Amari
Amari is the plural of amaro (Italian for bitter), which is a category of bittersweet liqueurs primarily served as a digestif. Amari come in a wide variety of styles — but most are built around a certain herb, flower, bark, or nut. A typical amaro will be a blend of multiple botanicals, and most rely on very old, secret, family recipes. While many amari are opaque to the point of being nearly black in color, a whole spectrum of colors represents the amari universe — including clear amari. Amari can be consumed neat, on the rocks, or — increasingly — as part of a cocktail.
Top Amari/Amaro Posts:
Jagermeister Manifest
Cynar 70 Liqueur
Campari and Tempus Fugit Gran Classico
Among my hardnosed and surly bartender brethren, Fernet is king… and they have a brand. Before the botanical forearm-tattooed kneecappers come for me demanding loyalty, I promise this particular Fernet will content any Bitterhead. For the uninitiated, Fernets tend to feature a few distinct ingredients that distinguish them from their Amari cousins; chief among them…
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Straightaway Cocktails’ Accompani brand, based in Portland, creates a range of relatively obscure beverages, ranging from vermouth to ready-to-drink amari-based cocktails. Today we look at one of its more enigmatic creations, Mari Gold, an amaro whose key ingredients include Seville orange peel, citron peel, orange blossom, and gentian root. To start with, note that Mari…
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Now in its second year, the Virginia Spirits Expo is expanding to include four different events across the state. I attended the first of these in Charlottesville over the summer where more than two dozen Virginia distillers were on hand to share their labors of love. It was unseasonably warm at Ix Art Park that…
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The amaro craze continues with the launch of Brucato, a collection of three amari made in San Francisco with a heavy reliance on California-grown botanicals. The trio of expressions are markedly different, but all are widely versatile, able to be used as an aperitif, digestif, or — my pick — as a cocktail ingredient or…
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People seem to love a little something red in their cocktails. Aperol, the beloved, ruby-colored Italian liqueur, has been having a moment for a while now. If you disagree, try finding a respectable bar that doesn’t offer their eponymous spritz. The gin boom of recent years has also fueled a Negroni craze, meaning Campari, that…
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This Sicilian amaro is distinctly unique, thanks to blood orange peel being one of its primary ingredients. A pale orange in color, there’s quite a medicinal aroma here that immediately evokes the orange-flavored cough syrup we used to choke down as kids. (Delsym seems to be the modern equivalent.) It’s a tough thing to get…
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When they said Covid was over, we didn’t think we’d be summarily dropped into a new financial crisis to replace the one we just got out of. The good news is that the holidays have arrived just in time to provide a welcome (if brief) break from yet another year of chaos. At Drinkhacker, we…
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Monte Stambecco is an Italian Alpine distillery named for the Italian word for the ibex goat which roams the mountain terrain nearby. The ibex appears on the label, where he is surely on the prowl for the one product made here, a bittersweet amaro distilled in copper pot stills and infused with Marasca cherries, sweet…
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St. George’s Bruto Americano is a kissing cousin to Campari, bracingly bitter and bright red… and ready for your next Negroni. Against Campari, the California-distilled amaro is a touch more bitter — while also offering piney elements on the nose. This evergreen character becomes more distinct as the spirit opens up in the glass, lending…
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J. Rieger is based in Kansas City, Missouri, where it produces a variety of spirits that includes vodka, gin, and whiskey. Oddly, its best-known is this, a coffee-infused amaro made with local coffee and a blend of botanicals, including juniper berries, cardamom, orange peel, star anise, spearmint leaves, gentian, and vanilla beans. Aiming to combine…
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