Angostura vs. Peychaud’s Bitters: The Difference Between the World’s Most Popular Bitters

If you’ve ever added a splash of hot sauce to a sandwich or grain bowl, you understand the basics of cocktail bitters. Sold in small bottles and doled out by the dash, bitters are aromatic extracts that bartenders use to “season” drinks. These flavor bombs provide balance and complexity to everything from a classic Old Fashioned to festive tropical concoctions.

Two of the category’s biggest names are Angostura and Peychaud’s. Both brands have deep ties to generations of cocktail cultures and are found in some of the world’s most famous mixed drinks, like the Manhattan and the Sazerac. Here’s how to put them to use for your next round.

What’s in Angostura bitters?

Angostura has a rust-like color and is made with aromatic ingredients like gentian root, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, allspice, and cinchona bark, a source of naturally occurring quinine. It contains 44% alcohol by volume (ABV). 

Marshall V. Minaya, beverage director of New York City’s Valerie, Madame George, and Lolita, describes Angostura bitters as “a full-bodied, rum-based cinnamon bomb, completely balanced with other spices such as clove and cardamom. You’ll get heavier notes of dried stone fruits and orange citrus with Angostura.”

How to use Angostura bitters

Many bartenders, Minaya included, consider Angostura bitters one of their favorite and most versatile ingredients. You can combine Angostura and soda water over ice for a very low-proof refresher. Add a few dashes to a Martini or Manhattan to bring nuanced aromas and flavors to these spirit-forward drinks. Angostura bitters also balance the sweetness of the sugar and liqueurs in classic cocktails like the Old Fashioned, Pegu Club, and Chrysanthemum.

“There is no Old Fashioned cocktail without Angostura,” says Minaya. “You can certainly make many variations with other bitters — preferably in addition to, not instead of — but the warming spices, heavy cinnamon, and rich dark notes of Angostura help tame and pair with the bourbon and sugar.”

The history of Angostura bitters

Angostura has revolutionary origins. In 1824, Johann Gottlieb Benjamin Siegert, a German-born doctor living in Angostura, Venezuela, created the tincture as an elixir for soldiers that served in Simón Bolívar’s armies. By 1850, he was exporting his concoction to the Caribbean, United States, and England. 

In the U.S., early 20th-century laws prohibited producers from using words like “cure” on the labels of boozy creations. As a result, Angostura pivoted away from wellness and toward the cocktail bar. It became a key component in pre-Prohibition recipes like the Manhattan and Old Fashioned, many of which were codified in the 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book. After Prohibition, Angostura was embraced during the mid-century “tiki” movement, buoyed by increased access to rum due to FDR-era trade deals with Latin America and the Caribbean. 

Angostura bitters remained in circulation throughout the 20th century, but interest surged in tandem with the burgeoning cocktail renaissance of the late 1990s and early 2000s. According to Drinks International, Angostura has been the top-selling bitters brand worldwide since 2018.

What’s in Peychaud’s bitters?

Peychaud’s bitters has a bright-red color and has a 35% ABV. Ingredients include gentian root, cloves, anise, nutmeg, and cinnamon. 

Peychaud’s has anise aromas and flavors, with less noticeable bitterness than Angostura. “Think dark cherries and aromatic anise with a touch of citrus, clove, and licorice root,” says Minaya, who finds it similar to absinthe, “minus the wormwood [or] heavier anise.”

How to use Peychaud’s bitters

Peychaud’s bitters is often used to complement anise-forward ingredients like absinthe, or to soften the edges of spicy rye. It highlights the herbaceousness of the liqueur in the New Orleans classic À La Louisiane, and it brings wintry flavors to a lower-proof Spiced Pear Spritz.

“[Peychaud’s] uniquely anise-driven profile makes [it] irreplaceable in some of these classics,” says Liz Kelly, lead bartender at Cure in New Orleans. “[Its] high tone plays perfectly with rye whiskey, bringing definition and brightness.”

Peychaud’s bitters is also excellent in conjunction with Angostura with spirit-forward classics like the Vieux Carré and Sazerac.

While some bartenders argue that Angostura is more versatile, for Kelly, Peychaud’s is non-negotiable. “Peychaud’s [is] a quintessential New Orleans ingredient,” she says. “A Sazerac would just not be the same without Peychaud’s.”

The history of Peychaud’s bitters

Another medicinal elixir-turned-cocktail ingredient, Peychaud’s hails from New Orleans. In 1834, Antoine Amédée Peychaud, a pharmacist born in what’s now Haiti, opened a French Quarter storefront. He began to bottle a tincture that would later become his bitters sometime between 1849 and 1857. 

Called “American Aromatic Bitter Cordial,” Peychaud’s was marketed as a tonic, but it was also enjoyed recreationally with brandy and other spirits. As legend has it, when locals began to mix Peychaud’s with spirits, they created the now-classic Sazerac cocktail. In a 1857 advertisement in the now-defunct New Orleans Bee newspaper, Peychaud noted that his bitters could be found at an array of city bars, which included the nearby Sazerac House.

In 1868, Peychaud sold his French Quarter storefront and licensed his recipe to several pharmacists, including Thomas Handy, proprietor of the Sazerac House at the time. A company called L.E. Jung eventually acquired national distribution rights, and it bottled and sold Peychaud’s bitters until the 1940s. In 1970, the New Orleans-based Sazerac Co. acquired the rights, which cemented Peychaud’s ties to the city of its origin.