Campari and Aperol are an acquired taste. I’m sure you know a few peo­ple who won’t touch the stuff and some that swear by it. I fall into the lat­ter cat­e­gory. I appre­ci­ate their sophis­ti­cated depth and find the bit­ter com­po­nent they bring to cock­tails absolutely essen­tial. If it wasn’t for Cam­pari we wouldn’t have the time-tested Negroni or Americano.

Both Aperol and Cam­pari are Ital­ian aper­i­tivos pro­duced by the Cam­pari Group. Cam­pari was cre­ated in 1860 by Gas­pare Cam­pari. Aperol was orig­i­nally cre­ated by Luigi and Sil­vio Bar­bi­eri in 1919.  They are both char­ac­ter­ized as bit­ters, an alco­holic bev­er­age that is fla­vored with bit­ter herbal essences. You will often find them in cock­tail recipes tasked with the role of bal­anc­ing the sweet notes of a recipe, much like their close cousin the amaro.

You’ve prob­a­bly noticed con­ver­sa­tions regard­ing the use of Aperol vs Cam­pari in cock­tail recipes. That’s because they have a lot of sim­i­lar­i­ties, but I feel they are worlds apart. Aperol has a strong orange and man­darin orange fla­vor with a nice bal­ance between a cin­chona and gen­tian bit­ter­ness and an easy sug­ary sweet­ness. Cam­pari kicks in with a bold woody bit­ter­ness, fea­tur­ing more of a rhubarb and berry mid palette and fin­ishes with a flo­ral bou­quet of potent herbs.

There are a cou­ple things to con­sider when decid­ing whether to use Cam­pari or Aperol in a recipe. First, Cam­pari has a con­sid­er­ably bolder fla­vor, while Aperol has a higher sugar conent. If you pre­fer cock­tails that are bit­ter then Cam­pari will be your choice. It is harder to bal­ance and needs an equal part sweet­en­ing agent like a sweet ver­mouth. On the other hand, since Aperol is smoother, it is also more versatile.

Sec­ond, always con­sider your color palette. Cam­pari is a darker ruby red, while Aperol has a lighter orange col­or­ing. (An inter­est­ing side note: Cam­pari used to get its red col­or­ing from carmine, which is made from cochineal bee­tles. Yes that’s right, I said beetles)

Third, Cam­pari hass nearly dou­ble the alco­hol con­tent of Aperol. Aperol lends itself well to a milder, more refresh­ing sum­mer drink. Cam­pari is often in boozier drinks that pack a punch.

Aperol and Cam­pari will run you around $25 a bottle.

Here are two Post Pro­hi­bi­tion orig­i­nal recipes that fea­ture Cam­pari and Aperol.

The Cut­lasS

• 1 1/2 oz Mag­el­lan Blue Gin
• 3/4 oz blood orange juice
• 1/2 oz Aperol
• 1/2 oz cin­na­mon sim­ple syrup
• 1 egg white
• Gar­nish with an orange twist or blood orange wedge

Add all ingre­di­ents in a mix­ing glass except the orange twist. Dry shake the ingre­di­ents to incor­po­rate the egg, I like to use a hand held frother. Add ice and shake. Strain into a chilled cock­tail glass and gar­nish with the orange twist or blood orange wedge.

Sneaky PetE

• 2 oz Buf­falo Trace Bourbon
• 1/2 oz Campari
• 1/2 oz Noilly Prat Sweet Vermouth
• 1 oz fresh grape­fruit juice
• 2 sprigs of rosemary
• 1 grape­fruit twist

Mud­dle 1 rose­mary sprig lightly in a mix­ing glass. Add all ingre­di­ents except the other rose­mary sprig and the grape­fruit twist. Shake with ice. Dou­ble strain into an old fash­ioned glass on the rocks, or even bet­ter one giant ice cube. Gar­nish with a rose­mary sprig and grape­fruit twist.