Recipe

• 1oz Standard Wormwood Artemisia Aperitivo (sub with a dry vermouth with a splash of bitter, wormwood-focused amaro)
• .5oz Amaro Sfumato Rabarbaro
• .5oz mezcal (Montelobos)
• 1 barspoon cherry syrup (from a jar of cherries such as Fabbri Amarena or Luxardo)
• 2 dashes of Peychaud’s bitters
• 2 dashes of orange bitters (Angostura)
• 2oz sparkling water

Combine all ingredients in a glass full of ice. Stir well, then garnish with a slice of orange and a couple of brandied cherries.

About

If you’re like me and try to pretend to like lower ABV drinks but actually just really wish they were stronger with the same flavor and lightness quality…well, this is for you. 😉

This is a dry aperitivo (pre-dinner appetite opener drink) for the smoke and bitter herbal lover. It’s not sweet but is all kinds of bitter; very earthy with a whisper of smoke.

It pretends to be “lower ABV” in style but is not really – the aperitivo is 29%, the Sfumato 20%, and the mezcal is 45%, equating to a total of about a solid 1.5oz of liquor. The Standard Wormwood Artemisia Aperitivo is super unique yet oddly familiar. I think of it almost as a cross between a dry vermouth and an amaro – it has all the dryness of a dry vermouth, but carries a bold fruitiness, likely coming from the berry-rich rosé wine that makes up its base, and an intense bitterness from the company’s namesake use of bitter wormwood.