Bitters

In the liquor-trade, a compound prepared by steeping vegetable bitters, and some aromatics as flavouring, in weak spirit, for some 8 or 10 days; a little sugar or syrup being subsequently added to the strained or decanted tincture. In that of the taverns and gin-shops the menstruum is usually gin, or plain spirit reduced to a corresponding strength. Bran′dy-bitters and WINE′-BITTERS are prepared in a similar way with common British brandy, or some cheap white wine (Cape or raisin), as the case may be. Each maker has usually his own formulæ, which he modifies to suit the price and the palate of his customer.—This cla of liquors has been justly charged with being the fertile cause of habitual intemperance, of disease, and even of death! Their occasional use as tonics or stomachics is also objectionable, owing to the trash, and even deleterious substances, which so frequently enter into their composition. See Liqueurs .