Review: 3 Amari from Violet Crown Spirits
Violet Crown Spirits in Bastrop, Texas, produces a variety of obscure liqueurs and other spirits, including multiple absinthes and amari, the latter of which we turn our attention to today. We’re looking at three of them, each decidedly different.
Violet Crown Spirits Midnight Marigold Bitter Cordial Review
This herbaceous amaro was created in collaboration with iconic Austin cocktail bar Midnight Cowboy, where it’s the house amaro. While the producer doesn’t offer much information about its production, it does presumably include marigold flowers in the recipe.
You can see them in the orange hue and on the nose, which has a lively florality that instantly evokes the unique scent of the marigold plant. Also present are gentle aromas of cinnamon and caraway seed, giving the spirit an earthy rye bread character that lingers in the nostrils.
The palate kicks off with a rush of marigold petals and a significant sweetness — honey and brown sugar, mixed. Give it a few seconds and bitter gentian grips the tongue, lacing it again with bready, herbal caraway. Hints of ginger, clove, and anise add nuance, but the finish brings marigold flowers back into focus. Combined with a lingering sweetness — admittedly a bit cloying at times — it makes for a uniquely floral spin on the amaro experience. You don’t have to be into marigolds to enjoy it, but it certainly doesn’t hurt.
50 proof. A- / $27
Violet Crown Spirits Mancuso Signature Bitter Cordial Review
I could find almost no information about this product online, and it doesn’t even appear on Violet Crown’s website.
It’s in the vein of a fernet, with huge gentian notes dominating, alongside flavors of rhubarb and anise, dark chocolate and mint. But then — a surprise! — that’s all whisked away by a punch of cayenne pepper, and it’s not at all subtle. The heat pops quickly, muting the bitter/herbaceous attack, then culminating in a finish that approximates Mexican chocolate. The experience is strange and probably hard to imagine unless you taste it for yourself, but if you can imagine a crazy combination of Fernet-Branka and Tabasco, you’re on the right path.
50 proof. B / $NA
Violet Crown Spirits Monk Parakeet Herbal Cordial Review
Mind the abv on this one: At 55% it’s got more than double the alcohol of the other two amari on this list. The nose is sweet and floral, with hints of licorice candy and notes of citrus, particularly grapefruit.
Mint syrup connoting a julep perks up on the palate first, but then the main event arrives: Bold anise notes nodding at Violet Crown’s absinthes (reviews forthcoming), though here very sweet, candylike but quite refreshing. This isn’t absinthe — it’s much too sweet for that — but it would pass as an Herbsaint substitute and work well as a Sazerac rinse. Mint on the finish is particularly lively, with the slightest hint of salinity present to temper any lingering sugar on the tongue.
Be aware it does not drink at all like it’s 110 proof.
110 proof. A- / $34
Violet Crown Spirits Midnight Marigold Bitter Cordial
USD27
