Halloween is just around the cor­ner, so what bet­ter liquor to fea­ture than Strega (Ital­ian for witch). Leg­end has it that the town of Ben­evento, where Strega has been made since 1860, was the meet­ing ground of all the witches of the world. I keep pic­tur­ing a gag­gle of witches sit­ting around a bub­bling caul­dron, cack­ling and stir­ring the 70 ghoul­ish ingre­di­ents that make up this liquor.

Beyond the con­nec­tion to Hal­loween, You’ve got to love the tra­di­tion. Today Strega is still pro­duced by the Alberti fam­ily, now on its fifth gen­er­a­tion, and in the same Ben­evento, Italy build­ing since its first pro­duc­tion in 1860. The recipe for this Ital­ian liqueur is a mix­ture of 70 herbs and spices includ­ing Apen­nine juniper, Sam­nite mint, Cey­lon cin­na­mon, Flo­ren­tine iris, fen­nel and saf­fron. The mix­ture is then aged in ash bar­rels until perfect.

You’ll notice upon sip­ping that it’s a very com­plex bou­quet of fla­vors. You may be able to pick out the mint and the juniper, and the saf­fron that gives Strega its yel­low col­or­ing. Strega is bit­ter­sweet with strong conif­er­ous notes. Use it as an accent in your cock­tail recipes. Keep in mind, since Strega has that juniper com­po­nent it nat­u­rally pairs well with gin.

If you get your hands on a bot­tle, I rec­om­mend mak­ing a Strega Sour. It was the win­ner of the Mar­tin Miller’s Gin “Trade Up” com­pe­ti­tion. A cock­tail that is as beau­ti­ful as it is tasty.