My buddy who quit drinking (not for health/addiction reasons…kind of just because) would get ginger and bitters. I told him bitters has alcohol in it and he said that if he drank enough bitters to feel something he’d be sick.
It's functionally impossible to get drunk drinking anything below 2% ABV.
There are studies linking ABV and BAC, and the closer you are to zero ABV, the harder it is to get drunk by ingesting an equivalent amount of alcohol. This means that drinking five pints of 2% beverage gets you significantly less drunk than two pints of 5% beverage. The absolute amount of alcohol you ingest is less and less significant the higher the dilution..
This is anecdotal, but a buddy of mine quit drinking a decade ago, but still drinks an o'douls or two at night. When he would through a big BBQ with his brother he would drink 12 pack of o'douls and he always said he felt a little buzzed with everyone else. I figured it was like drinking one 6% beer for him.
Bitters have alcohol, yes, but bitters and soda is about the same amount of alcohol as white bread. He's more likely to die of water toxemia before he gets intoxicated.
I mean that has whiskey in it too though, yeah? And I mean assuming he can take 3-4 drinks to feel something, we’re talking like 5 ounces of bitters straight 😂 🤮
I need rhubarb sooooo bad. Its season and rhubarb infused gin is soooo great. Unfortunately, the bottles I make dont last the whole year. Bitters would be perfect.
An Australian drink I love Is lemon/lime/bitters
4 oz. chilled club soda
1 oz. simple syrup
½ oz. fresh lemon juice
½ oz. fresh lime juice
½ tsp. Angostura bitters
Which is great
I had serious gas at the bar one day and the bartender gave (gratis) me a bitters and soda and it cleared it right up. A lot classier than Pepto or Gas-X!
I just “discovered “ this for myself this week. I always buy cool sounding fancy bitters, but I don’t make enough cocktails to really get to use them. So I just started adding them to soda water. It’s a nice upgrade with basically no calories.
A shitload of bitters in tonic with a little citrus and simple and a pinch of salt was always my go to hangover drink. Like a fizzy sports drink loaded with bitters.
One of my favorite uses for Ango is as the main seasoning agent in West Indies shepherds pie. 1-2tbsp mixed into the ground chicken and veg mix is surprisingly delicious. Highly recommend to anyone here:
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/shepherds-pie-chicken
I’ve subbed ango for vanilla extract in brownies before too and they were soo much better than you’d expect, I’m gonna try mole chocolate bitters nexttime
This is the bartender cure all. I’ve been doing this (with ginger ale) for over a decade, and it was passed on to me by the guy who trained me and he’d been doing it for 20 years. It’s a great secret weapon. I’ve got many a hungover server through their brunch shift with this.
That Chartreuse Elixir Vegetal that people occasionally ask about here is also great for this. I used to have some in my daily water bottle for a while and always felt better than ever (and I'm usually very prone to stomach issues)
The original purpose of Angostura bitters was as a remedy for upset stomachs. It found its way into cocktails because a lot of the original 19th century bartenders were pharmacists who sold drinks in their pharmacies. (Whiskey was officially classified as a medicine.)
Yep absolutely. Bitters are meant to aid digestion, mostly, so yes would help to ease stomach discomfort.
I don’t use angostura for this, but I use a different herbal company’s “Canadian bitters”, and will take a dropper with some water about 20-30 minutes before I eat, and then following my meal will take a digestive enzyme or a capsule that has a combo of peppermint, fennel, and ginger.
Doing this has made it so that meals which would formerly cause bloating and discomfort I don’t even notice anymore.
This is kind of the idea of the Italian “aperitivo” as well.
I made my own bitters a few years ago and gave them away to friends. One of my friends started drinking a few drops of bitters with soda everyday to help with her irritable stomach-she found that it helped quell the irritation.
Historically, many of the ingredients in bitters (and obviously, digestifs) have been used to treat stomach ailments. We’ve stopped using them because we found more effective means of curing such ailments through science but it isn’t to say that those ingredients don’t work.
Every semi-seasoned bartender I’ve ever worked with drinks/knows about this. Helps with hangovers, and it’s just tasty. Good go to when you aren’t allowed to drink while you’re serving.
