Orange bitters

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

Composition and use

Orange Bitters consists of extracts of orange or bitter orange peel and possibly other citrus fruits, water, optionally sugar and alcohol, as well as spices such as clove, coriander, cardamom, gentian root and pimento. Composition and taste, however, differ significantly depending on the manufacturer, the alcohol content of the commercially available products is usually at about 40 % vol. Orange bitters are like all Bitters doses usually only drips or Dash ( splashes) to round a cocktail 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 by a variety of manufacturers, of which 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 there was the (New York), the only available since 1951 Orange Bitters Orange Bitters produced West Indian Company, which was founded in 1863 Fee Brothers of Rochester, and in addition also the only Angostura bitters ever used in many bars. The situation changed in the late 1990s, when bartender Dale DeGroff as ( Rainbow Room, New York) reinforced recollected on classic and forgotten cocktail recipes from the 19th century. Gary and Mardee Regan, authors of numerous books on cocktails and spirits, but could not find a suitable orange bitters for old recipes and started their own experiments based on a formulation of the book The Gentleman's Companion, by Charles H. Baker Jr. in 1939. In 1998, she published her Regan 's Orange Bitters No.. 4, 2003, a recipe for the improved successor No. 5 Since 2005, Regan 's Orange Bitters No.. 6 also sold commercially. A year later, began in Munich, the Manufacture The Bitter Truth ( TBT) with the production of orange bitters, which is now also exported. Numerous other foundations of Bitters manufacturers primarily in the United States followed. In addition to TBT is available on the German market a brand of orange bitters Riemerschmid.