Seri­ous­ly, who knows more about overindul­gence in food than Ital­ians? Neces­si­ty is the moth­er of inven­tion. That’s how we have amaro or if you have a cou­ple then it’s amari (plur­al). Ital­ians gave us this bit­ter­sweet, herbal liqueur. It actu­al­ly means “bit­ter” in Ital­ian.  It’s usu­al­ly con­sumed as an after-din­ner diges­tif in Europe. Amari are typ­i­cal­ly chock full of ingre­di­ents. It’s not uncom­mon to see herbs and roots such as angel­i­ca, anise, arti­choke, bay lau­rel, car­damom, chamomile, cin­chona tree bark, cin­na­mon, cit­rus peel, elder, fen­nel, gen­tian root, gin­ger, juniper, lemon balm, lemon ver­be­na, licorice, men­thol, qua­si wood, rue, saf­fron, sage, thyme, worm­wood and zedoary. Com­plex does­n’t even begin to describe it.

Sure, the Euro­peans like to serve it neat, on the rocks or with ton­ic, but it’s one of my favorite liqueurs to mix in a cock­tail. How­ev­er, to make a prop­er cock­tail uti­liz­ing amaro, you’ll need to know which one to use. Each has a unique recipe from the region where they orig­i­nat­ed, so nat­u­ral­ly each will have dis­tinct aspects to lever­age. With that said, lets review a few I’ve found myself using.

Amaro Nonino

Most Out­stand­ing Char­ac­ter­is­tic: Sub­tle & Tame

Amaro is an acquired taste. Like with scotch, you don’t just jump into a peaty Islay. For­tu­nate­ly, there’s the light Amaro Non­i­no. It’s slight­ly more mild than the oth­ers. Amaro Non­i­no is made by the Non­i­no com­pa­ny in Fruili, Italy. You’ll notice right off the bat that it’s a lighter amber than the oth­ers. Take that into account when you’re decid­ing on the col­or palette of your cocktail.

The base ingre­di­ent here is an orig­i­nal grap­pa made by the Non­i­no com­pa­ny. It’s a blend of Ribol­la, Tramin­er and Ver­duz­zo grapes. The grap­pa is mixed with grain alco­hol and infused with caramelized sug­ar, cin­chona, qua­si wood, rhubarb, saf­fron, orange peel, tamarind, galen­ga, gen­tian and licorice.

Be care­ful when sniff­ing this amaro as its base is grap­pa, so your gonna get some burn in the nos­trils. Once past that, you’ll notice a sweet aro­ma with tamarind, rhubarb and woody quas­sia chips. Upon first sip the entry will be sweet and smooth as through­out the entire tast­ing expe­ri­ence. Upfront sweet fla­vors with caramel, and tamarind. Mid palette hits with mild bit­ter wood fla­vors and also the grape from the grap­pa. Fin­ish is smooth, ele­gant, tame and of course slight­ly bit­ter with a clean licorice wrap up. A great starter amaro and goes great with gin.

Around $40 a bottle.

Averna

Most Out­stand­ing Char­ac­ter­is­tic: Spicy Citrus

Fratel­li Aver­na dates back to 1868, but the recipe for Aver­na Amaro dates back cen­turies before that with the Bene­dic­tine Fri­ars in the San Spir­i­to Abbey in Cal­tanis­set­ta Sici­ly using it as an herbal tonic.

The aro­ma is very promi­nent, but what is that smell… Maybe men­thol or pep­per­mint. There are spicy upfront notes con­sist­ing of green pep­per mixed with cayenne pep­per. The mid palette con­sists of blood orange and lemon peel. It fin­ish­es up with a caramel sweet­ness and a men­thol fresh­ness. The bit­ter­ness push­es through to the fin­ish with a lin­ger­ing tree bark, pos­si­bly chin­cona bark.

Around $25 a bottle.

Amaro Montenegro

Most Out­stand­ing Char­ac­ter­is­tic: Sweet­ness of Tan­ger­ine (cit­rus)

Amaro Mon­tene­gro was first pro­duced in 1885 in Bologna, Italy by Stanis­lao Cobianchi. The name of this amaro intend­ed to pay homage to the sec­ond queen of Italy, Princess Helen of Mon­tene­gro, on occa­sion of her mar­riage to Vic­tor Emmanuel III.

Amaro Mon­tene­gro has an upfront scent of orange peel, fresh corian­der, vanil­la, red cher­ry, pekoe tea and cucum­ber. The palate entry is sweet at first, but quick­ly turns bit­ter and botan­i­cal. How­ev­er, I feel the out­stand­ing char­ac­ter of this amaro is the sweet­ness of tan­ger­ine.  If you need to express cit­rus notes in your cock­tail this is the amaro to chose. Also, it has an inter­est­ing bot­tle that would look great on your bar.

Around $25 a bottle.

