Fernet Branca. Living in San Francisco, a city where you’ll see a bottle of this at even the diviest of dive bars (with the pint & fernet shot special), it’s about time we talk about Fernet Branca, right? Even though Fernet Branca was born in Italy, SF is one of its largest consumers and is responsible for more than a quarter of its sales in the US.

If you’re unfamiliar with this bottle, well, I’d be surprised to hear of anyone who did not feel their tastes buds ASSAULTED on their first taste of this straight. It tastes sort of like potent minty mouthwash and medicine combined, slightly sweetened with more herbs and roots. From there, the flavor complexities resulting from 27 different herbs/roots/etc may find a way to eventually enchant you….or it might still just taste like mouthwash. It’s definitely an acquired taste, and personally I have not acquired that taste yet.

Even though Fernet Branca is by far the most well known and often referred to as just “Fernet”, fernet is actually an entire category of spirit with many brands and variants; check out some other ones here. Fernet is considered an amaro, which is a bittersweet liqueur that is often used to aid digestion and appetite control, and the sub-classification generally focuses on those with strongly bitter and menthol flavors resulting from a specific group of botanicals like myrrh, saffron, aloe, mint, rhubarb, etc.

Click here for some Fernet Branca cocktail recipes!