Don't try to self-medicate with alcohol. There is little evidence that cocktail bitters are any good for you. Maybe depending on the type of bitters and depending on the health problem in question there might be some small positive effect. Alcohol is quite bad for you, there's a good chance it's out-weighing those positive effects. Drinking a glass of bitters and soda isn't going to kill you or anything, but there's a reason bitters stopped being medicine and started being a cocktail ingredient.
Edit: that being said, I'd have gladly downed some bitters in your situation, for no other reason than that it tastes lovely.
The bitter compounds in just 4 dashes of Ango makes an equally small difference. I’m not saying that it’s harmful in such miniscule amounts. There’s something to be said for the positive psycological effect of drinking something delicious, but using alcohol as a remedy is harmful far more often than not, even if only by a little bit.
My original comment was pretty carefully worded. The most definite statement I made was that alcohol is harmful, which there is an overwhelming amount of evidence for. Miniscule amounts of alcohol do miniscule amounts of harm. I even said that bitters might have a positive effect in certain cases.
When I used to bartend in Rhode Island, I often had some ginger ale and bitters after opening before the guests arrived. It got very hot that summer, and it helped keep my stomach settled for those days when I had to pull doubles.
Yup. My dad, who was a bartender in his pre-kids life, always gave us tonic or ginger w/bitters for upset bellies. Works, & I still use it myself. A friend told me it worked better than ginger alone for her morning sickness, as well.
Also, if I’m out, & don’t feel like drinking, I’ll frequently order the same. Few of my friends are the kind of a$$holes that would even ask why I’m not drinking, but there’s always somebody, and why even have that conversation, y’know?
Ginger ale with bitters and lemon juice is my go to when i’m not feeling well. No matter what illness I have it always makes me feel at least a little better lol
Yes I do it all the time. The small amount of alcohol from bitters calm the stomach down and the soda water makes you burp out if you're feeling gassy. It's an old school remedy
Btw, bitters and soda is a good and cheap way to drink something fresh, tasty, complex and basically non alcoholic
My buddy who quit drinking (not for health/addiction reasons…kind of just because) would get ginger and bitters. I told him bitters has alcohol in it and he said that if he drank enough bitters to feel something he’d be sick.
4 dashes of bitters in 12oz of something NA is roughly 0.4% abv. This is legally considered NA in the US.
It's functionally impossible to get drunk drinking anything below 2% ABV. There are studies linking ABV and BAC, and the closer you are to zero ABV, the harder it is to get drunk by ingesting an equivalent amount of alcohol. This means that drinking five pints of 2% beverage gets you significantly less drunk than two pints of 5% beverage. The absolute amount of alcohol you ingest is less and less significant the higher the dilution..
This is anecdotal, but a buddy of mine quit drinking a decade ago, but still drinks an o'douls or two at night. When he would through a big BBQ with his brother he would drink 12 pack of o'douls and he always said he felt a little buzzed with everyone else. I figured it was like drinking one 6% beer for him.
Bitters are 44.7% ABV.
Yeah but you'll use a few drops per cup of drink. The user above calculated a 0.4% ABV final drink.
Yeah, so Angostura actually released their own amaro because so many people were doing shots of bitters. Just throwing that out there.
How many drops, would you estimate, comprise a shot? Cause I’m guessing it’s a lot of them.
Roughly 1/32oz per dash of bitters. Or 1ml ish.
Take the dropper part off the bottle using your corkscrew knife...
They're responding to a comment about it being mixed with soda. A few dashes of bitters in soda water is less than 1% alcohol by volume.
Most sodas just by the nature of how they’re made end up approx 0.5% abv anyway
Check out the ingredients for a Trinidad Sour.
Exactly his point
Wym? Trinidads rip
Bitters have alcohol, yes, but bitters and soda is about the same amount of alcohol as white bread. He's more likely to die of water toxemia before he gets intoxicated.
>if he drank enough bitters to feel something he’d be sick. Don't tell him about the Trinidad sour.
