Recipe

• 1oz Amaro Averna
• 1oz gin (I used Bummer and Lazarus from Raff Distillerie)
• 1oz sweet vermouth (Dolin Rouge)

Stir with ice and strain over a fresh ice cube. Express an orange peel over top and drop in.

About

I had my eye on a bottle of Amaro Averna for years before I finally got my hands on a bottle. With its flavors often described as orange, cola, and vanilla, how can you NOT want a bottle? Make no mistake though, this is far more complex than just those flavors, and I would liken the flavor descriptions to the notes you’d see on a bottle of wine in terms of intensity/similarity.

Averna is a Sicilian amaro, which is a bittersweet liqueur traditionally drank post dinner to aid digestion with its bitter herbal flavors. I used it in place of Campari in this Negroni, a cocktail classically made with equal parts of gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth.

And how about that iceberg? I’ll cover clear ice in more detail in a future post, but here’s a quick tip: anyone can make crystal clear ice with things you already have at home. No need for special water, boiling/purifying it, or any of that. Lots of tutorials online involve a small ice cooler, but if your freezer is always full like mine (or maybe you don’t even own a small cooler), you can actually just use any insulated container. Have a thermos mug? ✔️ Thick-walled container? ✔️ (I actually just used my stainless steel French press)

Fill your container with tap water and stick it in the freezer with the top OFF. Take it out and let it melt enough to slide out (you can leave it upside down). You should have a piece of ice that is clear on top and hazy only towards the bottom. Take a knife and carefully chip away the non-clear part and cut your ice into whatever shape you desire.