🍸 Mixers, Bitters and Syrups
What Are Cocktail Bitters? A UK Guide
Bitters are the seasoning of the cocktail world, and two dashes is usually all a drink wants.
🔑 Key Takeaways
- Cocktail bitters are a botanical infusion in strong alcohol, used in drops rather than measures.
- The Angostura Aromatic Bitters 200ml bottle is the one to buy first, because most classic recipes call for it.
- Angostura Orange Bitters is the useful second bottle for gin, martinis and sparkling drinks.
- A dash measures about 0.9ml, so you're adding flavour rather than alcohol to the glass.
- Those two bottles together cost around £19 and cover almost every drink you'll mix at home.
- Skip novelty flavours until you know the two core styles, because unused bottles sit on the shelf for years.
📚 Suggested reading: Easy Cocktail Recipes for Beginners and Premium and Budget Tonic Water Compared.
What Are Cocktail Bitters?
Cocktail bitters are a concentrated blend of botanicals steeped in high-strength alcohol, and you use them a few drops at a time to sharpen a drink. A bottle lasts years rather than weeks, which is why the price on the shelf feels high for something so small. The style you'll meet most often is aromatic bitters, and the Angostura Aromatic Bitters bottle covers the Old Fashioned, the Manhattan and most other classics a home bar is likely to shake.
Bitters sit in a different corner from the amari you pour into a glass, because they are non-potable: you never drink them neat, and they season a drink in the way salt seasons food. The best known example started life as medicine, because Dr Johann Gottlieb Benjamin Siegert mixed his formula in 1824 in the Venezuelan town of Angostura to settle soldiers' stomachs, and the House of Angostura has made it in Trinidad since 1875, as the Angostura history records.
Strength varies more than most people expect. Angostura Aromatic runs at 44.7% ABV, which the Difford's Guide entry confirms, while the orange version sits at 28% and the Fee Brothers bottles come in near 9% because they use glycerin instead of a spirit base. None of that lands in your glass in any quantity, because a dash at 44.7% delivers about 0.41ml of alcohol, which is well under half a millilitre per dash.
How Many Dashes Should You Actually Use?
A dash from a standard dasher top measures around 0.9ml, as Cocktail Society sets out, so two dashes put less than 2ml into the shaker. That's the reason recipes count in dashes instead of millilitres, because a quarter teaspoon of bitters would flatten a martini completely. Keep the dasher top on the bottle, count out loud as you go, and treat the first dash as the one that matters most.
- Old Fashioned and Manhattan: two dashes of aromatic bitters stirred with the spirit.
- Martini and other dry classics: one dash of orange bitters, or a grapefruit twist if you prefer.
- Gin and tonic: two dashes of orange bitters over the ice before the tonic goes in.
- Champagne and other sparkling serves: one dash of aromatic bitters in the glass first.
- Espresso martini and dessert drinks: one or two dashes of cocoa bitters.
- Whisky highballs: one dash of aromatic bitters, no more, so the whisky stays in charge.
If you're working from a dropper bottle rather than a dasher, count eight to ten drops as one dash, then taste before you add more. Bitters are one of the few ingredients where you can't correct an overshoot, because there's no way to take them back out of the glass.
The Bottles Worth Buying First
Buy the aromatic bottle before anything else, because almost every classic recipe assumes it. The Angostura Aromatic Bitters 200ml sits at about £11.25 at the time of writing, which works out near £5.62 per 100ml, and a bottle that size lasts a household mixing two or three drinks a week comfortably more than a year. It's the workhorse, and it's the bottle that turns whisky, sugar and water into an Old Fashioned.
Orange bitters is the second bottle worth owning, and Angostura Orange Bitters at around £7.95 for 100ml is the cheapest way in. It lifts a gin and tonic, it belongs in a martini, and it does more for a glass of fizz than most people expect the first time they try it. The Fee Brothers West Indian Orange Bitters takes a different approach at around £13.50 for 150ml: it runs at 9% ABV, tastes brighter and sweeter, and pours more thickly from the bottle.
If you'd rather sample a few styles before committing to a full bottle, the Bitter Truth Cocktail Bitters Bar Pack gives you five 20ml bottles for around £18.64, which is expensive per millilitre and cheap for finding out what you like. For coffee and dessert drinks, Angostura Cocoa Bitters at about £8.57 for 100ml is the bottle that earns its place, and The Bitter Truth Orange at around £14.99 for 20cl suits anyone who wants a dry, grown-up orange rather than a sweet one.
