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Amaro: The Spirited World of Bittersweet, Herbal Liqueurs, with Cocktails, Recipes, and Formulas Hardcover – October 11, 2016
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The European tradition of making bittersweet liqueurs--called amari in Italian--has been around for centuries. But it is only recently that these herbaceous digestifs have moved from the dusty back bar to center stage in the United States, and become a key ingredient on cocktail lists in the country’s best bars and restaurants. Lucky for us, today there is a dizzying range of amaro available—from familiar favorites like Averna and Fernet-Branca, to the growing category of regional, American-made amaro.
Starting with a rip-roaring tour of bars, cafés, and distilleries in Italy, amaro’s spiritual home, Brad Thomas Parsons—author of the James Beard and IACP Award–winner Bitters—will open your eyes to the rich history and vibrant culture of amaro today. With more than 100 recipes for amaro-centric cocktails, DIY amaro, and even amaro-spiked desserts, you’ll be living (and drinking) la dolce vita.
- Print length280 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherTen Speed Press
- Publication dateOctober 11, 2016
- Dimensions6.85 x 1.1 x 9.35 inches
- ISBN-101607747480
- ISBN-13978-1607747482
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From the Publisher
The Bitter Swagger
For the past few years I’ve been making an annual trip down to Memphis and, without fail, I bookend my visit with stops at Hog and Hominy to see my friends, chefs Andy Ticer and Mike Hudman. They serve up some of my favorite Southern-inspired takes on Italian fare, including an insane mortadella hot dog and the Lil Red Ed, a pizza topped with speck, spicy peppers, fontina cheese, tomato sauce, and olives named after our mutual friend Ed Anderson, who also photographed the guys’ cookbook, Collards and Carbonara.
Nick Talarico oversees the front of the house and the beverage program for their ever-expanding restaurants and also makes a mean old-fashioned, which he doctors with house-made Shiftless Hog orange bitters. I always love geeking out over cocktails and trying new local spirits and beers with Talarico and he kindly shared the story of the Bitter Swagger with me, a cocktail on the menu at Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen, just across the street from Hog and Hominy. “We had a comedian come in after his show downtown late one Saturday night, and he and I talked for a bit about Nardini amaro. He ended up leaving with a bottle from our stock to take with him on his tour and after he left.” That encounter inspired Nick to add a drink on the menu that focused on amaro as a base spirit, and a pisco sour template did the trick. “It’s a total cocktail nerd drink—amaro, pisco, and egg whites don’t necessarily sell themselves—but that’s the fun of having a few cocktail lists where you can hide your nerdiest drinks,” Talarico says.
Makes 1 drink.
1¼ ounces Amaro Nardini.
¾ ounce pisco.
¼ ounce Cocchi Americano.
½ ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice.
1 egg white.
Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker and dry shake (without ice) for at least 10 seconds to fully incorporate the egg white. Add ice and continue shaking until chilled and then double-strain into a chilled coupe or cocktail glass.
Editorial Reviews
Review
– Danny Meyer, founder of the Union Square Hospitality Group
“I am a longtime lover of bitter Italian liqueurs. But this smart handbook has deepened my understanding of and heightened my appreciation for amaro and its kin. Read this and you will be thirsty.”
– Mario Batali
“Brad Thomas Parsons’s Bitters quickly became the definitive guide to a mysterious but essential cocktail ingredient. He’s done it again with Amaro, a gorgeous, comprehensive, and delectable exploration of the world’s bittersweet aperitifs and digestifs. Parsons’s passion for the history, culture, and personalities behind these herbaceous concoctions, coupled with Ed Anderson’s gorgeous photography, make Amaro amust-have.”
