Skip to main content

9 American Amari to Drink Now

Amaro is a simple category of spirit at its core — it’s basically a bittersweet liqueur made using a variety of botanicals and herbs as flavoring agents. There are amari from all corners of the world, although the category is typically associated with Europe, specifically Italy (the word “amaro” is Italian, after all) with popular brands like Amaro Montenegro, Amaro Averna, and Cynar. But there is a vibrant and growing American amaro category, with many expressions made using herbs and spices that are native to the area in which they are produced.

According to Sother Teague, beverage director at New York City’s all-amaro-everything bar Amor Y Amargo, the current state of American amaro is booming. “Distillers that are already making a spirit see the financial sense in using some of their distillate to expand their portfolio by creating amari,” he said. “And, because there are no real rules as to what can be used, anyone can get in the game by using something they already make as the base. It also allows them to showcase their skills as makers, and often they use botanicals to show off flavors local to their distillery.”

Here are eight American amari that are worth checking out.

Greenbar Grand Poppy and Grand Hops Amaro

Greenbar Grand Poppy and Grand Hops Amaro

LA’s Greenbar Distillery makes two different kinds of organic amari, Grand Poppy and Grand Hops, both made using a molasses spirit base. Grand Poppy is infused with poppy, citrus, pink peppercorn, and artichoke (among other ingredients), while Grand Hops is meant to recall the flavor of California IPAs by using different kinds of hops as flavoring. Both veer towards the sweeter side of the amaro flavor profile.

Bully Boy Amaro

Bully Boy Amaro

Bully Boy makes whiskey, rum, and this excellent amaro in its Boston distillery. There are 26 botanicals in the recipe, including grapefruit, yarrow, fig, and several different types of hops – Amarillo, Cascade, Citra, and Galaxy. It’s 58 proof, which is a bit higher than other amari, but that boosts its potential as a cocktail or spritz component, or just a nice sipper on its own.

Fernet Leopold Highland Amaro

Fernet Leopold Highland Amaro

Fernet is a particularly divisive type of amaro, with strong menthol flavors that people either tend to love or hate. Colorado’s Leopold Bros makes this 80 proof version of fernet using bitter roots, rose petals, elderflower, chamomile, and honeysuckle. The spirit is then put into Chardonnay barrels for aging before bottling.

Don Ciccio & Figli

Don Ciccio & Figli

Don Ciccio & Figli brings the Italian amaro tradition to DC, where the company makes a wide range of amari, perhaps more than any other American producer. These run the gamut from sweet to extra bitter, including the artichoke-based C3 Carciofo, cherry and blossom-infused Cerasum Aperitivo, and the light and Aperol-like Ambrosia. The amari from Don Ciccio are both traditional and modern, combining the best of old and new world flavors.

Tattersall Amaro

Tattersall Amaro

Up north in Minnesota, Tattersall Distilling is making a really impressive range of spirits, including this amaro. According to the distillery, this red-tinged spirit is made from bitter roots and barks, finished with macerated citrus, and bottled at 30%ABV. They also make a fernet and several different flavors of crema liqueur.

Breckenridge Bitter

Breckenridge Bitter

This is another amaro from Colorado, this time from Breckenridge Distillery, which is better known for its whiskey (distilled in-house and sourced). The bitter is made using alpine herbs, bitter roots, and dried fruit. The distillery recommends drinking it in a Wee Bitter – adding a shot of the amaro to a pint of your favorite IPA.

Lo-Fi Gentian Amaro

Lo-Fi Aperitifs make vermouth and amari with low ABVs to mix or sip on their own without getting a huge buzz. The Gentian Amaro is made using a fortified wine base with added cane sugar and grape concentrate. Then botanicals like sweet citrus, ginger, cinchona bark, and of course bitter root extracts are infused into the mix. This amaro is light and very nice to drink with some ice.

Baltamaro

Baltamaro

Baltimore Spirits Company has been making a name for itself with its Epoch rye whiskey, but these amari are some of the most interesting on this list. There are three different expressions – a fernet aged in a rye barrel, a coffee amaro, and a Szechuan amaro that has just enough spice to wake up your palate.

Peach Street Amaro

Peach Street Amaro

Peach Street is another Colorado distillery making its own version of amaro, this one from a grape spirit base. Botanicals are macerated for around a month, according to the distillery. These include blue juniper, chamomile, cocoa nibs, Orris root, Tasmanian pepper berry, and many others. Agave nectar is also added to balance the bitterness.

Editors' Recommendations

Why you should sous vide your baby back ribs this summer
Once you make your baby back ribs this way, you'll never go back
why you should sous vide baby back ribs

Summertime is coming, and that means ribs. Sweet and spicy, fall-off-the-bone, savory, meaty, delicious ribs. And while you may already have your grilled or baked ribs mastered, we bet you haven't yet tried sous vide ribs.
Before you roll your eyes at the idea of something as primitive and macho as ribs being prepared in something as modern and geeky as a sous vide machine (how dare you), hear us out. You're going to want to try this the next time you get that delivery from .

Sous vide ribs are more tender (and customizable)
We're sure your grilled or baked ribs are tender. But not like this. Really.

Read more
The difference between pies, buckles, betties, and more
A crumble or a cobbler? It's time to learn the difference
5 different pies from East Bay Pie Co.

Summertime will be here before we know it, and that means pie. It also means a lot of other delicious desserts that masquerade as pie but actually have names all of their own. So if you've been making the faux paux of calling a Pandowdy a Pie, or a Betty a Buckle, it's high time to learn the ins and outs of proper pastry names. Here are a few of the most common mix-ups.
Cobbler

A traditional cobbler is baked in a casserole dish instead of a pie plate. The fruit filling sits directly on the bottom, without a base dough, and then biscuit dough is dropped on top and baked in large rounds on the surface.
Crumble

Read more
Colombian or Kona coffee: Which is the superior drink?
Colombian or Kona coffee: Sweet and spicy, or rich and chocolatey? Which do you prefer?
Ways to Make Coffee

If you're anything of a coffee connoisseur, you're well aware that coffee beans come from coffea plants, which is grown all around the world. Depending on your preference of flavor, boldness, and acidity, you may already have a preferred location from where your coffee originates. Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Honduras, and Vietnam all grow a delicious bean. And while all of these types and their rich, complex flavors are worth exploring, the two coffee varieties that people seem to be the most drawn to at the moment are Kona and Colombian.

While there are over 120 varieties of coffea plant, and each makes its own unique bean, coffee beans are usually broken down into four categories of flavor: Arabica, Robusta, Liberica, and Excelsa.

Read more