This month’s Mixology Monday is all about those many kinds of Italian bitters-Amaro! Chuck Taggart also gave us license to branch into other digestifs, here’s what I came up with

All about Amaro!! Cocktail nerd are mixing up all kinds of Italian influenced cocktails due to this month’s MxMo topic. Here’s a bit more from Chuck at the Gumbo Pages about it:

The topic for this month is Amaro, which refers to the bitter liqueurs usually drunk as an after-meal digestive, either alone (neat or on the rocks) or in some kind of mixed drink or cocktail. They tend to all share certain characteristics — drinking bitters are generally made of alcohol with any number of herbs, plus sugar and some kind of coloring. The word “amaro” means bitter in Italian, and although the more famous drinking bitters tend to come from Italy our amaro theme this month is most certainly not limited to that country. Amaro, amer, amargo, what have you. Italy, Spain, France, America, Serbia, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Poland … wherever somebody drinks a bitter liqueur, that’s a source for your drink this month.
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You could use something gentle, like the lovely Amaro Montenegro, or something in-your-face, like the aforementioned Fernet. You could go insane, like a few intrepid Chicago bartenders have done, and actually make cocktails with Jeppson Malört, which is the most mind-bogglingly, unrelentingly bitter liqueur ever. Or you could find something relatively rare, like a pelinkovac from Serbia or Croatia. Just remember we’re talking about a bitter liqueur you drink from a glass, not an aromatic bitters you add by the dash. Oh, and one more thing … while technically Jägermeister is a digestive bitter liqueur and is perfectly legitimate for your post-prandial sipping, it’s been done to death by frat boys nationwide. Unless your Jäger cocktail is destined to be a modern classic, I’d recommend skipping that one (if for no other reason that someone will undoubtedly taunt you for it). Or you could say, “In your face, Taggart!” and do a brilliant Jägermeister cocktail that blows everyone away. The world of bitters is your canvas.

Personally I often like to end my meals with another Italian delight- cappuccino! So I was looking for a desserty style cocktail perfect for ending a meal with. Here’s my recipe for the Dolce Milano:
DOLCE MILANO
1/2 oz Amaro Ramazzotti
1/2 oz Caffe Nolita
2 oz Rum Zacapa 23
heavy cream (shaken with one sugar cube to sweeten)
Shake the 3 ingredients with ice in cocktail shaker. Strain into cocktail glass, one big enough to have a bit of room before the lip. Then gently float a layer of cream. Enjoy!

Also I’ve been playing around with Zwack in cocktails ever since I got the chance to meet Isabella Zwack last month. While not an Amaro because it’s from Hungary, Zwack is an herbal digestif with a slightly sweeter and more viscous style than most Amaros. For this recipe I created a varation on the Morris cocktail, actually replacing Zwack with the usual Amaro and changing a lemon twist for grapefruit. So here it is the Zwack Morris!

ZWACK MORRIS
2 dash orange bitters
1/2 oz Zwack
1 oz Lillet Blanc
1.5 oz Bulleit bouron
Combine all ingredients in chilled mixing glass. Fill with cracked ice and stir until wash line reaches about 3/4 full. Strain into chilled cocktail glass and garnish with grapefruit twist. Enjoy and reminisce about whoever your Saved by the Bell crush was.

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