|Bitters: the Revival of a Forgotten Flavor| |Written by
Danielle Charles-Davies| |Monday, 17 January 2011 21:25| Of all
the flavors to grace our palate, there is perhaps none as
fascinating as that of bitterness. It is a flavor that is
universally despisedâ€”used linguistically to characterize pain,
harshness and things that are extremely difficult to bear.1 Yet,
it is also a flavor used in cultures the world over to
strengthen digestion, cleanse the body and build vitalityâ€”in
short, considered an ingredient essential to good health.2,3 In
fact, so many of the plants humans have traditionally used to
tonify and heal the body are bitter tasting that we still today
often rate the strength and usefulness of our medicine by how
terribly bitter it tastes. It is unfortunate, then, that our
modern diet seems to be completely lacking in the wild bitter
tasting plants our ancestors considered so fundamental to their
health.4 Many of the diseases riddling our modern cultureâ€”from
indigestion and gastric reflux to m