Chris Brislawn

Retried with Kina L'Aero d'Or (now that I have some), using Angostura Orange Bitters and Remy 1738. (I think I prefer an arcadian idyll lubricated by cognac.) Instead of orange curacao I substituted P. Ferrand Limited Edition Late Harvest Moroccan Yuzu Dry Curacao, which we both agree really made this cocktail exceptional. Five stars.

I asked Fee Brothers (via their web site) about the sweetness that John found in their bitters and got the following reply:

Hi Chris,

Thank you for reaching out to us!

At Fee Brothers, we use vegetable glycerin instead of alcohol as the base for our bitters recipes. The sweetness your friend noticed likely comes from the glycerin, which naturally has a subtle sweetness. However, it’s not added as a sweetener. Glycerin is commonly used in products for its texture and flavor-preserving qualities.

I hope this answers your question. If you need more information, please reach out to us again.

Thank you for supporting Fee Brothers!

Cheers!

Bernadette
[Bernadette Hayes, qualityassurance@feebrothers.com]

I've only used their bitters, not their syrups or mixers, which I'm sure are heavily sweetened. Their bitters don't list any sweeteners but, tasting them in isolation, I can see where you might get that impression. It could arise from a concentration of fruit flavors, which is why I use them in the first place. I like the fact that they have a lot of different bitters focused on very specific flavors, like the cherry, or the celery (great in Bloody Marys). Their West Indian Orange Bitters, for instance, comes across as very orange-y compared to some other orange bitters, which is nice when you want to add orange and bitter flavors without too much additional "aromatic" complexity. Even their Aromatic Bitters has a distinct cinnamon note that makes it very different from (and not interchangeable with) Angostura, Bokers, or Bitter Truth Aromatic Bitters. I say go with the flavors you find complimentary to the drink and don't worry about sweetness. The tiny amount of bitters that go into most cocktails makes the sugars (if any) that might be present an insignificant part of the sugars in most any cocktail you might mix. They're hardly like amaros, after all. I also like the fact that Fee Brothers is an old, family-run business that's been around since the American Civil War.

For Tricky Dick's birthday, I opted for Trader Vic's Navy Grog. According to Martin Cate, author of the tiki bible "Smuggler's Cove,"
"Probably the most famous Navy Grog enthusiast was President Richard Nixon, a former Navy lieutenant who had served in the South Pacific. Legend has it that he would slip away to the D.C. Trader Vic's, 16th and K St., housed within the Capitol Hilton Hotel...."