Amaro is a wide category of Italian made liqueurs that are aromatic, herbal, and bittersweet.  Amaris are made by infusing and/or distilling barks, herbs, seeds, citrus peels, flowers, and other botanicals in alcohol, then sweetened with sugar and aged in barrels for complexity.  Because of this broad and unregulated definition, there is a huge range of flavors: sweet, bone dry, citrus, floral, vegetal, woodsy, methanol, and medicinal. Flavor profiles are typically guided by tradition and regionally available botanicals.  However, ‘amaro’ translates to ‘bitter’ in Italian and using a bittering agent is a must. These are mainly plant roots and barks like cinchona bark (tonic), gentian root, wormwood, and Angelica root that have a very bitter character and provides a backbone for the other flavors to build upon.

The concept behind amaro is not new.  The ancient Greeks and Romans utilized roots, herbs, and botanicals for medicines.  In medieval times, friars and monks in monasteries had an interest in alchemy and restorative properties of herbs and botanicals.  Eventually, secret formulas for bitter tonics were created to stimulate the appetite and aid in digestion. In the 1800s, anticlericalism forced many monasteries to close and those secret recipes became commercially produced, from medicine to consumed for pleasure.  The recipes became closely guarded family secrets that still exist to this day. While amaris are historically an Italian product, many other countries have historical bittersweet, medicinal liqueurs such as Hungary (Zwack), Germany (Underberg), Czech Republic (Becherovka), and France (Campari, Suze, Absinthe).

As humans, we have a genetic predisposition to avoid bitterness.  When we consume a bitter ingredient, our digestive system starts up our salivary and gastric juices in an attempt to expel what you’ve just ingested.  And while our bodies think bitter items are toxic, not all bitter things are poisonous. We can adapt and appreciate beer, gin, coffee, tea, and occasionally broccoli and kale.

There is an ongoing debate on how to categorize amaris and apertivos and when you should consume them.  In general, red and other light-colored liqueurs are to be consumed before your meal to stimulate the appetite.  These include Suze, Aperol, and Campari. Dark, rich liqueurs such as Amaro Lucano, Underberg, and Zwack are to be consumed after a meal to aid digestion.  A good way to remember is to think of the sky: drink the color of the sunset before dinner and the color of the night sky after your meal.

Taste a range of amaris, Apertivos, and bitters with Aaron on Thursday, February 6th from 6-8 pm and find out what it is about these liqueurs that are becoming increasingly popular and mainstream.