Orange bitters

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Bitter orange (Engl. Orange Bitters) is a Bitters with the aroma of orange peel to flavor cocktails .

Composition and use

Orange bitters consist of extracts from orange or bitter orange peel and possibly other citrus fruits, water, possibly sugar and alcohol as well as spices such as clove , coriander , cardamom , gentian root and allspice . Composition and taste differ significantly depending on the manufacturer, the alcohol content of commercially sold products is usually around 40% vol. Like all spicy bitters, orange bitters are usually only dosed drop by drop or as a dash to round off a cocktail's taste. They are used, among other things, for the Dry Martini Cocktail and variants thereof.

history

Until the 1950s, orange bitters were available in numerous variations from a large number of manufacturers, of which, however, only a few survived the general decline of cocktail bitters in the period after the alcohol prohibition in the United States (1919–1933). For many years the West Indian Orange Bitters produced since 1951 by Fee Brothers from Rochester (New York), which was founded in 1863, was the only available orange bitters and, along with Angostura bitters , the only bitters used in many bars. The situation changed in the late 1990s when bartenders like Dale DeGroff (Rainbow Room, New York ) began to think more about classic and forgotten cocktail recipes from the 19th century. However, Gary and Mardee Regan, authors of numerous books on cocktails and spirits, could not find a suitable orange bitters for old recipes and began their own experiments based on a recipe in The Gentleman's Companion by Charles H. Baker Jr. from 1939. In 1998 they released their Regan's Orange Bitters No. 4 , 2003 a recipe for the improved successor No. 5 . Since 2005 Regan's Orange Bitters is No. 6 also sold commercially. A year later, The Bitter Truth began producing an orange bitters in Munich , which is now also exported. Numerous other Bitters manufacturers were founded, especially in the United States. In addition to The Bitter Truth, an orange bitters from the Riemerschmid brand is also available on the German market .

literature

  • Brad Thomas Parsons: Bitters: a spirited history of a classic cure-all, with cocktails, recipes, and formulas . Random House, New York 2011, ISBN 978-1-58008-359-1 (in English), on orange bitters in particular p. 25ff (history, manufacturer), p. 72f (recipe).