Amaro

This page is about my love for some peculiar exotic elixirs, especially amaro and quinquina. The taxonomy is not obvious, especially for the uninitiated, so here's some basic vocabulary, with links to provide additional details:

• An apéritif is a pre-dinner drink and a digestif is a post-dinner drink (Italian: aperitivo / digestivo). Vermouth is an apéritif.
• A quinquina (abbreviated as quina or kina) is a quinine-based apéritif, popular in France since the 19th Century.
• An amaro (plural: amari) is a bitter Italian digestivo, and a fernet is a more sharply bitter amaro. Amaro is usually served neat, alternatively over ice.

My parents drank nothing more exotic than frozen daiquiris. Their bar, like most American home bars of the 1950s and 1960s, stocked a selection of cordials, but generally they just gathered dust. My German "father" during my exchange student year 1963-1964 liked Campari, not to mention Cinzano vermouths and wine/beer/schnapps. I mostly drank Alt (local Düsseldorf beer) that year, but I tasted Campari for the first time and I learned that Europeans drink vermouth on the rocks (as opposed to just using vermouth in mixed drinks, as in the US). A decade later, Campari became a standard drink for me, usually with soda or tonic, now typically in a negroni or an americano. I developed a taste for French apéritifs too, including Byrrh and St. Raphaël, though I didn't really understand quinquina at the time; I thought of it as odd-tasting red vermouth, which it is, but I didn't get the quinine connection.

When I moved to the Bay Area in 1968, I often ventured from dreary Palo Alto to exotic San Francisco, occasionally to North Beach. Back then, North Beach bars were populated by more locals than tourists, and the Italian-American oldsters in berets often drank shots of a mysterious toxic concoction called Fernet-Branca. Weird, but I liked it, so I bought a bottle. When I offered it to friends, they sniffed it cautiously, tasted a little, and typically compared it unfavorably to castor oil. Fast forward to another millenium: Fernet-Branca billboards appear in the gentrifying Mission, my sons in NYC take me to an amaro bar (Amor y Amargo) on the lower east side, and Mission ice cream vendor Humphry Slocombe has fernet fudge topping. Amaro is trendy in the early 21st Century.

Most liquor stores carry Campari and Fernet-Branca, but other amari can be difficult to find. I'm fortunate to be in San Francisco, where our local Mission district treasure Lucca Ravioli Company and K&L Wines have broad selections, and their websites have some useful tasting notes. In recent years, I've acquired a sizeable collection, listed below.

Most of the French and Italian producers have been around since the 19th Century (Carpano and Nardini since the late 18th!), and many of their old ads are wonderful. Campari still produces amazing artwork, including special labels. Campari and Fernet-Branca are sometimes available in decorative tins (see pictures below) during the holiday season.

This page lists only a few apéritifs, excluding grappa, pastis, ouzo, and most vermouths. So many choices, so little time... Santé / salute!

Amaro
Amaro Cloisonné
Cloisonné matchbox holders Matchboxes
Matchboxes Movie Posters
Movie posters Movie Stills
Movie stills S.F. Postcards
San Francisco postcards S.F. Stereoviews
San Francisco stereoviews

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