Ramazzoti

Most Out­stand­ing Char­ac­ter­is­tic: Chin­chona Bark

In 1815 Ramaz­zoti was cre­at­ed by Ausano Ramaz­zot­ti in Milan, Italy. The ingre­di­ents are a secret, but the man­u­fac­tur­er says that there are 33 ingre­di­ents, includ­ing gen­tian, cin­chona tree bark, rhubarb, cin­na­mon, oregano, sweet oranges from Sici­ly and bit­ter orange from Curaçao. It has a red­dish brown col­or, which should be account­ed for when estab­lish­ing a col­or palette for your cocktail.

Ramaz­zoti has some real deep fla­vors. The chin­chona bark stands out first for me. It’s hard to iden­ti­fy all the fla­vors men­tioned above though. The cin­na­mon stands out in the mid palette with some jam­my rhubarb. All in all this is a deep and dark amaro that makes me think of root beer-tamarind. It’s bit­ter upfront and in the finish.

Around $20 a bottle

Cynar

Most Out­stand­ing Char­ac­ter­is­tic: Fla­vor of Artichoke.

Cynar is made by the Cam­pari Group and is a mix of 13 dif­fer­ent plants and herbs. How­ev­er, the most unique ingre­di­ent is def­i­nite­ly that of arti­choke. This is what catago­rizes it as a Car­cio­fo style amaro. It is notice­ably a dark­er hue of brown too. Cynar and orange juice is very pop­u­lar in Switzer­land, so it’s proven to go well with cit­rus com­po­nents. Cynar is low in alco­hol con­tent too. This can lend itself nice­ly to a cock­tail recipe.

Around $20 a bottle.

Fernet Branca

Most Out­stand­ing Char­ac­ter­is­tic: Bold!

Fer­net Bran­ca is apt­ly named as it is a fer­net style amaro. Fer­net amari are a more sharply bit­ter type of amaro. Fer­net Bran­ca con­tains 27 dif­fer­ent herbs and spices tak­en from four con­ti­nents. Among the known ingre­di­ents are aloe, gen­tian root, rhubarb, gum myrrh, red cin­chona bark, galan­ga, zedoary and saf­fron. Their secret recipe has­n’t changed since its cre­ation in 1845.

Fer­net Bran­ca has a cult-like fol­low­ing in Argenti­na, where they mix it with cola. It’s also catch­ing on in San Fran­cis­co (35% of US con­sump­tion). There they like to drink it neat with a gin­ger ale or a gin­ger beer back (my favorite way to enjoy it).

The whiff test reveals pep­per­mint and caramel, almost like a light­ly burnt can­dy cane or pep­per­mint can­dy. It’s pos­si­ble I’m also detect­ing the pine and soap tones from the galanga.

The first thing that comes to mind when tast­ing Fer­net Bran­ca is that Binaca spray I used to use back in mid­dle school. It’s a punch in the mouth that every­body should take at least once. This is def­i­nite­ly the most extreme and bold amari. There’s a lot of men­thol, very minty, very mouth numbing.

Around $30 a bottle.

Amaro CioCiaro

Most Out­stand­ing Char­ac­ter­is­tic: Inex­pen­sive Solution

Amaro Cio­Cia­ro was cre­at­ed by the Paoluc­ci fam­i­ly in 1873. It’s named after the region of Italy in which it’s made.

Amaro Cio­Cia­ro is a bit on the sweet­er side, but still car­ries a mild bit­ter­ness. It’s eas­i­ly drink­able by itself. It has upfront fla­vors of anise and licorice. The mid palette is slight­ly bit­ter, but fol­lowed by sweet­ness and dark fla­vors of choco­late and cof­fee. It’s a very nice amaro for the price and I could see it going well with a real Coke and it won’t take over in a cocktail.

Around $15 a bottle.

Lorenzo Inga Selection My Amaro

Most Out­stand­ing Char­ac­ter­is­tic: Elegance

The Inga fam­i­ly’s spir­its and liqueurs have an unin­ter­rupt­ed saga that began in Noto, Sici­ly in 1832. The fam­i­ly has won many awards over the years, so expect noth­ing less than excel­lence from their amaro.

My Amaro has a mel­lo aro­ma. It’s def­i­nite­ly a sweet­er amaro. It has a very ele­gant mouth feel. I’m guess­ing it’s bar­rel aged. It’s a smooth amaro that is a great sip­per. It’s a well bal­anced amaro with an upfront hint of men­thol. Flo­ral notes dom­i­nate the mid palette, maybe lavendar/chamomile. Still it’s deep with tree bark and carmel tamarind. It’s a lit­tle spicy and has hints of cit­rus. My Amaro is a well bal­anced amaro that’s burst­ing with fla­vors that blend togeth­er well.

Around $40 a bottle.

Amari are very com­plex. I would­n’t be sur­prised if I missed some­thing. Please, if you have any tast­ing notes to share, I’d love to hear them.