What We're Drinking: Averna Amaro in Cocktails

Tuesdays with Mole Cocktail

In the west of Sicily, just outside the town of Caltanissetta, across the Salso river, and rolling golden hills is the Abbey of Santo Spirito.  Like the neighboring town that was first settled in 406 BC, the abbey is rich with history. For centuries the monks treasured a secret formula for their liqueur.  In 1854 the friars of the Benedictine Order that operated the abbey, awarded their "patrone" Salvatore Averna the secret recipe for their proprietary elixir - an herbal spirit that would become iconic Averna Amaro.

Don Averna, clearly knowing he had a real blessing on his hands, formed the Fratelli Averna in 1868 and began making Averna Amaro. Salvatore's son Francesco, however, is credited for expanding the brand in the early years and began distributing the award winning spirit throughout the continent.  Averna became Sicily's first licensed spirit. To this day, the company is still run by the Averna family.

Averna is distilled from a blend of flowers, herbs, dried fruits, citrus rinds, and licorice. After the key ingredients are soaked in neutral grain alcohol, then caramel is added. The resulting amaro has a complex but unique taste that is full bodied with a bitter sweet finish.

Typically, amari such as Averna were considered digestivi (digestives or after dinner drinks) in Italian culture. However, as the mixology renaissance continues and bartenders expand their palette of base and modifiers, amari are gaining renewed popularity.

One of my favorite cocktails that uses Averna Amaro was created by my friend Damon Dyer for the Averna cocktail competition held in Taormina, Sicily in 2008:

Tuesdays with Mole
by Damon Dyer

1oz Gosling's Black Seal rum (I used Cruzan Black Strap)
1 oz VSOP cognac (I used Remi Martin)
3/4 oz Averna Amaro
1/2 oz  lemon juice
1/2 oz demerara syrup
one egg white

Bittermen's Xocolatl Mole bitters

Damon's instructions: "Shake with large cubes, after 5 seconds, stop, and hand the shaker to the nearest attractive woman, let her shake it for another 10 seconds. Trust me. Strain into a coupe or footed sour glass. Drop 5-6 drops of Bittermen's Xocolatl Mole bitters on top of foam and run a thin straw through them."

Damon's commentary on the flavor profile: "The recipe specs are fairly straight ahead. The rum and cognac are spirits that play well together, while the lemon acts simply to separate the Averna's earthy complexity from its caramel sweetness. The egg white, meanwhile, softens any hard edges, and brings the amaro's aromas to the top"

I would add one modification to the above, dry shake the ingredients first and then add ice.

Where to get it: Clover Club in Brooklyn or Lani Kai in SoHo when Damon is rolling drinks and preferably on a Tuesday.

- Fredo

What We're Drinking: Benedictine - from Monte Cassino to the Cinquecento

Last month, barkeeper Damon Dyer's Monte Cassino won critical acclaim and the title of official cocktail for the 500th Anniversary of DOM Benedictine Liqueur. I caught up with Mr. Dyer at the Flatiron Lounge on a slow Friday night. He began rolling the award winning cocktail as soon as I sat down and we discussed how he came up with the winning recipe.

To appreciate the cocktail's building blocks, one must understand history. Mr. Dyer chose the ingredients and the name based upon the story of the Benedictine monks of the Abbey of Monte Cassino. The monastery located southeast of Rome was founded by St Benedict of Nursia in 529 AD. Yes - the Saint Benedict who went on to establish the eponymous order of monks. The same Order that produces DOM (Deo Optimo Maximo) Benedictine liqueur.

The monastery served as the headquarters of the Order of Saint Benedict and history has not been kind to the structure or it's inhabitants.  It was sacked and destroyed several times during the middle ages by marauding invaders, such as the Lombards and the Saracans. The monks rebuilt it again and again. In 1321, an  earthquake seriously damaged the structure but still the monks rebuilt. The coupe de grace seemed to occur during the Second World War when the abbey was destroyed by the Allied bombers in 1944. However, the Monks' faith and determination to rebuild remained unwavering.

Strength and simplicity are central to the monks lives and the perseverance behind Monte Cassino. These principles are the cornerstone to the cocktail's balance. Rittenhouse Rye (Bonded) is the perfect representation of that strength and compliments the complexity of Benedictine's 27 herbs and spices. Yellow Chartreuse another monastic produced liqueur keeps the "Last Word " proportions honest but also adds another layer of flavor and balances the final ingredient, fresh lemon juice. The result is a well balanced cocktail is refreshing, produces a subtle earthy flavor, has the strength of serious cocktail, and is relatively easy to execute. 

MONTE CASSINO
By Damon Dyer

3/4 DOM Benedictine
3/4 Yellow Chartreuse
3/4 Rittenhouse Bonded Rye
3/4 Fresh Lemon 

 Combine in shaker, add ice, and shake until stingingly cold. Strain into a coupe and garnish lemon peel.

While, Mr. Dyer built my second Monte Cassino, I ran a drink idea by him. Since reading about the 500 year anniversary of DOM Benedictine contest last year, I have been tinkering with my own recipe that honors the liqueur but also tips the trilby to the iconic Italian macchina, the Fiat Cinquecento ("500" in Italian). In other words, DOM meets MOD, a drink that you could have in Torino or West London or Brooklyn. May I introduce a delicious new aperitivo! 

THE CINQUECENTO
by Fredo

1 1/2 oz Luksusowa Vodka
1/2 oz DOM Benedictine
1/2 oz Campari
3/4 Grapefruit juice
2 dashes of Angostura bitters 

Combine in bar glass, add ice, and shake rigorously until chilled. Double Strain into a coupe and garnish with grapefruit peel. 

Where to get the Monte Cassino - find Mr. Dyer at Flatiron Lounge (37 West 19th Street, New York, NY 1001) or Louis 649 (649 East 9th Street, New York, NY 10009), tell him Fredo sent ya! 


(Photo courtesy of Liquor.com)