Word: angostura
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...there's no Angostura," said Tom bitterly-Lynden Keating, Los Angeles...
Many of the secret formulas evolved by accident or were intended for other uses than they are put to today. Angostura Bitters were first brewed as a remedy for tropical stomach disorders and an antidote for scurvy. Coca-Cola began as a headache remedy. Biotherm, a popular European secret beauty preparation that is now spreading to U.S. cosmetic counters, was born when a French physician discovered plankton on the water of his sulphur bath at Aix-les-Bains. The first four-gallon barrel of Worcestershire sauce brewed up in Lea & Perrins' chemist shop tasted so bad that...
Whatever its origin, each product has found such popular appeal that shrewd owners take elaborate pains to maintain and exploit their secrecy. The Angostura formula is brewed twice weekly in 10,000 gallon hatches in a labyrinthine "secret room." Employees at Pimm's Ltd., the makers of a secret gin sling (Pimm's Cup) whipped up in the 1850s by a London chophouse bartender, are forced to take a company loyalty oath. Only four Carthuisan monks know the formula for Chartreuse, and travel between monasteries to make it. The ingredients for Coke's basic 7-X formula...
...that they pay off. Coca-Cola values its secret formula (along with trademarks) at $43 million, and many other companies feel that the worth of their secret is greater than the net value of their companies. Sales of such products are sizable, while near-miss competitors fail. At the Angostura office in Port of Spain, the Siegert family has an elaborate display making that point. It shows more than 100 brands of bitters that over the years tried to match the real Angostura in taste and bottle, and in each case failed and faded away...
...smile that 37,000 people lined up to see at Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum on a cold day last week as bitter as Angostura...