This article was initially published in the December/January issue of Global Drinks Intel magazine. For details on how to subscribe, click here.
From Nigeria and Ghana to Argentina and the US, consumers are discovering that a drink with bitters is ‘so much better than one without’. Jaq Bayles reports.
Curiosity may have led to the untimely demise of the proverbial feline, but it’s having the opposite effect on one longstanding drinks category. Fired up by lockdown cocktail exploration, consumers are seeking to broaden their horizons and palates by turning to the category originally intended to deliver restorative properties to the drinker - bitters.
In 2021, according to IWSR Drinks Market Analysis, the bitters segment grew 15% in volume terms versus 2020, exceeding 2019 levels, while value increased by 22%. It's a category that seems to know no geographical boundaries. “Bitters are growing well in parts of Africa, including Nigeria and Ghana,” says the research company, "and is benefiting from the growing cocktail culture in many markets.
"Between 2021 and 2026, volumes are forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4%.”
Mixologists use bitters as drinks seasoning
Unsurprisingly, such growth has seen an influx of new players and flavours too, both in cocktail bitters - the ‘seasoning’ for mixologists - and the longer-drink herbal versions.
Elon Soddu’s London bar, Amaro, was not named after the bitters itself, but after the literal Italian translation. Indeed, the bar does have a good selection of amaro - so Soddu is well-placed to offer insight into how the sector is shaping up.
“It's definitely growing,” he says. “I’m seeing new brands popping up on the market and old brands becoming stronger. Consumers are very curious right now and they want to know more about the genre.
“Bartenders use bitters like salt and pepper in drinks to add extra flavour or for balance, but not many people care about the quality of the salt and pepper; they usually put more attention on the quality of the main ingredient. Actually, bitters and amaro are key ingredients for a lot of classic cocktails that would taste completely different without them. Now, the world is saturated with spirits of every genre, consumers are putting more attention on ingredients that they don’t know and they can learn from.”
Challenging bitters' dark spirits perception
Soddu sees the big current trend as the rediscovery of old classics using amaro and says his bar’s most popular current serves are “Fig Old Fashioned, which includes Amaro Montenegro as an ingredient, and the Pomegranate Negroni, which is a Tequila- or mezcal-based, more fruity version of the classic Negroni but still keeping the bitter soul”.
He is also challenging the presumption that amaro can only be mixed with dark spirits, often combining with the more neutral vodka and gin. “There are hundreds of types of amaro, and not only from Italy. It's all about discovering those different products and finding out how we can implement those in cocktails in the best way possible.”
It’s not just consumers who want to be educated in the ways of bitters use. “The knowledge and awareness of this category is still very limited among bartenders,” says Caffo 1915 Group export area sales director Gabriele Langella. To tackle this, Caffo runs educational events and masterclasses not just for bartenders, but also for sales teams, local wholesalers, retailers and the like.
In 2020, Italy-based Caffo acquired Dutch bitters brand Petrus Boonekamp from Diageo and recently extended its flagship Vecchio Amaro del Capo range with a Red Hot variant. “For sure, bitters is less popular than whisky, gin or other big categories,” adds Langella. “But, this is quite normal as the bitters category is very small in most of the international markets.”
Stretching bitters beyond the cocktail bar
Stephan Berg at The Bitter Truth agrees that there's scope to broaden bitters’ reach beyond cocktail bars. “One cannot just ‘restrict’ oneself to bartenders - although they're extremely important to us - when consumers are becoming more knowledgeable and open to experimenting themselves,” he says. “In the end, also in the HORECA/on-trade [channel], it's the consumer who makes the call.
“Bartenders remain very important to us and are at the heart of our strategy, playing the advisory and innovating role, also towards consumers. We will never forget to support and be grateful to all the bartenders who work with our brand. But, there are more consumers who simply want cocktail bitters in their drinks because they've experienced that a drink with cocktail bitters is so much better than one without.
"This is, therefore, not only for the ‘in-the-know’ venues anymore - more mainstream chains and consumers preparing drinks at home are following this path as well. Our off-trade sales are consequently also clearly increasing.”
Moving from digestif to high-energy
An evolution in bitters has been pinpointed by Pernod Ricard consumer insights & global Ramazzotti innovation manager Maria Ilieva: “Bitters are ... moving away from the classical digestive occasion (although a big portion of consumption is still there) and entering more high-energy occasions in which younger consumers encounter bitters for the first time. We’ve noticed an ask for more bitter profiles in some markets and the search for Italian products continues to be strong.”
This evolution is testament to bitters’ versatility, another factor driving the category’s strong growth and experimentation, as highlighted by Amaro’s Soddu - and he's not alone in flagging this opportunity for growth. Amber Beverage Group has spent six years “significantly” developing Latvian brand Riga Black Balsam’s portfolio “to become interesting for bartenders, new consumers and distributors in new export markets”.
Māris Kalniņš, the group’s global portfolio director for mixology, says: “We have added new flavours and lower-ABV products to attract younger consumers and to promote Riga Black Balsam as a brand that can be used not only for sophisticated cocktails but also for simple mixed drinks. Versatility is the key strength: we have [also] launched an RTD line to promote the brand to consumers seeking low-ABV products.”
The changing consumer palate
Bitters ticks a lot of boxes, but also driving growth is the fact that consumer palates have evolved. After all, it’s not so long ago that the world of bitters was much smaller, so something galvanised the resurgence.
That something, says Campari Group CMO Julka Villa, is a move towards more bitter flavours across the board. Campari has huge faith in bitters, with a portfolio that includes big hitters Campari and Aperol, as well as Averna, Bràulio and, as of early 2022, French brand Picon, the signature serve of which is mixed with beer.
“Over the past 50 years, consumers’ palates have been changing,” says Villa. “Definitely, more bitter flavours are considered today. The bitter trend in alcohol is not the only one: Think about the evolution of coffee, dark chocolate and also some bitter vegetables, like the kale phenomenon, which I think started more or less ten years ago.
“All these products are helping people to develop their palate. So, the increasing popularity of bitter drinks is also benefiting from the growth of other bitter-tasting products.”
TikTok of ‘mistaken’ cocktail brings bitters new fame
There’s a very modern phenomenon that has helped to bring the No.1 bitters-containing cocktail, the Negroni, to even-wider public notice.
A TikTok post of House of the Dragon star Emma D’Arcy saying their drink of choice was a Negroni Sbagliato “with Prosecco in it” went viral, bringing the ‘mistaken’ cocktail - which replaces the gin with Prosecco - to a whole new generation of consumers.
More than that, says Villa, while the post may have come “out of the blue”, it signalled a fortuitous meeting. “On one side, you have the growth of classic cocktails with the bitter note of Campari, and on the other, you have the growth of the spritz phenomenon. Sbagliato positions itself in the middle of the two trends.”
A cocktail that capitalises on an alleged mistake may be something of a curiosity, but that can be no bad thing if it's helping to bring a previously ailing category back to life.
This article was initially published in the December/January issue of Global Drinks Intel magazine. For details on how to subscribe, click here.
