Every bar has Angostura because it's the most available. It's certainly not the best. My wife likes Manhattans, so I've experimented with a variety of Vermouths and bitters.
Peycheaux is "lighter" with a bit too much cinnamon-like note.
Scrappy's is okay. Wife doesn't care for it, but I use it in gin.
Fee Brothers is the best we've found so far. Complex and deeply flavored. I buy the 13-oz size and refill my 5-oz bar bottle as needed.
Fee Bros makes a dozen or more kinds of bitters. I use their Old Fashioned, Orange, and Lemon kinds. A dash of Orange in gin is fabulous.
I have made lots of different citrus tinctures to mix into the bitters... so far, navel oranges have proven the poorest for flavor. Grapefruit is reliably good, tangerines are good, but lemon and lime have proven to be a bit bland. Living this far from decent produce makes it tough to get much variety.