– Amy Stewart, author of The Drunken Botanist
“A few things happen as you age: you start really liking yogurt, you talk about seeing ‘other people,’ you’re willing to risk big to let out a memorable ‘Bababooey!’ scream at your son’s piano recital, and, fortunately, you begin to really enjoy bitters. Not only for their taste, but also because they’re a panacea for the middle-aged gut. Amaro is no longer strictly a clever way to deter teenage partygoers from raiding the house bar; it’s a staple ingredient, and it’s about time for such a thoroughly researched and deliciously presented book on the subject. Amaro is complete and thirst-inducing. Two thumbs up!”
– Frédéric Morin and David McMillan, authors of The Art of Living According to Joe Beef
“Fernet-Branca: what would we do without it? It is certainly my favorite of the amaros; some even say that it cures all known ailments and improves the humors. What a treat to read Amaro, a book devoted to these bittersweet aids to digestion, health, and happiness.”
– Fergus Henderson, author of The Complete Nose to Tail
"With cocktail recipes, amaro-spiked desserts, and even a guide to making your own amari, this book is a comprehensive guide to the liqueur. But more than just a guide, Amaro is a book you actually want to read. It’s written by Brad Thomas Parsons, the author of the James Beard and IACP award-winning book on bitters, and its best feature are the recipe headnotes. Ranging from personal anecdotes about cocktails to multiple paragraphs about a classic’s history, you get fun, interesting context with every recipe."
– Saveur
"One man’s love affair with bitter liqueurs…the book is ideally timed: Many Americans in the last few years have discovered the bracing pleasures of drinks like Campari, Aperol, Cynar and even the acerbic Fernet Branca.”
– New York Times
“...Parsons does a terrific job of showcasing [amari] in this collection of over 100 recipes."
– Publishers Weekly
“...Parsons succeeds at opening up exciting possibilities to try at home or seek out at bars."
– Library Journal
"Parsons more than delivers on sweet ways to enjoy the spirit, explains the vast amari family tree and gives tips for how to make your own variety for every season."
– Tasting Table
"If you're a fan of Campari, Averna, Cynar, or other bittersweet liqueurs, this book will have your mouth watering and your liquor cabinet collapsing under its own weight."
– Serious Eats
"Brad Thomas Parsons’s Amaro: The Spirited World of Bittersweet, Herbal Liqueurs serves as an Alice-like rabbit hole allowing full immersion in the world of amaro..."
– Wall Street Journal
"The man who might as well change his middle name to “bitter” is back with a follow-up to his award-winning Bitters. Beautifully photographed by Ed Anderson, Amaro is as much a desperately needed guide to the opaque and ill-defined world of bitter herbal liqueurs as it is a visual love letter to Italy. ... Parsons once again shows why he’s become one of the drink world’s most reliable voices."
– PUNCH
"The amaro craze now has its bible."
– Chicago Reader
"Parsons, whose first book Bitters: a Spirited History of a Classic Cure-All covered similar territory via bitters, is a natural fit for this material. And his descriptions—both in page-long essays and in descriptive paragraphs for each drink—are biographical, informative, and witty enough to keep even the modestly curious engaged. That is, the index is not your only entry point—you can comfortably and sequentially flip pages."
– Seattle Met
"This book is a deep dive into the history and characteristics of amaro with excellent cocktail recipes. Any cocktail nerd will love reading this book."
– Tampa Bay Times
"With gorgeous photos and 100 original recipes, it will seriously amp up your man’s esoteric cocktail game."
– PureWow
"A must for anyone who has a shelf for cocktail books."
– The Manual
"Parsons lucidly explains how the centuries-old European tradition of digestifs made from complex recipes of ingredients ranging from artichokes to myrrh and often secret combos of mountain herbs became the latest obsession in American cocktail culture."
– Philadelphia Inquirer
"This stylishly-designed volume offers background on the main producers, over a hundred cocktail recipes and a section on how to make your own amaro at home."
– Forbes.com
"It is a definitive and enlightening take on this oft-misunderstood spirit category that continues to intrigue, perplex and confuse even the most seasoned hands."
