PARCHED | IT'S AMARO!

By Ross McCammon. Photographs by Matt Martin

Italian amaro is quickly becoming a favorite post-dinner drink…and pre-dinner drink…and whenever-you-want drink. Here are our favorites, plus three non-Italian (but still-delicious) options.

Those bottles of amaro you’re seeing behind the bar more and more—with their beautiful Italian labels featuring beautiful Italian scenes representing the beautiful Italian liqueur inside—aren’t just for sipping. They’re for drinking. Amari—Italian for “bitters”—are indeed bitter. But also sweet, smoky, and citrusy, too. They’re as versatile as whiskey and maybe even more complex.

“There’s nothing missing,” says bartender Sother Teague, who opened his bitters bar, Amor y Amargo, in Manhattan’s East Village in 2011. “These are old-fashioneds in a bottle.”

Here are three ways to drink three amari that you can now find in any good liquor store—and, increasingly, on any good dessert menu, where amaro is replacing port as the go-to digestivo. We’ve also included a few non-amaro, after-dinner drinks to add to your bar cart, partially because they look extremely cool, and partially because a bunch of other European countries make their own top-shelf bitters.

SIP IT:

Nonino ($45) is as sweet and drinkable as amaro gets—very light on bitter herbs. (Though at 70 proof, it’s heavy on alcohol for an amaro.) Drink it neat after a few too many agnolotti.

ROCK IT:

amaro-best-stuff

Now widely available after 25 years of scarcity, the piney and intense Braulio ($43) is best over ice with an orange wedge.

CHUG IT (Ok, maybe don’t chug it):

amaro-best-stuff

Meletti ($17) is said to be made with the kola nut, the same stuff that gives cola its flavor. Lots of spice and vanilla. Drink it as Teague suggests: 50–50 with seltzer to create the best “Coke” you’ve ever had. “A frosty glass of that and a couple ice cubes? You could crush it all day.”

[ Italians Are Teaching Winemaking in Primary Schools ]

SERVE IT:

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Bigallet China-China ($43) is the drink you want to set down on the table toward the end of your dinner party. It’s got it all: A fun name (it’s pronounced keena-keena). Label art featuring a woodcut of a French village (traditional! historic!). And no one at your party will have tried it even though it has pretty good distribution in the States. And the flavor? Imagine taking a wad of orange peels, rubbing it in cinnamon, then dunking it in… I don’t know… raisin juice? And then chewing on it. Only it tastes better, and far more complex, than what you’re imagining.

PUT A STRAW IN IT:

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Underberg bitters ($22 for a crate of twelve), in little paper-wrapped glass vessels the size of airplane bottles, can be hard to find. You’ll occasionally see them at the point-of-purchase at some liquor stores. My old grocery store in Manhattan used to stock them in what seemed vaguely like a “mixer” section. And they’re showing up at interesting Brooklyn bars, according to those GQ staffers who drink in interesting Brooklyn bars more frequently than me. If you see some, buy some. (Or just head to your local neighborhood Amazon page.) It’s anise-y, floral, and almost wince-ingly bitter. But the tiny bottle makes drinking Unerberg seem so…fun. Especially when you use a straw.

SIP THIS ONE ALSO:

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Zwack ($29) is the national drink of Hungary, but there are two Zwacks made by Zwack. There’s the 80-proof Zwack Unicum, and then there’s just plain ol’ Zwack. If you like intensely bitter bitters, go with the Unicum, a rival to Fernet in that quality that makes you think “I don’t know if I love this or am being poisoned by it or both.” Each sip is a grenade of eucalyptus and rosemary. The original Zwack, however, provides a more straightforward drinking experience. It’s sweet, rich, chocolatey, and weirdly warming.

Read it at GQ

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