Fee Brothers to Take Advantage of Angostura Shortage
In case you haven’t heard yet, there’s a shortage on Angostura bitters at the moment. This is by far not news to the cocktail community, and probably not relevant news to many others. However last night something at my local Wegman’s caught my eye:
Fee Brothers Old-Fashioned Aromatic Bitters are on sale! At Wegman’s! Alright, maybe this excites me more than most (I do love bitters in general), but it’s especially exciting for a couple of reasons.
- Wegman’s is indeed great. So great that I would miss it terribly if I ever moved somewhere I was not within at least 20 miles of one. It has a wonderful selection, great prices and customer service, and even a respectable beer selection. However, it’s not exactly a haven for the cocktail fanatic. Sure, they’ve got some Fever Tree sodas and a few jars of maraschino cherries. They normally carry Angostura as their only bitters, and I’ve bought a couple of bottles from them. But now it seems they’ve switched to Fee Brothers, which I’ve never even seen at the gourmet foods store, which carries far more in the line of cocktail-friendly ingredients (including Peychaud’s bitters, Torani and Monin syrups, and gourmet tonic waters and bitter lemon sodas).
- Fee Brothers is a company from Rochester, New York. My hometown. It fills me with a rather immense amount of pride that one of only a scant half-dozen to a dozen bitters companies in the world is right there where I grew up (and still am less than 100 miles away from)!
So while I do love Angostura bitters and they are indeed irreplaceable, I’m glad to know that my hometown company stands to gain some ground during this shortage, because they are indeed wonderful. I highly recommend their lemon bitters, cherry bitters and grapefruit bitters, but my favorite is by far the peach bitters.
Don’t Squeeze Use Fee’s!
It is a shame that Fees has tried to take the place of Angostura on the shelves…..However, the product is now available all over the states now and will soon be back on all shelves in America. So have no fear Angostura bitters lovers, it’s back to add that special zip to your cocktails. I have already started using them in many other ways other than in cocktail…..tea, coffee, marinades…
Good call Jeanne! Indeed it seems that Angostura has weathered most of the storm on this shortage. And as for Fee’s trying to take its place, I really wouldn’t worry; in fact I think it’s probably just Wegman’s looking for a different supplier and Fee’s happened to be quite convenient, being so local (Wegmans’ headquarters is in Rochester as well). At any rate it will be most interesting to see how this plays out! I will most certainly take note of when I see Angostura back on the shelves
wow, good to hear that. I haven’t heard much about the shortage. thanks for information. more power!