Matt Ragan was exposed to amari in 2001. The Gung Ho beverage director had to smuggle the liqueurs into Dallas in his suitcase after trips to Italy. He says the herbaceous elixirs were virtually impossible to find here. That’s no longer the case.

The Italian liqueurs—amari is plural and amaro is singular and translates to “bitter” in Italian—vary in ingredients but are predominantly barrel-aged and fused with an assortment of herbs, spices, flowers, roots, and sugar. They’re traditionally used as digestifs. They have also been appearing, in limited quantities, on Dallas’ backbars for years. The Negroni, a cocktail made from equal parts gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth, is as commonplace on water-stained menus at middling bars as an Old Fashioned.