– Tales of the Cocktail
"Amaro is the most in depth, detailed, and well put together book on the industry’s favorite class of liqueurs. From the better known Campari and Fernet Branca to American-made amari like Calisaya from Oregon, this work is encyclopedic in its scope."
– Star Chefs
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Milan’s venerable Bar Basso opened in 1947, and in 1967, Mirko Stocchetto, a bartender from Venice, took over the bar and started adding cocktails to the menu to compete with the city’s larger hotels and cafés. His son Maurizio Stocchetto now runs Bar Basso and you’ll still find a menu of “Classic Cocktails from the Old School” behind the bar, including the White Russian, brandy Alexander, Grasshopper, and Gibson, but the Italian cocktail made famous at Basso is the Negroni Sbagliato.
Sbagliato means “messed up” or “bungled” in Italian, and as the younger Stocchetto tells it, one night in the late 1960s or early 1970s a bartender had accidentally swapped the gin with a bottle of spumante. When his father was making a customer’s Negroni he reached for the spot on the bar where the gin was always kept but instead added the dry sparkling wine to the mix of Campari and vermouth. “The customer said, ‘Let’s try it.’ And he didn’t complain.”
When I asked Stocchetto how many Negroni Sbagliatos he served each day, he just sighed and said “too many.” They normally serve it in a comically large hand-blown stemmed glass, the kind of fishbowl-sized vessel you’re more likely to encounter at a bachelorette party spilling out onto Bourbon Street, but when I ordered one he insisted on making mine in the standard rocks glass. He reminisced about hanging out at the bar as a boy, but he really lit up telling me about his time living in San Francisco in his twenties. His love of the Beats, jazz, and the NHL play-offs remains strong, but he’s particularly entertained by the American fast-food advertisements shown during his beloved hockey games. Taking a pause from serving a customer a supersized Sbagliato, he looked at me and smiled in wonder, “At Subway, they’ll put guacamole on anything you want!”
MAKES 1 DRINK
1 ounce Campari
1 ounce sweet vermouth
1 ounce Prosecco or sparkling wine
Garnish: orange slice or orange zest
Build the Campari, vermouth, and Prosecco in an old-fashioned glass filled with ice. Stir and garnish with the orange slice or orange zest.
Product details
- Publisher : Ten Speed Press; NO-VALUE edition (October 11, 2016)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 280 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1607747480
- ISBN-13 : 978-1607747482
- Item Weight : 1.85 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.85 x 1.1 x 9.35 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #21,000 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #30 in Italian Cooking, Food & Wine
- #36 in Alcoholic Spirits
- #39 in Cocktails & Mixed Drinks
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Brad Thomas Parsons is the author of "Bitters" (winner of the James Beard and IACP Cookbook Awards, and a finalist for the Tales Spirited Awards), "Amaro," "Distillery Cats," and "Last Call" (James Beard Award finalist, Tales Spirited Award winner). Parsons received an MFA in writing from Columbia University, and his work has appeared in "Bon Appétit," "Lucky Peach," "Food & Wine," "Travel + Leisure," "Imbibe," PUNCH, and more. He lives in Brooklyn.
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Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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Oh and if you're not into Amaro... just try an Averna on the rocks - club soda optional - as an after dinner drink. It will change your life! Well... maybe just encourage the consumption of Amaro after meals anyway...
Mr. Parsons gives you a lot of information about various amaro and gives you recipes for cocktails and food using amaro. It also is filled with beautiful photos. I've found some of the amao described in the book (Campari, which is available most anywhere, and more scarce Aperol, Cynar and Fernet Branca) and the book has inspired me to search out in liquor stores the harder to find ones. Many are available only in Italy, which makes me want to visit Italy again. Salud!
Top reviews from other countries
O autor expõe com muita propriedade o rico universo dos bitters e dos aperitivos. Repleto de ótimas pequenas histórias e curiosidades. Sem contar com grande quantidade de receitas e as excelentes fotografias.
Recomendadíssimo!!!


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