ISSUE 37, TASTES, Part 5: Bitters

The medicinal taste

American Bitters

Nowadays bitters are an aroma and a flavor used in building cocktails, or a digestif taken in small doses after heavy meals.  Prior to the twentieth century they were a medicinal infusion of vegetable material in alcohol.  In ancient Greek medicine (particularly the tradition of Theophrastus), bitter roots, bark, leaves, and herbs were c…