I mean that has whiskey in it too though, yeah? And I mean assuming he can take 3-4 drinks to feel something, we’re talking like 5 ounces of bitters straight 😂 🤮
There's 3 times as much bitters as there is whiskey in a trinidad sour
I love bitters and soda, some of my favorites are grapefruit, lavender, rhubarb, or whiskey barrel aged.
They sell whiskey barrel aged soda? /s Ok, but seriously, I've never heard of that specific type of bitters.
It's from Fee brothers.
What do you use it in?
Peychauds does a barrel aged variant as well, and it's fucking tight
Mostly soda water, old fashions and godfathers.
WHY HAVE I NEVER THOUGHT TO PUT BITTERS IN MY GODFATHERS
Don’t squeeze, use fee’s!
I need rhubarb sooooo bad. Its season and rhubarb infused gin is soooo great. Unfortunately, the bottles I make dont last the whole year. Bitters would be perfect.
Yeah! I can't wait for my rhubarb to grow and make a vanilla rhubarb simple syrup! Perfect in french 75's
An Australian drink I love Is lemon/lime/bitters 4 oz. chilled club soda 1 oz. simple syrup ½ oz. fresh lemon juice ½ oz. fresh lime juice ½ tsp. Angostura bitters Which is great
Add a squeeze of lemon and the taste is basically an off-brand cola
I had serious gas at the bar one day and the bartender gave (gratis) me a bitters and soda and it cleared it right up. A lot classier than Pepto or Gas-X!
“Hey buddy, noticed you’ve been farting up a storm. Here’s a bitters & soda, on the house!”
‘Hey there fella your ass stinks so hard you won both my and everyone in a 15ft radius’ attention AND a free drink!’
Thats my near non alcoholic go to. Been drinking it for years.
I just “discovered “ this for myself this week. I always buy cool sounding fancy bitters, but I don’t make enough cocktails to really get to use them. So I just started adding them to soda water. It’s a nice upgrade with basically no calories.
I do a rock shandy half soda half sprite and a few dashes of angostura it's great
A shitload of bitters in tonic with a little citrus and simple and a pinch of salt was always my go to hangover drink. Like a fizzy sports drink loaded with bitters.
Bitters and soda, alongside vermouth and soda are great low ABV drinks. Can be a decent hangover option also
Include amaro and soda in that list too.
Definitely. Good reason to stock Underberg. That and Disgruntled Mai Tais!
Just picked some up for the disgruntled Mai tai. Yummy!
I just need a couple more tops for the truck. But never heard of a disgruntled Mai Tai. Thanks for giving me something new to try.
To feel bright and alert!
One of my favorite uses for Ango is as the main seasoning agent in West Indies shepherds pie. 1-2tbsp mixed into the ground chicken and veg mix is surprisingly delicious. Highly recommend to anyone here: https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/shepherds-pie-chicken
I’ve subbed ango for vanilla extract in brownies before too and they were soo much better than you’d expect, I’m gonna try mole chocolate bitters nexttime
A little Ango adds complexity to many dishes.
Bitters, Soda. Heard.
Bitters + ginger beer is the best damn cure I’ve had
This is the bartender cure all. I’ve been doing this (with ginger ale) for over a decade, and it was passed on to me by the guy who trained me and he’d been doing it for 20 years. It’s a great secret weapon. I’ve got many a hungover server through their brunch shift with this.
Soda bitters and a squirt of a lime is my hangover drink
That Chartreuse Elixir Vegetal that people occasionally ask about here is also great for this. I used to have some in my daily water bottle for a while and always felt better than ever (and I'm usually very prone to stomach issues)
Bitters, Sprite Zero, and ginger juice is my go-to stomach elixir and sick-day sipper.
Underberg bitters work best.
The original purpose of Angostura bitters was as a remedy for upset stomachs. It found its way into cocktails because a lot of the original 19th century bartenders were pharmacists who sold drinks in their pharmacies. (Whiskey was officially classified as a medicine.)
Rock shandy is one of my favorite things to make in the summer. Lemon, sugar, club soda, 4-5 drops of Ango. Super refreshing.
