Cocktails with Orange bitters
Orange bitters is a concentrated cocktail bitters flavored with orange peel — often bitter Seville orange — over a base of spices like cardamom, coriander and caraway.
ABV28–44%Varying by brand; some modern versions use vegetable glycerin instead and are alcohol-free. Either way the dose is a few dashes, so it barely affects the drink’s strength.
Substitutes for Orange bitters
Citrus peel in front is the whole job, and a bitters without it seasons the drink but does not brighten it. Any bottle that leads with orange swaps dash for dash; anything that leads with warm spice is a different seasoning.
Often confused with
Aromatic bitters (e.g. Angostura)
Both are dashing bitters at similar strength, but they are two different seasonings rather than variants of one, and most classic specs name which they want. Dash aromatic where orange is called for and the drink turns warm and spiced instead of bright.
Regan’s No. 6 against Fee Brothers West Indian
The two standard bottles and they are not the same seasoning: Regan’s leads with cardamom and reads dry and spiced, Fee’s is softer and candied. A Martini specced on one tastes sweeter on the other, so pick by the drink and keep the dash count.
Storage
This is the bitters that does not keep indefinitely, because the working part is citrus oil and citrus oil oxidizes. A year-old bottle still seasons a drink; it seasons it with something duller and slightly resinous. Buy the small bottle unless the bar goes through orange bitters quickly.
