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My love for amaro started innocently enough, almost two decades ago, when I sipped my first Negroni. At that time, Campari and Fernet-Branca were the only bittersweet suspects you’d likely encounter behind a bar in the States, and it would be years until the handful of other Italian imports like Zucca, Cynar, and Ramazzotti would be joined by the l...

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What do writer Charles Bukowski, Italy, bitter, arugula, and Brooklyn have in common? Apparently nothing, yet there is an Italian-speaking common thread. In Brooklyn, there is constant talk of Italian bitters, thanks to Faccia Brutto, an all-American brand that produces Italian spirits. The idea belongs to an American chef, Patrick Miller, who for...

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Most people drink amaro before they even realize what it is: an Aperol spritz on a summer afternoon, Campari in a Negroni during a winter happy hour, a finger of Fernet at the end of a meal. Amaro, which means “bitter” in Italian, is an infinitely and intentionally broad category of liqueur that typically involves herbs, and some combination of bit...

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Don Ciccio & Figli is better positioned than most small American spirits brands to take advantage of the current infatuation with amaro. Francesco Amodeo started the company in 2012 in Washington, DC, drawing on a family lineage of Italian spirits makers from the Amalfi Coast that dates back to 1883.  When Amodeo launched, he focused on something A...

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Walnuts have a long and strange history in Italy. While you might not immediately associate the fatty nuts shaped like little brains with Italian cuisine (as pine nuts, hazelnuts, and even chestnuts hog all that glory), they are quite popular in the northern Italian regions of Campania and Emilia-Romagna. According to PUNCH, the liqueur has a rathe...

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At the far side of a dimly lit bar, two bartenders share shots of an unknown brown liquid. They’re drinking fernet—most likely Fernet-Branca—and taking part in a well-known industry ritual often referred to as “the bartenders’ handshake.” This bitter Italian herbal spirit can be found on the shelf of almost any rickety watering hole or high-end coc...

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In 1994, Charlie Manno was assigned to entertain two Italian priests on a trip to Chicago. When the Rocky River man took the priests to the airport after their visit, they wanted to reward his kindness. So, Father Franco Todisco pulled out a notepad and wrote down an old family recipe for infusing lemon and coffee liqueurs. Manno thought nothing of...

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It seems like everywhere I look, people are drinking amaro. Maybe you’ve seen Florence Pugh waltzing around Venice with an Aperol spritz. Or you’ve been unable to ignore social media posts about Emma D’Arcy’s iconic “Negroni Sbagliato…with prosecco in it.” Regardless if you’re an amaro newbie or you drink some every weekend, you can’t deny that it’...

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In the beginning, it was the Benedictine abbeys to first create infusions using roots and plants in alcohol, bitters to be administered as medicine to stimulate appetite, for example, or to facilitate digestion. There was the famous elixir, the drug par excellence, and then the many liqueurs to fight smallpox, malaria and other infections. Therefor...

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Ask any cocktail bartender what fernet is, and they'll likely begin telling you about Fernet-Branca: the most iconic fernet on the market that is typically taken as a shot by bar industry professionals. If you ever see a dark brown liquid slide across the bar in a shot glass and get a whiff of mint, it's likely fernet. What Is Fernet?Despite Branca...

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