Averna Amaro

Rating: 20/23 N: Mmmm, this is a very complex, interesting, and balanced nose. It's sweet, but not overly so. I get orange leading the fruit, but it's integrated with other notes that I'm struggling to identify. The fruit leads into a bit of a floral character, then mint, evolving into sort of a moderately bitter pot pourri. A little cola, but not in a bad way. Oddly, there is a touch of meat, suggesting youthful alcohol. I also get this mustiness throughout. P: Sweet with lots of well-integrated flavors and a bitter backing tying it all together. Chocolate hits quickly. There's cola for sure, but mercifully without that usual metallic flavor. A bit of bitter orange peel, but actually more of a floral cherry in the fruit department. The flavors are very well integrated. Some mild dark roast coffee, with a bit of creaminess to it like some milk had been added. A touch of brown sugar to the sweetness as well. There is definitely some bitter herbal character in here and there'a a little bit of ginger, black pepper, and cinnamon mixed in. There's good depth as flavors emerge over the course of a sip. A nice light layer of mustiness helps to blend the flavors together. It took me a while to place, but it's that same mustiness that Frangelico has. Only, it's mostly good here. A big part of that is probably that there's WAY less of that mustiness here. Maybe it's just never good, but less obtrusive here. F: Chocolate, coffee, lightly floral cherry that borders on being sickly sweet. Some lingering ginger and mustiness. Aside from the cherry being a bit strong, it's still very well balanced and integrated. - Conclusion - I'm really surprised by how good this is. This is the first amaro I think I'd want to drink neat - or possibly over ice. It's delectable just on it's own - I'm thinking a 19 or 20. I could go down to an 18 though. Now I need to find some cocktails that it's good in. OK, this with Pikesville or Old Forester Rye in a Black Manhattan is awesome. Something to note though is that the cocktail is awesome even without the Angostura bitters added. The Angostura does make it taste more like a cocktail, insofar as it tastes like Angostura, but it doesn't necessarily improve the flavor. This just makes such good cocktails already! Mixed with the Old Forester, in particular, this tastes like candy. Candy with some nuance to it though. It's delicious. Peychaud's bitters, even when added in somewhat greater quantity, do help to balance this cocktail a bit, versus Angostura. Maybe I'm just less familiar with Peychaud's, but their lesser aggressiveness seems to suit this better. Look, having tried this in cocktails (well, variations on a cocktail) and found it so amazing, it's hard for me to not give it at least a 20. This is a really amazing liqueur. It's amazing alone and amazing in cocktails - nothing else has been so accomplished in both categories before. Maybe Carpano Formula Antica? I don't really think so though. It is close, but I think that this pulls ahead. I'm now thinking of a 20 as the lower limit for this. It could be a 21 or maybe a 22. I'm not so sure about a 23, but this is the closest I've ever come with a liqueur. I'll be coming back to this at some point, but for now it's a 20. I tried a Black Manhattan with Maker's Mark Cask Strength 20-04 (15/23) and found that it didn't work as well. I think that the cocktail works best with rye. So that's good to know: this doesn't work miracles in all situations. Still, I'd thought that a bourbon might be close enough to work well with this. Though maybe this is a case of the pairing being fine but quality of the bourbon being too low. The cocktail (with Angostura) is better than the Maker's, but not as good as the Averna. Switching to Booker's Shiny Barrel (19/23) (with Angostura), the Averna Black Manhattan still displayed a bit too much Angostura, but that's a good flavor. There's still plenty of fullness from the Booker's and sweetness from the Averna. The bourbon's complexity is diminished here, but the overall complexity is increased. This is a good cocktail that balanced that quality of the Averna with that of the Booker's. I've been contemplating this for a while and I've gone back and forth on whether it should be a 19 or a 20, but I've also questioned whether it maybe should be higher. My conclusion for now is that I have a mostly full bottle and that this seems to be a 20 at this point. OK, going to a full-sized cocktail with ice, this seems less impressive. I mostly get the Old Forester Rye and the Angostura helps to fill in the gaps that the melted ice leaves. Still, there's balance and complexity here. It's tasty. I think I'm stuck on a 20 here.

