Amaro The spirited world of bittersweet, herbal liqueurs with cocktails, recipes and formulas

Europeans have been enjoying bittersweet liquors for hundreds of years, but Americans have only recently begun to appreciate the flavor profiles of this class of liqueurs. Collectively known as amari in Italian, they display a broad range of flavors, and Parsons (Bitters: A Spirited History of a Classic Cure-All) does a terrific job of showcasing them in this collection of over 100 recipes. Parsons begins at the beginning, recounting the history of amaro and highlighting some of the genre's most passionate bartenders and their respective bars before digging into specific brands: Campari, Luxardo, Cynar, Jagermeister, and dozens of lesser-known but equally interesting varieties. Parsons's recipes are painfully specific in regard to ingredients and preparation for the book's cocktails, but once readers have a shelf of amari and a few good bottles of gin, bourbon, or rum on hand, they'll find that the vast majority of the book's recipes come together with a minimum of fuss. Classics such as the boulevardier and negroni are hard to mess up and can serve as a gateway to more nuanced cocktails such as the cynara, a mix of bourbon, Aperol, and Cynar cooled with an ice cube infused with bitters. And if that isn't enough, Parsons closes with a chapter on crafting one's own amari and tips for incorporating the liqueurs into milkshakes and other desserts. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

American tastes in food and beverage can often veer toward obvious and sweet. James Beard Award-winning author Parsons opens a door to the bitter and nuanced flavors of the variety of (mostly) Italian liqueurs known as amaro. Digging into what this somewhat imprecise label encompasses, he introduces and extols a range of beverages that draw on such disparate ingredients as rhubarb, orange peel, wormwood, and gentian root. As for when and how to drink amaro, he suggests multiple options, from a typical use as a postmeal digestif to incorporating the liqueurs into cocktails. He follows up with an abundance of recipes capped by noncocktail alternatives such as milkshakes and a variation on rum balls, and even includes information about making versions of the beverages at home. Some recipes are specialized, but readers should be able to manage many of them. VERDICT Bitter flavors may not be for everyone, but Parsons succeeds at opening up exciting possibilities to try at home or seek out at bars.-Peter Hepburn, Coll. of the Canyons Lib., Santa Clarita, CA © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

NEGRONI SBAGLIATO Milan's venerable Bar Basso opened in 1947, and in 1967, Mirko Stocchetto, a bartender from Venice, took over the bar and started adding cocktails to the menu to compete with the city's larger hotels and cafés. His son Maurizio Stocchetto now runs Bar Basso and you'll still find a menu of "Classic Cocktails from the Old School" behind the bar, including the White Russian, brandy Alexander, Grasshopper, and Gibson, but the Italian cocktail made famous at Basso is the Negroni Sbagliato. Sbagliato means "messed up" or "bungled" in Italian, and as the younger Stocchetto tells it, one night in the late 1960s or early 1970s a bartender had accidentally swapped the gin with a bottle of spumante. When his father was making a customer's Negroni he reached for the spot on the bar where the gin was always kept but instead added the dry sparkling wine to the mix of Campari and vermouth. "The customer said, 'Let's try it.' And he didn't complain." When I asked Stocchetto how many Negroni Sbagliatos he served each day, he just sighed and said "too many." They normally serve it in a comically large hand-blown stemmed glass, the kind of fishbowl-sized vessel you're more likely to encounter at a bachelorette party spilling out onto Bourbon Street, but when I ordered one he insisted on making mine in the standard rocks glass. He reminisced about hanging out at the bar as a boy, but he really lit up telling me about his time living in San Francisco in his twenties. His love of the Beats, jazz, and the NHL play-offs remains strong, but he's particularly entertained by the American fast-food advertisements shown during his beloved hockey games. Taking a pause from serving a customer a supersized Sbagliato, he looked at me and smiled in wonder, "At Subway, they'll put guacamole on anything you want!" MAKES 1 DRINK 1 ounce Campari 1 ounce sweet vermouth 1 ounce Prosecco or sparkling wine Garnish: orange slice or orange zest  Build the Campari, vermouth, and Prosecco in an old-fashioned glass filled with ice. Stir and garnish with the orange slice or orange zest. Excerpted from Amaro: The Spirited World of Bittersweet, Herbal Liqueurs with Cocktails, Recipes, and Formulas by Brad Thomas Parsons All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.