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The U.S.'s Bygone Angostura Autarky
Filed under: Looked Into Tagged: Angostura Bitters, Jonathan Taylor, Talk of the Town
Jonathan Taylor writes:
Edge of the American West has helped us catch up with the Angostura Bitters shortage of 2009–10, since we've been taking a bit of a break from the cocktail-shaking scene.
If only Angostura, now a division of Bacardi, were still manufacturing its concentrate for U.S. distribution in Jersey City, as it was at the time of a 1934 Talk piece about the secret recipe, protected by the evasive wiles of the then custodian, Alfredo Galo Siegert:
It takes eight months to make Angostura Bitters. "After the first four months, we do different things for the next four months," Mr. Siegert told us in a burst of confidence.
But you don't need fancy bitters to make an authentically pre-Prohibition mixed drink. The 1910 Siegert-sponsored Complete Mixing Guide at my elbow contains numerous recipes using the bitters, but also a ton of others, mostly with this rough structure:
WHITE PLUSH
Use whiskey glass.Allow customer to help himself to bourbon or rye whiskey, then fill glass with milk.
Here's to Monday! For more on alcohol in The New Yorker, see this New Year's entry in the Back Issues blog.
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Hello! We're a small band of culture writers, editors, and artists based in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Emdashes, which spent its formative years as a New Yorker blog, is our collection of conversations—mostly civilized—about magazines, movies, design, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
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Dashes, some say, “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like an em dash itself—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. All posts before October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.
The site was designed by House of Pretty with illustrations by Jesse R. Ewing.
Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (author of our web comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The Emdashes pencil logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Reviews: theater writing (for Time Out Chicago)
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, bon vivant, New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Slide show: the Coney Island Mermaid Parade (for NYCgo.com)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Homage: Celebrating lindy-hop legend Frankie Manning (for NYCgo.com)
- Inquiry: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Interviews: four up-and-coming designers under 30 (for Print)
- Profile: novelist and dance critic Laura Jacobs (for Newsday)
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