Time flies while you’re thirsty. It has someway, impossibly, been 5 years since I wrote the piece by which I argued forcefully for the many-splendored delights of mixing glowing water with a splash—or 5—of cocktail bitters.
The market availability in each these product classes has gone gonzo right here within the third decade of the twenty first century, the nice seltzer growth (“c’est La Croix”) of the late 2010s bouncing fortunately off the continued vogue for bitters of each stripe and extraction as a vital part to the trendy cocktail bar. At a spot like Amor y Amargo in New York’s East Village—nonetheless the most effective bitters bar in America, 15 years on—one can enjoyment of a full-spectrum ROYGBIV colour wheel of dasher bottles in each attainable taste and tone, and on-line webshops like Bitters & Bottles supply greater than 150 alternatives, all shippable to your door.
It appeared like we have been primed for a brand new golden period of the bitters and soda, a sterling epoch for which I used to be satisfied to function the nice huge booming city cryer. Bitters and soda is sweet, I proclaimed! Absolutely this not-a-cocktail but in addition definitely-a-cocktail was primed to take the post-pandemic consuming milieu by storm!
Effectively—lived historical past has a manner of constructing fools of us all. Verily the nonalcoholic consuming pattern boomed voluminously during the last 5 years, in gross sales and cultural cachet and funding year-over-year on-trend alpha throughput yada yada, however practically all of that has been predicated on creating a brand new lexicon of elixirs and potions and adaptogenic tonics and natural decoctions and diverse nöotropic nostrums. Our consuming second represents a veritable buffet bar of salad days for the N/A beer trade, specifically; it’s the solely section of beer as a whole beverage sector with something like constructive development. Folks even preserve making an attempt to make N/A wine occur (which feels very fetch to me). Maybe the one node or class of N/A drinks that has not gone completely gonzo parabolic by way of gross sales and curiosity and TikTok meta-performance is my beloved soda bitters.
I want to state for the file that everybody is mistaken about this. I believe there’s a few the explanation why soda bitters has but to correctly #pattern on-line and in bars: the hegemonic mono-control of mineral water in America within the arms of a sure very giant and deeply monied supercorporation, for starters; but in addition the emotional and psychological connectivity cocktail bitters must the (gulp) Golden Age of Cocktails Revival, a time of nice millennial promise, an period of filament mild bulbs and L Practice boltholes and suspenders a-go-go and far earnest shaking from behind the bar. Cocktail bitters didn’t, actually, exit of fashion with neo-Balkan indie folks; it stays a thriving class with many new entrants and myriad functions from the bar to the kitchen to the bottle of bubble water. However there’s at all times going to be some who affiliate it with fussy cocktails alone, a lot to their very own detriment.
I advisable some actually scrumptious soda bitters combos again in 2021, and I’m glad to do it once more right here now in 2026. This stays the superlative end-all be-all of trendy N/A consuming, at residence or as a call-out within the bar, and my biggest dream could be for extra bars and drinkers to embrace the chances. The water you utilize issues, the bitters you utilize matter, and the outcomes could be astonishingly scrumptious.
There’s no mineral water I’ve drank extra of within the final 5 years than Rambler, a canned, ready-to-drink possibility out of Austin, Texas, that makes use of a proprietary mineralization mix to provide glowing water of nice creaminess and complexity. (I as soon as drank 20 of those in a extremely popular weekend at Scorching Luck, and solely simply survived.) Rambler’s line of waters contains flavored choices, however my sturdy desire is to buy the unique unflavored providing and plus it up myself at residence. Hull & Bay is a new-ish bitters firm (launched in 2024), and it hails from Tampa, Florida—the land of the important thing lime. There’s an exquisite lime-and-cream factor taking place with these bitters, which one assumes are purposed for myriad tiki destinies within the arms of most bars, however it makes a extremely scrumptious foil for the mineral creaminess of the Rambler. I add Hull & Bay’s Key Lime Bitters straight into the can, nearly like a tropical Michelada.
Mondariz is a mineral water from Galicia, famend for its clear, balanced style and readability. It’s considered one of my favourite waters to drink alongside wine (you need to be consuming mineral water subsequent to wine) and considered one of my favourite mineral waters to serve with meals (you need to be consuming mineral water alongside meals) as a result of it compliments with out overpowering, and refreshes the palate between every chunk or sip. However I believe it’s enjoyable to let the bitters do the driving, and so I’ve began reaching for the little ochre-yellow bottle of Dr. Adam’s Spanish Bitters, a product from Scotland that has earned a critical following within the bar world during the last decade and a half (it’s surprisingly versatile stuff, and could be plugged into the whole lot from a Margarita to a flip to a Scorching Toddy). The flavors listed below are based mostly on a Nineteenth-century recipe, and supply layers and layers of complexity: There’s chamomile and violets, but in addition tobacco and leather-based, citrus peel and coriander… all of it simply retains going and occurring the palate. That is ideally suited to construct a real cocktail-style drink round: Stack your highball cubes, be beneficiant with the bitters, and fill to the highest with Mondariz earlier than stirring with a metallic spoon.
Mineral water has lengthy been prized for its healing properties; in some elements of the world, like Germany, sure mineral waters are fairly actually prescribed as drugs. I’ve been recognized to need a remedial corrective myself now and again (what with all of the skilled drinks reporting analysis I’m required to carry out) and have come to lean on this very mixture as the right morning-after drop. Jermuk is a terrific pure mineral water from Armenia, with excessive ranges of complete dissolved solids (TDS) together with magnesium, potassium, and calcium. The water has a notably weighted mouthfeel, and to me tastes just a little “inexperienced,” although a few of that could be the affect of the model’s darkish inexperienced bottles. This pairs effectively with the bitters designed for hangovers from Colorado’s Dram, which function an array of herbs and spices together with ginger, fennel, and cinnamon. My most beloved utility happens thusly: 10 drops of Dram right into a bottle of Jermuk, go to the fitness center, stroll for 45 minutes at an incline on the treadmill, then sit within the steam room and drink the complete bottle of Jermuk with bitters over the course of 10 minutes, after which I’m recent as a wee daisy.
