsule, because you don't taste it. So my guess is that bitters not only modify our perception of how other ingredients taste, they possible arouse our senses so that we are more alert to flavors in general.

[Chris Amirault]

What I want to know is where does one get recipes for bitters to make at home?

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Well, here, of course!

[MaxH]

A little related science and history, which I've picked up in various places over many years. These two factors are interrelated, and may be food for thought:

1. An important role of "bitter" taste sense is that it steers us away from potential food sources in nature that are poisonous. It seems clearly to be an evolved ability. Substances like alkaloids (some of which medically are very important) occur in plants and are classic sources of bitterness. Other natural bitter substances (in mold excreta for instance) are associated with spoilage.

2. Many specialty cordials, herbal wines ("Vermouth"), etc. began as medicines, even if that's not their main use today. Extracts from gentian root are still important as digestive tonics and -- in case anyone hasn't noticed -- are the foundation of many common "bitters" whether sold for flavoring (Angostura) or over-the-counter medicine (Underberg in Germany). Though some people experiment with Underberg as flavoring, it's sold as a digestive aid; it and its European competitors Wunderlich, Stonsdorfer, Fernet Branca, etc etc. have different formulations, but typically include gentian (and one or more of the classic carminative herbs like anise and peppermint). All of these herbs appear prominently in older technical reference books as (albeit mild and low-toxicity) pharmaceutical materials.

So: Many drugs naturally are bitter, while many "bitters" naturally are drugs.