Thursday,
August 09, 2007
"Amari"
Elbowing Jagermeister Aside as Favorite
"Bitters"
The
ANNOTICO Report
Bitter
is Back
The
By
Jay Cheshes
Wednesday,
August 8th 2007
For the past 20
years, Jagermeister, the bitter herbal German spirit
developed in the 1930s as a digestive aid, has been the go-to shot for nights
you'd never want to remember.
As Jager sales soared, bitter liquor became synonymous with
binge-drinking. Recently, however, a new breed of spirits - actually a very old
one - is rescuing bitters' bad name.
These new Italian
imports, generally known as amari, are elbowing their
way into bars all over
Squeezed in next
to Campari - the label most Americans recognize -
they're winning over New Yorkers to the challenging, nuanced appeal of the slowly
sipped (not pounded), bitter-edged drink.
"A bitter
palate has to be developed," says Dushan Zaric, part-owner of the
The bottles, laid out on the bar one afternoon for an impromptu tasting,
cover the spectrum from light, fruity and low in alcohol to intense, potent and
viscous.
Like their widely
abused German cousin, Italian amari were first
crafted by pharmacists and botanists as medicinal brews. Infused with herbs,
roots, berries and bark, their recipes - many dating to the 19th century -
often remain closely guarded secrets.
"Each region
in
Eight years ago,
he began offering a small selection as post-dinnerdigestivi
at Roman-themed Lupa. "People were drawn to them
right away," he says. "They're interesting, they're not expensive and they're generally delicious."
While the darker,
heavier amari are generally drunk neat after dinner,
the lightest of the Italian bitter spirits are traditionally consumed on the
rocks or in cocktails as aperitivi.
The world's
best-known bitter cocktail is the old-fashioned negroni,
made with Campari, gin and Italian sweet (red)
vermouth. It's made enough of a comeback that Martin Miller's gin recently
released a $60 boxed set containing a recipe and full-sized bottles of the
components.
Like so many
bitter drinks, the negroni is particularly popular
among restaurant and bar business insiders. The mortoni
offered at the bar at Gramercy Tavern is a riff on the basic formula made with
a splash of tonic and vodka rather than gin.
The refreshing
drink is named after owner Danny Meyer's dad, Morton, a traveling salesman who
picked up the nickname "Mortoni" on his
many visits to
While Campari, with 24% alcohol, is an easy intro to the bitters
spectrum, Aperol, its new-to-the-American-market
cousin - with just 11% alcohol - is even lighter and more accessible.
At Employees
Only, the orange- and rhubarb-infused spirit is mixed with Prosecco
into an Aperol spritz. From
upscale Del Posto to new
Stronger, more
astringent Italian spirits are surging as well. The Sardinian iced tea offered
at Otto is basically a spritz made with 64-proof Meletti Amaro.
The darkest
spirits are crafted from everything from walnuts (Montenegro Amaro) to artichokes (Cynar), to
myrtle berries (Mirto). James Meehan, the bartender
behind the drinks list at both Gramercy Tavern and PDT,
makes a Rye Witch with sherry, Rittenhouse rye and saffron-infused Strega from
Drinking black minty Fernet-Branca, the most
intense mass-produced brand on the market, has meanwhile become a sort of badge
of honor among bartenders and cooks in
"I love
it," says Employees Only's Zaric,
who offers a Fernet-based cocktail, the Fernando, on
the bar's late-night menu. "You're either a fan or you can't stand
it."
Shots of the
stuff also keep Del Posto's kitchen staff going on
busy nights. "It's so bitter it's cool if you can handle it," says
Morgan Rich, the restaurant's young wine director.
"It's almost
a macho thing."
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