Three bottles, roughly eighty dollars, and enough coverage to make dozens of drinks on this site. What each one buys you, what to skip at the start, and the upgrade path once the first three are gone.
September 27, 2026 · 8 min read · Robert Parker Cross
The most common question I get is some version of: I want to get into amaro, what do I buy? The honest answer is that one bottle is not enough to understand the category and ten is a waste of money before you know your own palate.
Three is the number. Three bottles, chosen properly, cover the aperitivo hour, the after-dinner pour and the awkward middle where most cocktails live. Total damage is about eighty dollars, which leaves twenty for vermouth or a bag of good citrus.
Here is the shelf, in the order I would buy it.
Campari is the aperitivo half of the shelf and the single most useful bitter bottle in the world. Bright, dry, orange-peel bitter, and strong enough to hold a cocktail together.
What it buys you: the Negroni, the Negroni Sbagliato, the Boulevardier, the Bicicletta, the Americano and Rome with a View. That is a whole summer of drinking from one bottle.
If you already know Campari is too bitter for you, swap in Aperol — but understand you are trading structure for sweetness. The full comparison is in Campari vs Aperol.
Averna is the digestivo half: cola, caramel, dried orange and a gentle bitter finish. It is the bottle you pour for people who say they do not like bitter drinks, and it converts most of them.
What it buys you: the Black Manhattan, the Averna Sour, an amaro highball with soda, and the simplest drink on the site — two ounces over one big cube with an orange twist.
Cynar is the odd one, and it earns its place precisely because it is odd. Artichoke on the label, but what you actually taste is vegetal, slightly savory bitterness at a mild 16.5% ABV.
What it buys you: the Cynar Spritz, the Cynar Negroni, the Bitter Giuseppe and a low-proof afternoon drink that will not end your evening early.
It is also the best cheap stand-in when a recipe calls for an amaro you do not own yet.
Aperitivo, digestivo, wildcard. Every other bottle you ever buy is a variation on one of those three jobs.
Braulio is a wonderful bottle and a bad first bottle. At around thirty-five dollars it eats a third of the budget, and its pine, mint and cardamom profile is a specialist taste — people either fall in love instantly or find it too much like a ski lodge.
But if you already know you like assertive, medicinal, herbal flavors, swap it in for the Cynar and drink it neat after heavy meals, or in a Braulio Alpine Sour.
Skip Fernet-Branca for now. It is a great bottle and a terrible introduction — at 39% ABV with saffron and myrrh, it tends to convince beginners they hate the whole category. Buy it fourth, once the first three have taught you what bitterness feels like.
Skip the rare imports and the limited riservas. They are better after you have a reference point, not before.
And skip buying two bottles of the same style. Two sweet Sicilian amari is one bottle's worth of learning for twice the price.
Bottle four: Fernet-Branca, for the menthol end of the spectrum and for Fernet Cola.
Bottle five: Amaro Nonino, the elegant one, which unlocks the Paper Plane.
Bottle six: something alpine or smoky — Braulio if you skipped it, or Sfumato Rabarbaro if you want campfire in a glass.
Not sure which of these matches your palate? The Find Your Amaro quiz takes a minute.
Campari for aperitivo cocktails and Averna for after-dinner sipping. Between them they cover the two ends of the category, and both are widely available for under thirty dollars.
Most of the classic Italian amari cost between twenty and thirty-five dollars. Above that you are usually paying for barrel aging, small production or a riserva bottling rather than a fundamentally better everyday pour.
Not usually. It is excellent but specialized — pine, mint and cardamom — and it costs more than the alternatives. Buy it once you know you enjoy assertive, medicinal herbal flavors.
Yes. Campari, Averna and Cynar cover Negroni variations, spritzes, sours, highballs and stirred whiskey drinks — dozens of recipes before you need a fourth bottle.
Campari if you want one bottle that works in cocktails, because it is dry enough to hold up against spirits. Aperol is sweeter, lower proof and mostly a spritz bottle.
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