Home » Bartending News » Industry News » Toasting the House of Angostura’s More Than 200 Years of Spirited History
The Old-Fashioned, the Manhattan, the Pisco Sour and the Queen’s Park Swizzle — the one major thing that unites all of these classic cocktails is that they all call for bitters. And to be specific they are now usually made with iconic ANGOSTURA® aromatic bitters from the southern Caribbean island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. For more than 200 years, ANGOSTURA bitters have earned a permanent place behind bars, not as a decorative heritage brand, but as one of the most functional, trusted and versatile ingredients.
But despite the ubiquitousness of ANGOSTURA bitters, most people don’t know its fascinating origin story and its history that stretches around the world and back centuries.
The most interesting fact about the brand might be that it was originally not intended to be a bartending ingredient but instead was created to be a cure-all.
In 1824, Dr. Johann Siegert started selling his personal recipe for his signature aromatic bitters as a medicine to combat stomach ailments and to purify water. He named his product Angostura after a Venezuelan town on the banks of the Orinoco River. At the time, the medical community was still trying to figure out how diseases started and were spread.
A few years earlier, according to Matt Pietrek’s excellent entry in The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails,the doctor had moved from his home in Germany where he was a surgeon to help Venezuela gain independence from Spain.
“Dr. Johan Siegert was responsible for the military hospital stationed on the bank of the Orinoco River in Venezuela. His mission was clear. He needed to create some form of elixir, some form of remedy to help assist with the brutality of an ailment that was devasting the stomachs of soldiers and sailors,” said Raymond Edwards, Angostura’s Chief Brand Educator. “The quality of the water in the region was horrible. We didn’t have the kind of refinement that we do today. So a couple drops of ANGOSTURA bitters in water really helped. Even today it’s one of my granny’s favorite recipes. She’ll take a glass of carbonated water, a squeeze of lime and three to four dashes of ANGOSTURA aromatic bitters and a pinch of salt.”
After Dr. Siegert passed away, in 1875 his sons moved to the nearby island of Trinidad and Tobago where the company is still based. Why there? “Well, Trinidad is only seven miles away from Venezuela. We are so close, so in other words we share the same ecosystem,” said Edwards. “But you wouldn’t believe that is not the main reason.” The Caribbean island offered easy access to an essential ingredient for the bitters: rum. While the recipe for the family’s signature bitters was a secret and remains one today—only a few people still know its full ingredient list—it is rum based. In fact, “the heart and soul of ANGOSTURA bitters is rum,” said Edwards. So it’s no surprise that the Siegert brothers soon were also bottling the local rum on its own.
What’s amazing is that Angostura still produces its famous bitters as well as a portfolio of rums, including Angostura® 3-Year-Old, Angostura® 5-Year-Old, Angostura® 7-Year-Old, Angostura Grand Reserve 1919®, Angostura Founders Reserve 1824®, Angostura® 15-Year-Old 1787, and Angostura® Tamboo. “ANGOSTURA is not just a bitters producing company,” said Edwards. “It’s the only distillery on the island of Trinidad and Tobago. The House of Angostura is one of the leading authorities for rums in the region.”
But some 200 years after its founding, the company continues to innovate and expand its portfolio. In 2007, it added orange bitters to its lineup. It was very exciting news, since at the time orange bitters were very hard to find and bartenders were in desperate need of them to create a number of classic cocktail recipes. The “burst of orange flavor” in the bitters, according to Edwards, tastes like the whole juicy fruit, with citrus, sweetness, tartness and spice – not just bitter zest. Not only have bartenders started using these bitters, but so have pastry chefs around the Caribbean as its profile rounds off and connects with different flavors.
Then in the summer of 2020, the brand added ANGOSTURA cocoa bitters, which are made with locally grown Trinitario cocoa nibs, a premium, hybrid cocoa variety originating from Trinidad in the 18th century. It’s an incredibly flavorful cocoa varietal, which gives the bitters a very rich and complex profile. Bartenders around the world are now adding these bitters to Old-Fashioneds and Negronis.
And, of course, the base of the orange bitters and the cocoa bitters is rum, which comes from a brand rooted in rum distillation and blending.
“It’s a true representation of who we are as a people and as a culture,” said Edwards. “It’s the heartbeat of Trinidad and Tobago. It connects us all. Angostura is in our DNA. For bartenders, ANGOSTURA is not just nostalgia, it is the salt and pepper of the cocktail world.”
This article was published in partnership with House of Angostura.
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