Do You Really Need More Than One Bottle?
One bottle is enough to start, and if you only ever make whisky drinks then aromatic bitters is the only one you need. Add orange as the second bottle once you're mixing gin and sparkling drinks, because the citrus notes do work that aromatic bitters can't. Beyond those two, the honest answer is that cocoa, celery and barrel-aged bottlings are for specific drinks, and most homes would use them a handful of times a year. Novelty flavours such as truffle or chilli bitters are worth buying only when a recipe you already love calls for them. Put the money into the tools you use every week instead, such as a decent cocktail shaker set and the right glass for a stirred drink.
Storing Bitters and Keeping the Dasher Clean
Keep bottles in a cupboard rather than on a sunny windowsill, because light fades the botanicals and the flavour goes dull. Spirit-based bitters at around 44% ABV hold their character for years, so a 200ml bottle is safe to buy even if you only dash it twice a week. The lower-strength bottles are the ones to watch, and since the Fee Brothers range sits near 9% ABV, a smaller bottle you actually finish beats a large one that fades at the back of the shelf.
Wipe the dasher cap after you pour, because sugar and glycerin dry on the metal and block the holes one at a time. Once a month, run the cap under warm water and shake it dry, then screw it back on. The bottle itself never needs rinsing, and adding water to a bitters bottle is the quickest way to ruin what's left inside.
What the Prices Actually Tell You
The big aromatic bottle is the cheapest way to buy bitters per millilitre, and the small tasting sets are the most expensive, which is the trade-off you accept for trying several styles at once. Orange bitters costs more per millilitre than aromatic, mainly because the standard bottle is half the size. Supermarkets stock Angostura in the drinks aisle on and off, and the online price for the 200ml bottle is usually competitive, so it's worth checking both before you commit. A single dash of bitters runs at about 5p when you work it back from a £11.25 bottle, which makes it the cheapest part of any cocktail you'll make.
The Verdict
Start with the Angostura Aromatic Bitters 200ml and add the Angostura Orange Bitters 100ml, which comes to around £19 together and covers the Old Fashioned, the Manhattan, the martini and a very good gin and tonic. Add the Angostura Cocoa Bitters if espresso martinis and dessert drinks are part of your rotation, and buy the Bitter Truth bar pack when you want to explore without spending much. Prices move about on Amazon, so check the live figure before you order.
Products mentioned: Angostura Aromatic Bitters 200ml, Angostura Orange Bitters 100ml, Angostura Cocoa Bitters 100ml, Fee Brothers West Indian Orange Bitters 150ml, The Bitter Truth Cocktail Bitters Bar Pack, The Bitter Truth Orange Bitters 20cl.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are cocktail bitters made from?
They are a blend of botanicals such as gentian, herbs, bark, spices and fruit peel steeped in high-strength alcohol. Angostura keeps its exact recipe secret, and most brands do the same, so you are buying a flavour profile rather than a list of ingredients.
How much is a dash of bitters?
A dash from a dasher top is roughly 0.9ml, so two dashes add under 2ml to your drink. If you only have a dropper bottle, count eight to ten drops for one dash.
Can you drink bitters on their own?
You can, but you won't enjoy it, because cocktail bitters are non-potable and taste intensely bitter and salty. They season a drink rather than fill a glass, unlike amari such as Campari that you pour in larger measures.
Do cocktail bitters go off?
Spirit-based bitters at around 44% ABV keep for years in a cupboard away from sunlight. The lower-strength glycerin bottles, such as the Fee Brothers range at about 9% ABV, lose their punch faster, so buy those in smaller sizes and use them within a year or two.
Do you need bitters for an Old Fashioned?
Yes, two dashes of aromatic bitters are what separate an Old Fashioned from sweetened whisky. Without them you have whisky, sugar and water, which tastes flat beside the real thing.
Can you use orange bitters instead of aromatic?
In a gin drink or a martini, orange bitters is the better choice, while aromatic bitters suits whisky drinks. Swapping one for the other still tastes good, but you'll notice citrus where you expected spice.
Last reviewed: 13 September 2026 ยท Evidence-based review ยท Contains affiliate links