What does angostura mean?
Angostura is best known today as a brand of aromatic bitters — a dark, intensely flavoured infusion of herbs and spices sold in small bottles with an oversized paper label, and a staple of classic cocktails such as the old fashioned and the Manhattan. The name originally referred not to the drink but to the Venezuelan town of Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar), where the bitters were first produced in the 1820s by Johann Gottlieb Benjamin Siegert, a German surgeon-general. Separately, 'angostura' also denotes the bitter bark of certain South American trees of the genus Galipea, which was prized in nineteenth-century medicine as a tonic and febrifuge before fading from pharmaceutical use. The word derives ultimately from the Spanish 'angosto', meaning narrow, sharing a root with 'anguish' and 'anxious'. In contemporary English it functions almost exclusively as a noun denoting the bitters or the bark.
A proprietary brand of aromatic bitters, originating in the Venezuelan town of Angostura, used in small quantities to flavour cocktails and food.
"Every well-stocked bar keeps a bottle of angostura behind the counter."
Usually preceded by 'a dash of' or 'a few drops of'; often capitalised as a brand name (Angostura).
The bitter, aromatic bark of South American trees of the genus Galipea, formerly used medicinally as a tonic and febrifuge.
"Old formularies list angostura bark among the standard remedies for intermittent fever."
This sense is now largely historical and appears mainly in older medical and botanical texts.
Rarely used; 'angostura' is normally treated as a mass ingredient. The plural may appear when referring to multiple bottles or specimens of the bark.
"The collector's shelf held several antique angosturas from Victorian apothecaries."
Angostura bitters aren't actually made in Angostura anymore — the town was renamed Ciudad Bolívar in 1846, but the label kept the old name.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of angostura
The word comes from Spanish 'angostura', meaning narrowness, from 'angosto' (narrow), derived from Latin 'angustus'. It was applied to the Venezuelan town of Angostura on the Orinoco River, where Dr. Johann Siegert first compounded his famous bitters in the 1820s; although the town was renamed Ciudad Bolívar in 1846, the product retained the original name. The same Latin root that gave 'angustus' also produced English 'anguish' and 'anxious'.
How angostura is actually used
In modern usage 'angostura' almost always refers to the cocktail bitters rather than the tree bark, which has largely fallen out of pharmaceutical use. It is typically treated as an uncountable ingredient ('a dash of angostura'), though the plural 'angosturas' occasionally appears when referring to bottles or samples of the bark.