The Bitter Truth Creole Bitters

Long before cocktails existed as a category, doctors and apothecaries were making bitters like this one as medicinal tonics — and The Bitter Truth's Creole Bitters is built as a tribute to that pre-cocktail New Orleans tradition, right down to smelling like a French Quarter kitchen. Made in Germany at 39% ABV, it pours a clear, scarlet red and opens with cayenne and pink peppercorn, backed by anise, big red cinnamon, dusky caraway, and fennel seed, with dried apricot, cherry, and cranberry weaving through smoked paprika and a whisper of pine smoke. Difford's Guide describes a pungent cherry and aniseed nose with orange and faint licorice, a palate of light quinine bitterness with cherry, orange zest, and mint, and a bitter cherryade finish — noting it's arguably more aromatic than Peychaud's Bitters and a genuinely solid alternative for anyone who can't find that New Orleans staple. Cocktail historian David Wondrich, author of Imbibe! and Punch, has called The Bitter Truth's bitters essential to his own bar toolkit. It picked up a Silver Medal at the 2010 Los Angeles International Spirits Competition. Reach for it in a Sazerac, Manhattan, Old Fashioned, or French 75.

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