Try It: Bittered Cocktails
Updated: July 20, 2009
One of the most confusing or maligned cocktail ingredients (joining vermouth and Campari, perhaps), bitters give the je-ne-sais-quoi edge necessary to the fastidiously mixed drink. The various distillations of aromatic herbs, barks, roots and plants steeped in alcohol enhance and deepen a cocktail's flavor profile. From artfully housemade elixirs to Boston-based Bittermens, take a dash of dark extracts with these five fine examples.
Get Bitter
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Craigie on Main
Write a review853 Main St, Cambridge, MA 02139 (map)
"I see bitters the way a chef views salt," explains bar manager Tom Schlesinger-Guidelli. "Bitters add that extra zing of flavor that brings everything together." There's plenty on the drink menu to zing your head off, but the Saloon Man's Sour (official tagline: "New England Warmth, Tropical Aroma") soothes the wanderlusting soul with Sailor Jerry rum, sloe gin, lime juice, maple syrup and Angostura bitters.
Deep Ellum Bar
Read Reviews477 Cambridge St, Allston, MA 02134 (map)
At this wooden bar, whose aura of hard knocks belies its 2007 open date, draft beers may rule, but the vintage cocktails downright reign. Bitters-wise, the lineup includes no less than eight versions of the classic Manhattan (at last count), the Old-Fashioned and Sazerac, but the prohibition-era Horse's Neck keeps it simple: bourbon, ginger ale and aromatic and Peychaud's Bitters. Bring it home, Flicka.
Hungry Mother
Read Reviews233 Cardinal Medeiros Ave, Cambridge, MA 02141 (map)
"So, a beekeeper, down-home farmer and mixologist walk into a bar ..." The punchline? It lies in the No. 42, which goes down with just a touch of citrus, basil and chamomile courtesy of Bitterman's Boston Bittahs. The gin is handcrafted locally in small batches by Greylock, the Berkshire's first legal distillery since prohibition. The dry vermouth has no Boston oeuvre, but the honey syrup is derived from Boston's own Reseska Apiaries, and adds the sweet into this bitter-sweet cocktail.
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