Just amaro or what else? Herb based amari stand in the breach again Herb based liqueurs and bitters date back to the age of the early conventual pharmacies. Some of them, with time, have become world famous classics. And now they come back to fashion in bars. By Erhard Ruthner After a good meal a “drop” is compulsory: an ancient wisdom of our grandfathers that still finds its followers, even if the digestive effect of alcohol is not proved in medicine, but rather it is part of everlasting legends. What on the contrary is universally known is the relaxing effect that herbs have on the gastrointestinal part; it’s no wonder, therefore, that herb based liqueurs and amari have an ancient history. It is the case of the hospital of Salerno, the forerunner of the first pharmaceutical shops. But also the Benedictine monks of Montecassino had known the secrets of the processing of herbs to produce tinctures and liqueurs since the origins. Many liqueurs produced and requested still today really have their roots in the pharmacies of the monasteries: from France the Bénédectine and the Chartreuse, from Italy Averna and from Germany the elixirs of the distillery of Andechs. But even later it was the pharmacists that opened the way – in particularly in Northern Italy at the beginning of the nineteenth century – to the golden age of herbs among drink makers: names as Ausano Ramazzotti, Gaspare Campari, Maria Branca, Francesco Peloni (Bràulio) or even Benedetto Carpano, who was the creator of vermouth with his idea of flavoring wine. Also Johann Becher and József Max Zwack started to commercialize the recipes of their families in Austria-Hungary, and still today Becherovka and Unicum are considered typical national drinks in the Check Republic and Hungary. However classifying the world of herb amari is still quite difficult. If you read the rules in force on this matter you understand that to classify a drink as a bitter spirituous drink the indispensable peculiarity is the bitter taste. Moreover a minimum alcoholic content of 15%vol. is requested, a title that applies also to spirits. Some brands, like Mariazeller Kräuterbitter or Fernet Branca, contain sugar in minimum quantity or not at all, but often they are classifies among spirits, a category in which, clearly, there are the several products with sugar contents of 100 g. or more per liter. Even a distinction with other alcoholic drinks flavored with herbs is not always easy, but several brands have now made their products a cult deeply rooted in everyday life. Falstaff spirits / Herb Amari The culture of cocktails with herb bitters NEGRONI Ingredients 2 cl. of Campari 2 cl. of red vermouth 2 cl. of gin Preparation Classically the Negroni is prepared directly in the tumbler, pouring the ingredients one after the other of the ice cubes that are already in the glass. Stir shortly only once, and it is ready. If you want you can add a spray of soda. HANKY PANKY Ingredients 4.5 cl. of gin 4.5 cl. of red vermouth 2 dash of Fernet Branca Preparation Mix the ice cold ingredients in a mixing-glass, then filter with the strainer in a pre-cooled cocktail cup and garnish with a lemon rind. VIEUX CARRÈ Ingredients 1.5 cl. of rye whiskey 1.5 cl. of cognac 1.5 cl. of Italian vermouth ½ half a bar spoon of Bénédictine DOM 1 dash of Peychaud’s 1 dash of angostura Preparation Mix the ice cold ingredients in a mixing-glass, then filter with the strainer in a pre-cooled cocktail cup and garnish with a lemon rind. The fact that herb bitters are not old history but that in these years they have found a fixed place in youth and popular culture can already be seen from the consumes, both of aperitifs and digestives. In 2004, for example, the Campari group started for its Aperol a refined marketing program in Germany. Resuming the Italian habit of meeting at the bar after work to have a light drink before going home for dinner, the Campari conceived an aperitif based on wine, soda and bitter, known with the name of Aperol Spritz, which marked an overwhelming success: it is years now, especially in the hot season, since there hasn’t been practically one only bar that doesn’t show the classic wine goblets with the winning orange color of their content. But also the Jägermeister, created in 1934 by Curt Mast, is a good example of how it is possible, with a good idea, to turn a brand into a gold mine. Mast, a keen hunter (Jäger, exactly), was known to offer the friends of his hunting club tastings of his liqueur. And when time came to give it a name, the hunting choice was compulsory. The Jägermeister has now been exported since the early Sixties, and today it is present on the