Bitters have a turbulent history, and it’s not clear when and where it started. Initially invented as a medical treatment, bitters have developed to being a luxury drink in the western culture. As a result, bitters became an essential part of cocktails, but then were forgotten about, or banned. This is why only since recently, bitters are making their way back into the bars and restaurants all over the world.

Bitters as a medical treatment

Until the 19th century, bitters were mainly used as a medical cure-all. It is however, unclear where the idea of making bitters had its origin. Perhaps the first ever bitter was invented by a lucky accident, when certain foods containing bittern maybe fell into a container with strong alcohol, and were forgotten in it. The blend then must have macerated over time, and eventually resulted in a bitter drink.
Author David Wondrich, publisher of various books on cocktails and their history, supports a different theory that states that bitters were developed on purpose, because the knowledge of both herbs and alcohol being a medical remedy was already widespread in the 12th Century. In Wondrich’s opinion, mixing both these compounds to create something new was no big step for alchemists. Trusting this theory, the birthplace for bitters would be Mesopotamia, which is now known as Iraq. In the 9th or 10th Century, the alembic for the distillation of alcohol was invented by Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya ar-Razi, who distilled pure alcohol from wine for the first time in history.

Bitters as a flavouring agent

How was the former medical elixir discovered for the seasoning of meals? David Wondrich reports that in the 17th century, pharmacist Richard Stoughton from London advertised his „Magnum Elixir Stomachicum“ as a suitable flavouring agent in Canadian wine or sherry that could also cure a hangover. This story is similar to the history of Peychaud’s bitters, which were invented by pharmacist Antoine Peychaud, and sold to be enjoyed with cognac. This means that historically, it wasn’t bitters that were added to flavour spirits, but the other way around, in order to make bitters edible.
Also, this way the first ever cocktails were invented, and bitters became a seasoning add-on for drinks. Bitters are essential components of the most classic and famous cocktails, for example the Manhattan, Old Fashioned, and the Sazerac. We believe that these drinks would be ordered even more often, if bartenders and mixologists wouldn’t keep forgetting to add bitters.

Until the Pure Food and Drug Act 1906 and the time of prohibition from 1919 until 1933, aromatic bitters used to be on the usual inventory list of every bar and restaurant in the US. This explains why they are often referred to as cocktail bitters. A huge variety used to be available everywhere, and bitters could have been used even daily. But this political engagement destroyed the country’s bar and restaurant culture. Other trends developed, and most bitters, with just a few exceptions, were forgotten.
The credit for their revival goes to the few, passionate experts and enthusiasts for good taste. These connaisseurs preserved fragments of the bitter’s tradition, and try to educate us about them. These people share their knowledge, and teach us that bitters aren’t just special because they triggered the invention of cocktails, but because of their uniqueness as a flavouring agent. Since the beginning of this century, the production, use, and distribution of bitters is rising, and although they might have been forgotten about for a long time, bitters were never dead. Instead, they were simply having a long beauty sleep.

Enjoy a Wilks & Wilson Old Fashioned Cocktail!

2 oz blended whiskey

1/4 oz W & W Gomme Elixir

Dash of W & W Orange #2 Bitters

Directions:

Combine, stir, strain, garnish with lemon twist and Enjoy!

As I found in recent articles, tailgating is very American and goes back 100 years or more, depending on which version of the story you choose to believe.  Regardless of which story you like, this is the season of the beloved Tailgate Ritual.

The first theory is that the tailgate party occurred during the first college football game between Rutgers and Princeton. Apparently, spectators spent their pre-game ritual grilling sausages at the “tail end” of the horse. This theory seems a bit weak to me, but it has persisted for a long, long time.

The second theory seems a little bit more plausible, as it seems logical to the human mind. The story goes that a train transported a large number of fans to a Yale football game in 1904. By the time the fans had arrived to the game, most were quite famished and, according to Peter Chakerian’s excerpt, the fans made sure to bring food and beverages to the stadium prior to the start of the game.

The third, and the theory I like the most, was that Green Bay Packers fans coined the actual term “tailgating” during the teams first year in business in 1919. Back then, the fans would back their pickup trucks around the field and fold down their tailgates for seating. Naturally, food and beverages were brought along to keep the appetite in check.

So ready your steed or truck or even your SUV.  Stock up on easy food ready for the grill, and let Wilks & Wilson help with simple seasonal cocktails and Bloody Marys!  Oh yes, and watch some football of course…!

Recipes for simple handcrafted cocktails can be found easily here on the RECIPES page!

Observed on the first Monday in September, Labor Day pays tribute to the contributions and achievements of American workers. It was created by the labor movement in the late 19th century and became a federal holiday in 1894. Labor Day also symbolizes the end of summer for many Americans, and is celebrated with parties, parades and athletic events.

Cocktails are a part of most events right?  So as it were, we thought it befitting to find a cocktail to celebrate Labor day and the end of Summer by going back in time to see what a blue collar American would drink in pre-prohibition 1894!  Our choice…Pisco Punch, our adaptation of this recipe makes it current and relevant anytime!

W & W Pisco Punch

In a cocktail shaker, combine: 2 ounces pisco, 1 ounce distilled water , 2/3 ounce W&W Pineapple Gomme, 3/4 ounce lemon juice.

Shake well, strain into a thin punch glass and garnish with syrup-soaked pineapple chunk., (You can freeze these, if you want ’em to keep.)

Interested in more of the Pisco Punch story?  Read on:

The Wondrich Take:

If there was one drink that pulled ’em in far and wide from all over America, it was the world-renowned Pisco Punch, as served at the Bank Exchange, the legendary bar (everybody, just everybody, drank there) that long flourished on the spot where the Transamerica pyramid now stands. Pisco, an odd kind of clear South American brandy, had come to town with the Chileans and Peruvians, who’d heard about the gold and thought they’d take a poke. Sometime between 1853, when the joint opened, and the late 1870s, when owner John Torrence sold it to a close-mouthed Scottish immigrant by the name of Duncan Nicol (or Nichol, or Nichols), somebody mixed some pisco with a few simple ingredients in careful proportion, and alchemy occurred. (It might’ve been Torrence; the bar was also known as “Pisco John’s”.)

The result? A drink that one initiate compared to “the scimitar of Haroun whose edge was so fine that after a slash a man walked on unaware that his head had been severed from his body until his knees gave way and he fell dead to the ground.” (We can, alas, attest to the truth of that statement; but who needs a body, anyway?) The recipe was a tightly guarded secret, the drink itself anything but. Every greenhorn, every tourist, had to stop at the Bank Exchange and receive communion. Things went on like that until Prohibition, when Nicol had to close up shop. He died before Repeal, and did his best to take the recipe with him. As far as the general drinking public knew, it was lost forever. Yet Nicol’s bar manager, one John Lannes, eventually spilled the beans. The California Historical Society published the formula in 1973, and may the Gods of Drink grant them eternal freedom from hangovers for it. We present it verbatim, repetitious diction and all.

“The Wondrich Take” by David Wondrich with Esquire Magazine