Appearance: Opaque dark brown, almost black. Against a strong light red edges are seen. The liquid forms thick, slow-flowing amber legs. Aroma: Orange juice, orange zest, cola and a faint trace of spearmint. Taste and Texture: Sweet arrival with herbal-tinged oranges, liquorice root, chicory and pomegranate juice. In the mid-palate a hint of spicy bitterness comes forward with mild anise, juniper and petit wormwood notes but this is balanced by sweet orange and chocolate flavours. The finish is warm, soft and fresh and turns back towards full sweetness with orange and cola being the final notes. The texture is full. This amaro has an interesting profile and it is a little different to the norm. Many amari start off sweet and then tail into bitterness, of varying intensity. Averna is bitter right from the entry, but it is a low-intensity, soft bitterness that never becomes intrusive. This character derives from the juice and zest of myrtle-leaved orange tree fruit, which is a primary ingredient in this amaro. You might recognize it as the flavour of the popular Italian soft drink, chinotto. It is used in many amari, sometimes alone and sometimes in combination with sweet orange juice and zest. There is a satisfying completeness to Averna and it seems somehow to be a perfect encapsulation of "dark citrus". It is versatile and can be enjoyed neat, over ice with a twist of orange peel, or as a long drink with soda or tonic water. It can be used as a substitute for orange bitters in cocktails where it adds complexity and sweetness as well as the expected bitter orange note, and if used well it can transform a mixed drink spectacularly. “Very Good” : 86/100 (4 stars)

So...time to branch out into tasting notes of the things I don't usually drink on their own, I suppose. Granted, I seldom have neat gin (and only a few do I think shine best simply on the rocks), so I guess it's not that big of a departure. Averna is one of the classic Italian amari that, by right, belong on the shelf of anyone who enjoys dabbling in cocktails. It's a fun counterpoint to Campari, which is probably the best known (and most often used) amaro - whereas Campari is vibrantly colored and strikingly bitter, Averna is a rich, syrupy brown and considerably less biting. It's a "bitter" liqueur that hardly seems bitter; I would better describe it as richly herbal. True to its color, there is a roasty espresso and unsweetened dark chocolate timbre here, but while that could descend into ponderous, overly rich territory given the sweeter nature of the liqueur, a certain liveliness is introduced to the palate by the bright, very Mediterranean herbaceousness hiding right beneath the surface. The counterpoint of fresh, spicy herbs to the rich espresso and chocolate notes is delightful. I could enjoy this on its own on the rocks, but it most comes to life for me in a simple cocktail with gin (ideally a London Dry, or at least something similarly fresh and juniper-forward), just a bit heavier on the gin than the Averna....a 1 to .7 or so ratio.

My second favorite amaro out of the five that I tried today. I wouldn't say it's head and shoulders above Cynar and really it's pretty close to a toss up, but I went with this one because it has a bit more bitterness which is what I want from an amaro. Averna is bottled at 64 proof (although I hear it can vary to as low as 58 proof), so right around the sweet spot for where I like my amari. The nose starts with citrus peel and a bit of vanilla, maybe some cola thrown in there. The palate balances the sweetness and the syrupy feel with just enough bitterness, as well as some licorice notes. The finish doesn't last too long, but there is little in the way of burn and you still get that sweetness on the way down. Averna is probably one of the more common amari that you can find, it's in most bars and there are a lot of cocktail recipes that call for it when they are asking for an amaro. For the cost, it has a lot of value. I wouldn't say it's the best sipping amaro out there, it's solid, but combined with it's use in cocktails where it can provide some richness and sweetness, along with a little bitterness and it won't overpower the drink, it's well worth having around. If you plan to drink this by itself, I would say it's more like a 3.5, maybe a 3.75, but for the value and it's use in cocktails, I'll give a 4.

I’m expanding my knowledge on cocktails and bought this to make Black Manhattans. This amaro is rich, syrupy, and has lots of complex herbal notes. Someone described it as thick Coke syrup and I agree. My favorite Manhattan cocktail recipe has 1 part sweet vermouth, 2 parts rye whiskey, and a coupe dashes of angostura bitters. It’s fruity and sweet with some spice from the rye. The Black Manhattan replaces the vermouth with the amaro. It’s richer, nuttier, and more complex. I, also, use orange bitters to bring out more of the orange flavor in the amaro. I like it, but still prefer the regular Manhattan as my go-to cocktail. If you’re curious about black Manhattans, order one at a bar first before you drop money on a bottle. Cheers!

Neat. Room temp. A deep, syrupy brown. A tangy and crisp nose reveals cola, mint, orange, fennel, and chocolate. Bergamot. Herbs and barrel notes steer the mind toward American rye whiskey. Extremely sweet. Consistent with the nose - leads with orange, lemon, and cola, then molasses, coffee beans, and dark chocolate. Gentian. Oregano. Root beer. The sweetness, herbaceous chocolate, and clove/allspice linger. New to amaro but I like this. Definitely a tooth-coating sugar bomb but could see sipping from time to time - the fruit/root/herb/spice does just enough to keep it interesting. Might be better thinned out over ice. A wallop of a modifier for cocktails.