markets of over 110 countries. In the Nineties the brand got free of its old style image, and now, with very well targeted strategies, it aims to reach several sectors of public. The brand has been able to make a lucky fluke with the constitution of the “Hubertus Circle” network, which gathers a great number of professional barmen with the aim of improving professionalism, even if actually its homepage is open also to customers, with recipes, events and other projects. A recurrent element of the activities of this cult brand is the presence at festivals. The common denominator of the various activities is however the responsible use of the traditional liqueur. “One of our fundamental principles is our commitment in favor of a moderate consumption of alcohol”, says Anna Zenz, brand manager of the Jägermeister. “Our brand today proposes itself with a product aimed to sociability and to the positive experiences lived with friends, and our initiatives comply with this attitude”. However not only in Europe herb elixirs are living a second youth. In a now distant past, from what today is Venezuela, spread a bitter alcoholic drink which found room on the shelves and the kitchens of the whole world. In 1824, in fact, the Prussian doctor Johann Gottlieb Siegert, who was fighting against the Spanish together with Simon Bolívar’s troops, created a herb tonic that was meant to help fighting tropical diseases. The tonic actually proved useless, but from this attempt the recipe of angostura was born, today it is produced in Trinidad and, in the meantime, it has become an indispensable ingredient of several classic cocktails. But in Latin America also classic herb bitter liqueurs are produced. Paul Underberg for example, the grandson of the founder of the famous brand, was always around the world and in Brazil he found a good chance of selling the liqueur developed by his grandfather Hubert. In 1933 the “Underberg do Brazil” was established, and later the original recipe was modified to better meet the South American taste. The result? Today this famous liqueur is ranked first in the sales in Brazil. If in all Europe the market of herb liqueurs is very articulated, actually it is in Austria that it finds its. Here in fact an extremely lively environment has developed. Together with traditional classic bitters, like the Gurktaler Alpenkräuter, the Rossbacher and the Gautier-Mückstein, there are more and more start-ups that try to come out. The best example of this trend is the Motorøl, proposed by a small producer from the Waldviertel who bets on the fact that the brand actually existed already in the Twenties. In those times, in fact, an ingenious mechanic had been able to cheat his wife telling her that one of his liqueurs made with anise, licorice and herbs was actually lubricating oil. Almost eighty years later his grandson together with a friend found the original handwritten recipe, and today this oil lubricates the throats again. The “drop” that is good for your health: is it just a myth? After a plentiful meal the “drop” is a tradition for many people. Certainly it is a moment of socialization that promotes good humor, but it isn’t a big aid for your stomach. On the contrary it is likely to be the contrary: alcohol slows down digestion. The fact that however you can feel a sense of relaxation is due to the primary effect of alcohol, which dilating the veins relaxes the muscles and therefore also the stomach. You don’t feel anymore that sense of fullness and a deceitful sense of lightness spreads. However the body concentrates most on digesting the alcohol instead of the food. Digestion is slower, and with this also the flux of food substances towards the small intestine. This effect was demonstrated by Swiss researchers with a small experiment: out of a sample of 20 people who had eaten a fondue, half of them had drunk a glass of white wine and then a schnaps, and the other half a cup of black tea and as a “digestive” a glass of water. To detect the speed of the digestive process, the researchers had marked the cheese with particular marker molecules (isotope C13), and then they had followed their degradation in the stomach and in the intestine with breath tests. The subjects that has drunk wine and schnaps presented a digestion considerably slower that the others. Alcohol accelerates the digestion only if it is present in a low concentration (< 5% vol.). In this case the cellules of the gastric mucous membrane are stimulated to produce more gastric acids. Therefore beer and wine (the latter with the addition of water or soda) certainly help the digestion, exactly like coffee or herb infusions.