Amaro 101 · Lesson 07 · 7 min read

Your First Five Bottles

One bottle from each flavor family — the shortest route from "I hear amaro is good" to knowing which kind you actually like.

Five bottles, five families. Buy them in order and the category explains itself.

People usually build an amaro shelf the slow way: buy the bottle a bartender poured them, like it, buy something similar, and end up three years later with five variations on the same bittersweet theme. The faster route is to buy one bottle from each family, taste them against each other, and let the differences teach you what you're after.

These are the five, in the order worth buying them. Each is the clearest example of its style rather than the most obscure or the most expensive, and each is widely enough distributed that you can actually find it. Together they run about $170 — but there is no reason to buy them in one trip. The full flavor-family guide covers 23 bottles when you're ready to go deeper.

01Bittersweet classic

Amaro Averna

29% ABV · about $32

Every shelf needs one caramel-and-citrus Sicilian bottle, and this is the one most people learn the category from. Low enough in bitterness to drink after dinner without training, dense enough to hold its own in a stirred drink.

Tastes like: Espresso, cocoa and burnt-sugar caramel up front, dried orange behind it, then a clean herbal bitterness that steps aside for sage and mint.

Pour it: Neat over one big cube with an orange twist.

If you can't find it: Amaro Lucano or Ramazzotti if Averna is sold out — same register, drier and spicier respectively.

Read the Amaro Averna entry Make the Black Manhattan

02Alpine bitter

Braulio

21% ABV · about $50

The alpine family is where amaro stops tasting like dessert and starts tasting like a place. Braulio is the clearest example: gentian and wood rather than caramel, made and rested in oak beneath Bormio.

Tastes like: Wood and root first, then gentian, juniper, mountain herbs and a cool thread of wormwood, finishing piney and mint-tinged.

Pour it: Straight from the fridge in a small glass, after a heavy meal.

If you can't find it: Amaro Alpino Bordiga or a genepy if you want the same mountain register at a lower price.

Read the Braulio entry Make the Braulio Alpine Sour

03Carciofo & rabarbaro

Cynar

16.5% ABV · about $25

The vegetal wing of the category, and the cheapest genuine education on this list. Artichoke leaf gives a savory, earthy bitterness nothing else on the back bar produces, and the low strength makes it forgiving to mix with.

Tastes like: Savory and earthy on the nose, then cola, cocoa and a green vegetal bitterness that reads more like a bitter salad than a dessert.

Pour it: On the rocks with an orange slice and a splash of soda.

If you can't find it: Cappelletti Sfumato Rabarbaro for the smoky rhubarb side of the same family.

Read the Cynar entry Make the Cynar Negroni

04Fernet

Fernet-Branca

39% ABV · about $36

Fernet is a loose convention rather than a legal style, but this is the bottle everyone means by it. Buy it to learn what the far end of bitterness tastes like — and because a surprising number of classic drinks want a quarter ounce of it.

Tastes like: Rooty and medicinal, then a blast of mint and bitter orange. Dry, fiercely bitter, espresso and unsweetened cocoa, with a menthol chill that numbs everything.

Pour it: Ice-cold in a small glass, or a dash into a stirred gin drink.

If you can't find it: Branca Menta if straight fernet is too much; it is the same spine with the mint dialed up and sweetened.

Read the Fernet-Branca entry Make the Hanky Panky

05Citrus & spice

Vecchio Amaro del Capo

35% ABV · about $30

The southern counterweight to the alpine bottle: Calabrian citrus, licorice and warm spice instead of gentian and pine. It is the best-selling amaro in Italy for a reason, and it is built to be poured out of the freezer.

Tastes like: Round, sweet entry of orange and bergamot, then juniper and licorice, finishing with a peppermint cool.

Pour it: Bottle in the freezer, glass in the freezer, then pour.

If you can't find it: Amaro Lucano for a softer southern pour, or Jefferson for a more bitter, bergamot-led take.

Read the Vecchio Amaro del Capo entry Make the Amaro Highball

How to taste them against each other

Pour half an ounce of each into small glasses, at room temperature, and go in the order above. The point is not to rank them — it is to notice what changes. Averna to Braulio is caramel giving way to root. Braulio to Cynar is mountain bitterness giving way to vegetal bitterness. Cynar to Fernet-Branca is the volume knob. Fernet to Del Capo is the whole thing resolving back into citrus and sugar.

Whichever one you keep reaching for tells you which family to buy from next. If it's Braulio, the alpine shelf is deep and mostly excellent. If it's Cynar, go to Sfumato. If it's Fernet-Branca, you are the kind of person other people buy fernet for.

Nothing here is a fixed rule — amaro has no legal style definitions, and every producer draws its own lines. See how amaro is made for why two bottles in the same family can taste so different.

Starter shelf, quickly answered

What is the best amaro for a beginner?

Amaro Averna or Amaro Montenegro. Both are bittersweet, low in bitterness, and pleasant neat over ice with no acquired taste required. Save Fernet-Branca for third or fourth.

How much does it cost to build a starter amaro shelf?

These five bottles run roughly $170 to $180 at U.S. shelf prices. Buying them one at a time, in the order listed, spreads the cost and follows the learning curve.

Do I need five bottles?

No. One bittersweet classic covers most after-dinner drinking. The five-bottle version exists so you can taste the whole category side by side rather than guessing which family you like.

Which one should I buy first?

Averna. It is the most forgiving, the most useful in cocktails, and the cheapest way to find out whether you like amaro at all.

How long do these bottles last once opened?

Months to years. Amaro is stable, but sugar and alcohol do not stop oxidation entirely — keep bottles upright, away from light and heat, and expect the brightest aromatics to fade first.

Keep reading

Amaro 101The whole course, lesson by lesson Types of AmaroAll 23 bottles, sorted by family How Amaro Is MadeBotanicals, maceration, sugar and wood Our ReviewsScored tasting notes, bottle by bottle The EncyclopediaEvery bottle, region by region The Cocktail Library99 drinks built on amaro