Anecdote #1
Sometimes, for a lark, I like to mix equal portions of every amaro in the house with soda. The results are always different, but always interesting and surprisingly well balanced.
Anecdote #2
Amor y Amargo in New York (one of the city's few redeeming features) makes a delicious 8 Amaro Sazerac, in which a blend of 8 amari take the place of rye.
Anecdote #3
A certain drinker refuses all cocktails in favor of vodka on the rocks with lime. The one exception to this rule is that if I mix something bitter, she will pour the dregs into her glass for a touch of extra flavor. A few times I have considered just pre-mixing a few amari for this purpose.
Conclusion
Clearly I have to make an amaro blend of my own.
For some reason, I got it into my head that I should make this blend solera style. The plan is to fill a liter bottle as well as a half liter bottle with a blend of amari. When the smaller bottle is empty, it will be refilled from the large one, which will in turn be topped off with more amari. What the larger bottle is replenished with will depend on what's available at the time, as well as any flavor adjustments that I'd like to make.
First fill
After a quick rummage through the cabinet, I settled on 12 bottles to start with.
- Luxardo Amaro Abano
- Aperol
- Cynar
- Amer DeHainaut
- Knight Gabriello Amaro di Toscana
- Genepy des Alpes
- Leopold Bros. Aperitivo
- Fernet Leopold
- Meletti Amaro
- Montenegro Amaro
- Ramazzotti Amaro
- Suze
I reached this selection by removing a few duplicate flavors. In the case of Campari and Fernet, I used the Leopold Bros. versions because they are both kind of weird, and I haven't been using them for much else. I left out China-China in favor of Amer DeHainaut for obvious supply reasons. I used standard Cynar rather than Cynar 70 because I don't need to be blotto every time I taste this stuff. I left out Green Chartreuse and used the the somewhat similar Genepy des Alpes because of the price difference.
I decided not to over think things and made the first batch with 2 ounces from each bottle (not a full liter yet, but I'll work up to that.) The result is pretty good for something so random. The Fernet Leopold is pretty dominant in the nose and after-taste, but the rest is fairly well balanced. With soda, the Fernet settles down considerably.
After pouring 500ml into the big bottle (and the remainder into the small one) I filled it up with:
- 1 oz Aperol (the end of the bottle)
- 4 oz Cynar
- 4 oz Campari
- 4 oz Ramazzotti
- 4 oz Meletti
I will have to wait and see what it tastes like now.