These Medicinal Herbal Drinks from Italy You’ll Want to Know
We love medicinal herbal drinks from Italy. With their centuries-old secret recipes full of herbs, roots, barks, plants and fruit peels, these bittersweet liqueurs help digest the meal and cleanse the palate. Here are our favorites.
Amaro (Italian for bitter) is the ultimate digestif after an Italian dinner, and almost every Italian region has its own variety. The alcohol content ranges from 16% to 40%. Take your time sipping these spicy, full-bodied liqueurs with an ice cube after the meal. Before the meal is fine too, by the way—we like coloring outside the lines.
Averna
Caltanissetta, Sicily, 1859. Benefactor Salvatore Averna receives the recipe for a bittersweet elixir from local monks. Cinchona bark, gentian root and cinnamon, among other ingredients, provide a spicy and bitter counterpoint to the drink’s sweet, smooth character. Anyone sipping Averna can taste the medicinal past of this syrupy liqueur. Anyone drinking greedily won’t taste anything anymore, because taking it easy is recommended (29% alcohol).
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Cynar
The bottle’s label gives it away; Cynar is an artichoke herbal bitter. Artichokes, as well as herbs, are infused in alcohol, sweetened with sugar, colored golden with caramel and diluted with water. Cynar is low in alcohol (16.5%), lightly sweet, slightly bitter, and the drink claims to offer a whole range of health benefits.
Ramazzotti
The name probably rings a bell immediately, but the drink has nothing to do with the singer. Ramazzotti is a serious amaro at 30% alcohol: a balanced herbal bitter that is 200 years old and contains 33 herbs and plants. Sweet and bittersweet oranges, star anise and cardamom are the stars of the show.
Amaro Nonino
The Nonino family from Friuli not only elevated grappa, the poor man’s drink (formerly made from ‘leftovers’ of wine production), to a higher level; according to them, this amaro also has ‘the elegance of a wine distillate and the character of a grappa’. The grape distillate is aged in various oak barrels (including old sherry casks), with alcohol infused with different mountain herbs and the necessary sugar added. Well-balanced, complex, bittersweet digestif.
Fernet Branca
Fernet is a style of amaro, of which Fernet Branca is the most popular; you’ll find it in every Italian household. Created in 1845 as a stomach medicine, and you can taste that immediately in this blend of 27 herbs, roots, plants and barks. Fernet Branca is a global cult hit as a shot and in complicated bartenders’ cocktails. A seriously potent concoction that works wonderfully after a meal, but unlike other amari, not as an aperitif. At 40% alcohol—and damn, I’ve gotten absolutely plastered from this stuff…#colafernet #neverforget
Campari
‘Life is bitter, life is sweet’ is the world-famous slogan of this stylish and timeless bittersweet liqueur. Bittersweet orange takes the starring role in Campari, but 70 (!) other herbs also play a part. This amaro is better suited as an aperitif or cocktail ingredient than as a digestif. Because let’s be honest, there’s very little to criticize about a Campari and soda on a sweltering day, or a Negroni cocktail with Campari, sweet vermouth and gin.
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