Amaro means ‘bitter’ in Italian – a whole family of herbal liqueurs made to close a meal and settle the stomach
Amaro Bar holds a 4.9 from three hundred and twenty-eight people – an exceptional score on a good sample, one of the highest in this Kensington survey – and it is named after one of the great, and greatly underappreciated, categories of Italian drink: amaro, the bitter herbal liqueur that closes a meal.
Bitter
“Amaro” means, simply, “bitter” in Italian – and it is the name for a whole family of Italian herbal liqueurs, dark, complex, and bittersweet, traditionally drunk after a meal as a “digestivo” to aid digestion and close the evening. We met the digestif’s opposite bookend, the aperitivo, at Apero in the Chelsea survey – and amaro is the other end of the meal, the bitter close to match the bitter opening.
Amari (the plural) are made by infusing alcohol with a secret mix of herbs, roots, barks, flowers and citrus peels – often dozens of botanicals, according to closely-guarded recipes, many originally devised by monks or apothecaries as medicinal tonics. The result is a drink of extraordinary complexity: bitter, yes, but also sweet, aromatic, herbal, sometimes medicinal, sometimes almost cola-like, each one different, each with its own character and closely-held formula.
The monk’s medicine
Many amari began life as medicine. In monasteries and apothecaries across Italy, monks and healers infused alcohol with herbs to create tonics believed to cure ailments, settle the stomach, and promote health. The line between medicine and drink was blurry – these bitter herbal preparations were genuinely used as remedies, and the tradition of drinking a bitter amaro after a heavy meal to “aid digestion” descends directly from this medicinal origin.
Some of the most famous amari still carry this monastic or medicinal heritage – complex secret recipes, herbal formulas passed down for generations, a whiff of the apothecary’s shelf. There is something wonderful about drinking, as a pleasure, a bitter herbal liqueur that began as a monk’s medicine. The bitterness itself was considered healthful – bitter herbs stimulating the digestion – so the unpleasant-to-some bitterness was, originally, the whole point and the active ingredient.
The acquired taste
Amaro is, for many, an acquired taste – the bitterness can be startling to a palate raised on sweet drinks. But it is one of those tastes that, once acquired, becomes a genuine passion. The complexity, the herbal depth, the bittersweet balance, the way a good amaro closes a meal and settles the stomach – these win devoted followings. A dedicated amaro bar is a place for the initiated and the curious alike, offering a range of these complex bitter liqueurs to explore, neat or in cocktails.
The great cocktail renaissance of recent decades has rediscovered amaro with enthusiasm – the Negroni’s bitter Campari, the Aperol of the spritz, and countless craft cocktails now built on the complex bitterness of various amari. The category has gone from obscure Italian digestivo to darling of the cocktail world.
The bar
An outstanding, superbly-rated Kensington bar doing an exceptional 4.9 across a good sample, devoted to the bitter, complex, herbal world of amaro – the monk’s medicine turned connoisseur’s delight.
Verdict
Exceptional and superbly rated, named after the bitter Italian herbal liqueur that closes the meal – the digestivo, the monk’s medicine, the acquired taste worth acquiring.
Order an amaro, sip its bitter complexity slowly after your meal, and taste the herbal formulas that monks and apothecaries devised as medicine and Italy turned into pleasure.
Alan Nafzger was born in Lubbock, Texas, the son Swiss immigrants. He grew up on a dairy in Windthorst, north central Texas. He earned degrees from Midwestern State University (B.A. 1985) and Texas State University (M.A. 1987). University College Dublin (Ph.D. 1991). Dr. Nafzger has entertained and educated young people in Texas colleges for 37 years. Nafzger is best known for his dark novels and experimental screenwriting. His best know scripts to date are Lenin’s Body, produced in Russia by A-Media and Sea and Sky produced in The Philippines in the Tagalog language. In 1986, Nafzger wrote the iconic feminist western novel, Gina of Quitaque. He currently lives in Holloway, North London. Contact: [email protected]
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