Bottle Buy: Italicus

If you're not already seeing this beautiful blue glass bottle everywhere, I can guarantee you will shortly. It belongs to Italicus Rosolio di Bergamotto. Not since St. Germain have I seen a new ingredient as talked about and adored. It launched in 2016 and won a number of awards the following year, including Best New Spirit or Cocktail Ingredient at Tales of the Cocktail.

Italicus is a Rosolio, a classic type of Italian liqueur. The name is comes from a species of sundew, Drosera rotundifolia, that was classically used to flavor the liqueur. The plant is called "ros solis" in Italy. Rosolios are also frequently flavored with rose petals, which makes many people (including me!) think that this is where the name comes from. Difford's Guide offers the best explanation and history of Rosolio that I have found if you're interested in reading more about the category in general. While many people outside of Italy are not familiar with Rosolio, within the country it is still frequently made (often at home) and consumed as an aperitivo.

Italicus was created by Giuseppe Gallo. Born in Campania, Italy, Gallo worked as a brand ambassador for Martini & Rossi and has an extensive knowledge of amari and vermouths. He was surprised that no one outside of Italy was drinking Rosolio. He wanted to create a new spirit, drawing on his Italian heritage. He used the citrus fruit Bergamot (the same one that flavors Earl Grey tea) to flavor the liqueur, remembering how his mother would flavor dishes with its zest. The Bergamot comes from nearby Calabria, where it has been grown for centuries and is frequently used in Rosolio. Gallo set out to make a Bergamot-flavored Rosolio that would be at home on a modern bar. "It was really important to me to add to it a modern twist, a new profile that would allow bartenders to play with an additional flavor," he told Tales of the Cocktail.

In addition to Bergamot, Italicus is flavored with cedar, chamomile, lavender, gentian, yellow rose, and lemon balm. It is bittersweet like an amaro, but much lighter, with notes of citrus and herbs. I get a slight menthol flavor from it that I did not expect. It's easy to mix with and makes a perfect aperitif. While its flavor speaks for itself, its beautiful bottle (designed by Stranger & Stranger) doesn't hurt either. It seems to me like a perfect example of a spirit where every aspect, from conception to creation to packaging to marketing, was done to perfection. It's been popping up in cocktails all over Boston and no doubt elsewhere as well.

Italicus

Price: $37
Alcohol Content: 20%
Popular Cocktails: Negroni Bianco Bergamotto, Ipalicus, Spritzicus, Gin and Italicus

While I'm not too keen on the "Spritizicus" moniker its creators gave it, a classic spritz made with Italicus is definitely an enjoyable aperitivo and a great way to try out this liqueur. A garnish of olives may seem strange, but it's a perfect contrast to the sweetness of the liqueur. If you like an Aperol Spritz, switch it up and try some Italicus.

Spritzicus

3 oz. Italicus
3 oz. prosecco

Build in a wine glass filled with ice. Stir briefly and garnish with three Castelvetrano or Gaeta olives.

Recipe from Italicus. Historical and brand information came mostly from Difford's Guide and Tales of the Cocktail.

Bottle Buy: Luxardo Bitter Bianco

Hello again! I haven't posted in a couple of weeks, though I've been quite active on Instagram - if I want to just snap a single photo of a drink it often ends up there instead of on here.  I've also had the opportunity to partner with some additional brands like The Elan Collective and Coco Sky on recent (and upcoming!) recipes. So be sure to check it out if you want some additional drinks and pictures!

Today I want to introduce one of my new favorite bottles: Luxardo Bitter Bianco. This herbal liqueur is a bitter like Campari, Aperol, or Suze. In fact, the popularity of swapping Suze for Campari to make White Negronis seems to have been one factor that influenced Luxardo's creation of the colorless Bitter Bianco. It's made with a number of different botanicals, including wormwood, quinine, rhubarb, cardamom, bitter orange, and three mystery herbs. While it is definitely a bitter liqueur, it has notes of bright citrus and a good bit of sweetness to it.

Versatility is usually one of my main criteria when I add a new bottle to my bar, but with this one I had a single drink in mind. I absolutely love a Negroni made with Luxardo Bitter Bianco. Called a Negroni Bianco, it's usually made with blanc or dry vermouth to keep it entirely colorless (while one made with Suze is called a White Negroni, even though it's actually yellow). I've got recipes for both of these in the Negroni Round-Up I posted not long ago. I honestly prefer the Negroni Bianco to a traditional Negroni, and if you're a Negroni newbie I think it's a perfect gateway cocktail. It's definitely less polarizing than the classic, while still keeping with the spirit of the drink.

