It’s getting tough to get a Manhattan in Manhattan.
The classic cocktail has gotten harder to find as a worldwide shortage of one of its key ingredients, Angostura bitters, has left Big Apple bartenders and barflies hoarding what little is left of the pungent brew.
“People should drink the Manhattans while they can still get them,” said William Tigertt, owner of the Lower East Side haunt Freemans Restaurant. “All the distributors are still out and are rationing bottles.”
The cocktail crisis begins right at the source the Angostura bottling plant in Trinidad.
Officials with the House of Angostura, whose parent company, CL Financial Group, has battled liquidity problems, say the trouble stems from a dispute with the company that supplies their bottles.
“We couldn’t get the bottles from our usual distributor, so we had to switch to a Chinese distributor, and that took a bit more time to get our shipments, which backed up our orders,” said company spokeswoman Giselle Laronde-West.
The production shortfall hit late last year, and couldn’t have come at a worse time, as a year-end surge in orders from England and Eastern Europe, where bitters-based beverages like pink gin and champagne cocktails are popular during the holidays, created an even deeper backlog, said Laronde-West.
While production is back up, she said, it isn’t expected to hit full stride until early next month.
“We are on top of it and have gotten the bottles and are working overtime to get our shipments out,” she said.
The ripple effect is deep, causing those responsible for the $18 cocktail craze to struggle to keep the supply of Manhattans, Old Fashioneds and Singapore Slings flowing.
“Bars are hoarding bitters now. We have a few cases stashed away, maybe enough for two months,” Tigertt said. “A lot of people are buying them up on eBay.”
There are other companies that produce bitters — a blend of booze, medicinal herbs and aromatic barks — but to the discerning drinker, nothing can replace the Angostura variety.
“Angostura provides a pivotal, herbaceous touch. It has become the industry staple,” said mixologist Mike Martinez. “Every bar has Angostura. Cocktails and mixology would not be the same without it.”
For legendary New York barkeep Tracy Westmoreland, owner of the defunct Siberia Bar and The Manhattans in Brooklyn, the loss of any kind of drink ingredient is devastating, but none more so than the beloved bitters.
“I believe it is the end of civilization as we know it if we can’t have bitters,” he said. “It’s like when the saber-tooth tiger went extinct. It’s a terrible thing.
“There is no replacement. Trying to replace bitters is like trying to replace mother’s milk.”