Bittermens Partners with The Bitter Truth to Bring Flavors to Market

Award Winning German Bitters Producer Expands Offering with New Artisanal Line of Bitters

Brookline, MA and Munich, Germany – June 10, 2009 — Bittermens, Inc. has announced that it has entered into a global partnership with The Bitter Truth, an award winning European producer of cocktail bitters and spirits, to bring its bitters line to market.

»Finally! The missing link to great cocktails is upon us. Bittermens’ bitters are a fresh and exciting addition to the world of cocktail bitters. Their highly anticipated collaboration with The Bitter Truth has been a long time coming and I couldn’t be more excited. Bartenders around the world now have access to the past, present and future of bitters.«
Brian Miller, Head Bartender, Death & Company, New York City

Avery and Janet Glasser formed Bittermens, Inc. as a way to bring their unique perspective on cocktail bitters to market in 2007. Since then, the Bittermens Xocolatl Mole and Grapefruit bitters are already being used by select bars and restaurants worldwide under the auspices of a pre-release program. In addition to these formulations, Bittermens also develops custom bitters for a variety of clients, such as Craigie on Main in Cambridge, MA.

»The union between Bittermens and the Bitter Truth combines innovation and creativity with historic reproductions, creating simply the most well rounded bitters portfolio on the market. I eagerly await this pairing and am excited to see how this group continues to make significant contributions to the evolving cocktail culture of our time.«
Tom Schlesinger-Guidelli, Bar Manager, Craigie on Main, Boston

The Bitter Truth was founded in 2006 by Stephan Berg and Alexander Hauck out of the frustration of being unable to find quality cocktail bitters in the European market. Since then, The Bitter Truth has expanded its portfolio to include other flavorings, liqueurs and spirits. Its Celery Bitters won the Mixology Bar Awards »Spirit of the Year« award in 2008.

»We see this relationship as a perfect fit,« says Avery Glasser, co-founder of Bittermens, Inc. »The Bitter Truth has made the cocktail world a better place by bringing the lost flavors of bygone eras back to the market. Bittermens was always looking to create innovative flavors based on the new era of modern cocktailing. Together, we’re creating a combined offering that can bring people from the origins of cocktailing through the modern era and into future mixology.«

The most significant result of this partnership is the imminent release of the Bittermens Xocolatl Mole and Grapefruit bitters as a sub-brand of The Bitter Truth.

»We started the process when we revived Jerry Thomas’ Decanter Bitters, one of the bitters that defined the signature flavor of its era,« says Stephan Berg, co-founder of The Bitter Truth. »We believe that the Bittermens Xocolatl Mole and Grapefruit bitters have the potential to become just as iconic. It is a privilege to be the partner selected to bring these new products to market.«

Bittermens will refocus its efforts away from the actual production of bitters to concentrate on the development of new flavors to bring to market with The Bitter Truth and custom formulations for bars and restaurants.

»The Bitter Truth and Bittermens have had anything other than a bitter past few years. Combining exquisitely crafted products with uncanny timing and a seemingly deep understanding of bartenders’ needs and wants, these two companies have the perfect approach. The past has been stellar and this ‘development’ makes the future very bright indeed for drinks, drinkers and those that serve them.«
Angus Winchester, Founder, Alconomics Limited

About Bittermens

Bittermens, Inc. believes that the next great era of cocktail culture has arrived. As salt and pepper have become the integral spices for food, bitters are the essential seasoning for cocktails. Founded in 2007 by Avery and Janet Glasser, Bittermens creates new flavors and formulas which are used by bartenders worldwide. For more information visit www.bittermens.com.

About The Bitter Truth

The Bitter Truth brand was founded in 2006 by Stephan Berg and Alexander Hauck to offer bartenders a broader palette of cocktail seasoning from which to choose. For more information, visit www.the-bitter-truth.com.

Media Contacts

Janet Glasser, Bittermens, Inc., info@bittermens.com
The Bitter Truth GmbH, info@the-bitter-truth.com

View the press release as a PDF.

Men.style.com calls Bittermens “the brand of the moment“

The Moment, NY Times’ Culture Blog breaks the launch of Bittermens!

The process of bringing the bitters to market has been much more challenging than we had originally expected. By choosing the path of creating artisanal products without chemical additives or artificial flavoring, we’ve been subjected to a variety of regulations. In the end, our current challenge is not with the federal government – the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms has been a pleasure to work with and the FDA guidelines are clear. Our challenge has been obtaining health permits at a state level and ensuring that we’re still in compliance with federal statutes.

Where the process for setting up micro-breweries and small wineries is well defined, we’ve been charting new ground when it comes to small-batch bitters production.

However, as of today, the news is positive. We have made it through another large hurdle and are on track to bring our first two formulas to market. The timeline is still a bit fuzzy, but we think we’re talking about a couple of months before we can launch… and hopefully, the next time you hear from us, it will be with ordering instructions.

The TTB has granted us approval of the Mole and Grapefruit bitters. We now have to get city health inspector approval, confirm the FDA labeling requirements and make some corporate changes to move our business from NY to Massachusetts. Our new target release date is January 15 – and it looks extremely positive!!!

We’re now on our second round of reviews with the TTB in order to get certified for production. Unfortunately, what should be taking 3 weeks per round is now taking 3 months.

Though we’re commercially paralyzed and will miss out on launching at Tales of the Cocktail, we’re still working on new flavors. If you’re in the Boston area, we’re going to be testing the new Boston Bittahs at our trinity of focus bars in the area: Green Street, No. 9 Park and Eastern Standard over the next week or so.

Keep your fingers crossed…

Paul Clarke did a fantastic writeup of Bittermens in the Cocktail Chronicles. As soon as we kick this cold, we’re heading over to Death and Company to test out the Camerone cocktail he created.

Team Bittermens will be back in Boston to test out the new ‘Elemakule Tiki Bitters formula. If you’ll be in Boston on the 16th-18th, drop us a line.

We got a great writeup in Friday’s San Francisco Chronicle!

Since our goal is to bring these bitters fully to market, we’ve taken another big step in the process. We’re officially now Bittermens, Inc. – a New York “S-Corporation”.

Over the past few months, we’ve been traveling with bitters in hand to get feedback from some of the best bartenders around the world. This market research has been extremely valuable as we’ve been able to get some fantastic feedback on everything from label design to bottle type to the actual formulas and their applications. We’ve also been able to taste some of the amazing house bitters that are being developed for bars in Boston, New York and London.

Now that the company is formed and we’ve locked down the first few formulations, we can progress to the next step – TTB formulation approval as a Non-Potable beverage.  The target is to be fully legal by Tales of the Cocktail, but there’s still a tremendous amount of work to finish if we’re going to be ready by then!