Angostura boss on Caroni Bitters launch: Let’s get all the facts

News Ryan Hamilton-Davis 4 Hrs Ago

Angostura chairman Gary Hunt at the House of Angostura, Laventille on November 12. - Lincoln Holder

ANGOSTURA chairman Gary Hunt remained mum on the rum and bitters maker’s response to the launch of Caroni Bitters by former Angostura executive Vidia Doodnath, he said he was not surprised by the launch of the product.

Hunt spoke to reporters at a media conference at the House of Angostura on the Eastern Main Road, Port of Spain, where the company sent its first shipment of its Ready to Drink product 420, where he said the matter was receiving the company’s fullest attention.

“I am not going to make any judgements or pronounce. It is receiving our attention and we are responding appropriately. To give conjecture to it now – let’s have all the facts before us and we will be able to give a proper response.”

He described the matter as a “delicate” one.

“It is something that needs to be carefully looked at,” he said. We need to spend time and get all the facts before we respond properly.”

However when asked whether he was surprised by the launch of the product he said a simple “no.”

He also said the company had not contacted Doodnath since the news of the Caroni Bitters launch.

Caroni Bitters was reportedly launched quietly on December 7. The product will serve to be direct competition for Angostura Bitters which has dominated the bitters market globally and kept its recipe a 200-year-old secret.

Angostura Bitters’ story started in 1824 when founder Dr Johann Sigert first produced aromatic bitters as a medicine for stomach ailments. His three sons migrated to Trinidad and Don Carlos Sigert pioneered the brand and established Angostura biters as a key feature in cocktails and food.

By the 1980s Angostura bitters was at the centre of a rebirth of cocktail culture with top bartenders using the bitters in vintage cocktail recipes. Fast forward to 2018 and Angostura Bitters is the world’s top selling and trending bitters in the world. Drinks International, a globally-recognised voice in the drinks industry, named Angostura Orange bitters, one of the latest Angostura Bitters innovations, was named the number one selling bitters and number one trending bitters for that year.

Angostura Orange Bitters also copped the platinum medial at the 2018 Spirits International Prestige (SIP) Awards – the world’s only globally recognised spirits competition.

In October, the Angostura Group reported an eight per cent increase in revenue from $698 million in 2024 to $757 million in 2025. The group reported a ten per cent increase in profit after tax to $104 million for the nine-month period ending in September 30.

Newsday attempted to contact Doodnath through her husband on December 12. Reporters were told that she was indisposed and would call back. Up to press time, neither Doodnath nor her husband called back.