The Bitter Truth Jerry Thomas Bitters

Professor Jerry Thomas wasn't just a 19th-century bartender — he's the man credited with writing the first-ever published cocktail book, and he tended bar at New York's Metropolitan Hotel and St. Louis's Planters House before becoming the most influential bartender of his era. The Bitter Truth built this bitters as an homage to him, adapting his original recipe (not copying it exactly, by their own admission) to meet modern production standards. Bottled in Germany at 28% ABV, it pours a deep brown bronze and opens with pungent citrus, dried fruit, gentian, cloves, and cinnamon, plus notes reviewers have compared to crystallized ginger and fresh tangerine oil. On the palate, expect concentrated rooty gentian bitterness balanced by surprising orange freshness, with cinnamon and clove pushing through to a long, fruity, bitter finish — some tasters even pick up hints of persimmon. It's genuinely versatile: strong enough to stand up in fruit-forward sours and fizzes, though it benefits from a heavier hand in vermouth-based or brown-spirit cocktails. Reach for it in a classic Old Fashioned, Sazerac, or Manhattan to taste something close to what actually defined 19th-century American bartending.

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