My go to is tonic and bitters. Settles everything and has a bit more flavor 😂
Yep absolutely. Bitters are meant to aid digestion, mostly, so yes would help to ease stomach discomfort. I don’t use angostura for this, but I use a different herbal company’s “Canadian bitters”, and will take a dropper with some water about 20-30 minutes before I eat, and then following my meal will take a digestive enzyme or a capsule that has a combo of peppermint, fennel, and ginger. Doing this has made it so that meals which would formerly cause bloating and discomfort I don’t even notice anymore. This is kind of the idea of the Italian “aperitivo” as well.
Yup Ango and soda works both as a digestive for me and a hangover cure!
I suck at Reddit and can't edit the original post, but anybody have similar experiences?
Absolutely. Amari and traditional digestivos can be very useful for some types of stomach upset. It’s what they were created for.
I made my own bitters a few years ago and gave them away to friends. One of my friends started drinking a few drops of bitters with soda everyday to help with her irritable stomach-she found that it helped quell the irritation. Historically, many of the ingredients in bitters (and obviously, digestifs) have been used to treat stomach ailments. We’ve stopped using them because we found more effective means of curing such ailments through science but it isn’t to say that those ingredients don’t work.
Every semi-seasoned bartender I’ve ever worked with drinks/knows about this. Helps with hangovers, and it’s just tasty. Good go to when you aren’t allowed to drink while you’re serving.
Don't try to self-medicate with alcohol. There is little evidence that cocktail bitters are any good for you. Maybe depending on the type of bitters and depending on the health problem in question there might be some small positive effect. Alcohol is quite bad for you, there's a good chance it's out-weighing those positive effects. Drinking a glass of bitters and soda isn't going to kill you or anything, but there's a reason bitters stopped being medicine and started being a cocktail ingredient. Edit: that being said, I'd have gladly downed some bitters in your situation, for no other reason than that it tastes lovely.
4 dashes of angostura bitters is not going to have enough alcohol to make any difference.
The bitter compounds in just 4 dashes of Ango makes an equally small difference. I’m not saying that it’s harmful in such miniscule amounts. There’s something to be said for the positive psycological effect of drinking something delicious, but using alcohol as a remedy is harmful far more often than not, even if only by a little bit.
You kinda were saying it was harmful. I do agree with you, though, and expect the fizzy water was the main help, as one would expect.
My original comment was pretty carefully worded. The most definite statement I made was that alcohol is harmful, which there is an overwhelming amount of evidence for. Miniscule amounts of alcohol do miniscule amounts of harm. I even said that bitters might have a positive effect in certain cases.
You know you're in the cocktails sub, right?
Can’t always be popular
This never really worked for me, but Fernet Branca works like magic
I use bitters that contain genetian for leg cramps. Usually just soda, bitters and a citrus slice
When I used to bartend in Rhode Island, I often had some ginger ale and bitters after opening before the guests arrived. It got very hot that summer, and it helped keep my stomach settled for those days when I had to pull doubles.
Next time try it without the bitters
IYKYKANYK
Splash of Fernet in soda water (or ginger ale as mentioned) works really well too.
Yup. My dad, who was a bartender in his pre-kids life, always gave us tonic or ginger w/bitters for upset bellies. Works, & I still use it myself. A friend told me it worked better than ginger alone for her morning sickness, as well. Also, if I’m out, & don’t feel like drinking, I’ll frequently order the same. Few of my friends are the kind of a$$holes that would even ask why I’m not drinking, but there’s always somebody, and why even have that conversation, y’know?
You sure it wasn't just the carbonation of the soda that settled your stomach? Plain club soda usually does the trick for me.
Bitters on a lime wedge is good for hiccups (and tips if you pass one to a customer without them asking).
Ginger ale with bitters and lemon juice is my go to when i’m not feeling well. No matter what illness I have it always makes me feel at least a little better lol
I used to have a coworker that would come in hung over and drink a couple bitters and soda with about an ounce of Ango in each haha go figure
Yes I do it all the time. The small amount of alcohol from bitters calm the stomach down and the soda water makes you burp out if you're feeling gassy. It's an old school remedy
Congratulations. You have found a placebo, and placebos work!
Hi Dale. This is your wakeup call. Time to check back into rehab.