According to the organisers, Adonko
Bitters won the award because of its high quality standards and the enormous health benefits for its patrons.
Marston's pub group, which owns the pub, has taken over management and the staff employed under
Bitters N Twisted remain.
In the Speciality
Bitters category, young Formby brewery Red Star won Gold for its Weissbeer.
And yet, few products have been revived as dramatically as
bitters.
Fueled largely by the hard liquor and artisanal cocktail booms,
bitters -- those astringent, potent flavor enhancers added by the drop to cocktails -- have become a big business.
A few logs on the fire and a glass of fine Bourbon with just the right mix of
bitters and sweetness is one of life's purest joys.
A few scant years ago, if a patron strolled into an establishment and asked the barman what types of
bitters he carried, he'd have probably been greeted with a look that was quizzical, to say the least.
The recipe for Angostura aromatic
bitters is so closely guarded that it is practically a synonym for "secret," says Suraj Bachan, a taxi driver in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
ONE OF THE BEST EFFECTS of the ongoing cocktail revolution in restaurants and high-end bars has been the return of, and the rise in, the barman's use of
bitters. Aromatic
bitters were originally formulated for use as preventive tonics against the fevers and infections that threatened colonial visitors to the tropics.
"Over the past 24 months, the
Bitters turned down very profitable straight sale transactions, which would have forced their 100% relocation to South Carolina," said John Maltz, managing director of Greiner-Maltz.
Deuchar's IPA, from the Caledonian Brewery in Edinburgh, set the pace last year and was awarded a bronze medal this time around in the
Bitters category behind
Bitter And Twisted and Daleside
Bitter from Harrogate.
WHEN cocktails on the terrace are the order of the summer evening, sip a sundowner made with Angostura aromatic
bitters.