But my love for the Negroni Bianco doesn't mean that Bitter Bianco isn't versatile. It's similar enough to Campari in spirit that you can safely try substituting it anywhere its bright red friend is called for. It's more approachable and less bitter than Campari, which might even make it more versatile. I haven't played with mine nearly enough because I can't stop making the same few delicious recipes with it.

Luxardo Bitter Bianco

Price: $25-30
Alcohol Content: 30%
Popular Cocktails: Negroni Bianco

Since I love the Negroni Bianco, I wanted to use the Luxardo in another riff on the Negroni, the Negroni Sbagliato. Translating roughly to "mistaken Negroni," this drink was supposedly invented when a bartender poured prosecco into a Negroni instead of gin. It doesn't exactly seem like an easy mistake to make, but we can suspend belief in favor of a good story.

The Negroni Sbagliato is usually made with equal parts sweet vermouth, Campari, and prosecco. Before I looked up the recipe, however, I had it in my head that it must be equal parts gin, Campari, and prosecco, and I was excited to take advantage of the Luxardo's lack of color to let the gorgeous purple of Empress Gin shine through. When I realized my mistake I decided to go ahead with my recipe anyway. And it's quite good - a lovely, bitter, sparkling aperitif. You can substitute a non-purple gin, or go with a more classic Sbagliato using dry or blanc vermouth instead.

Sbagliato Errato

1 oz. gin (Empress)
1 oz. Luxardo Bitter Bianco
2 oz. prosecco

Combine gin and Luxardo in a mixing glass with ice and stir until chilled. Strain into a champagne flute and top with prosecco. I garnished mine with dried orchid petals.

Mixology Monday: You Say Tomato

After a summer away, Mixology Monday is back! This month's host is Mr. Muddle, and the theme is vinegar. I'm pretty excited about it. I've only used vinegar in my cocktails twice: for the Bufala Negra and the Strawberry Balsamic Smash, both of which use a bit of balsamic vinegar. But if you're into cocktails, you probably know that the most common use of vinegar in cocktail recipes is the shrub.

Shrubs, also called drinking vinegars, are mixtures of fruit, sugar, and vinegar that are usually consumed with club soda or included in a cocktail. Shrubs were popular in colonial times, when the vinegar was used as a preservative for fruits and berries. Like just about every other old-timey cocktail ingredient, they're making a comeback in modern mixology. And with good reason. There are few ingredients as positively flavorful as a shrub.

I've only attempted to make a shrub once before, a black peppercorn and cranberry shrub following this recipe from With Food & Love. It did not come out well - it was way too vinegary and was basically undrinkable. I definitely should have added the vinegar bit by bit and tasted it until it was perfect. That scared me off of making my own shrubs for a while, but now I have the perfect excuse to try again.

As I was trying to decide what kind of shrub to make, my eyes fell on the cucumbers and tomatoes I had just harvested from my garden. I remembered a wonderful cocktail I had at Eastern Standard made with tomato shrub and cava, and figured...why not?

I followed the instructions for a cold-process shrub from this Food52 article that MrMuddle kindly provided. It takes a couple of days, but it's a pretty hands-off process, and very easy. You can make a shrub. Trust me.

I did find Food52's suggestion of one cup of sugar for half a pound of tomato to be too sweet. I'd possibly even use half the sugar. I didn't use as much vinegar as they recommended, either. If there's one thing I'm learning about shrubs, it's that you've got to taste as you go and ad-lib a lot. But I am so glad Mixology Monday convinced me to give them another chance - I love the finished product. It's delicious.

As for those cucumbers... stay tuned!

Tomato Shrub

8-10 oz. tomato, chopped
1/2 cup to 1 cup sugar
~6 tbsp. apple cider vinegar

Combine tomato and sugar in a bowl and stir to combine. (I mashed it, and I think this resulted in too much particulate matter floating in the shrub.) Cover the bowl with a dish towel and let sit on the counter for two days, stirring once a day. The tomatoes will release a lot of liquid. After 48 hours, strain the syrup into a measuring cup. I had about 1 cup of syrup, so if you've got more or less than that, adjust your vinegar accordingly. Stir in the vinegar one tablespoon at a time, tasting as you go. Consider setting aside half of your syrup before you add the vinegar, so you can even it out if you add too much.

Recipe adapted from Food52.

I don't remember the exact ingredients of the tomato shrub cocktail I had at Eastern Standard, but I liked the idea of mixing this shrub with some sparkling wine, so I decided to use it as my inspiration. I added gin, which went nicely with the shrub, and some grapefruit bitters to tone down the sweetness.

You Say Tomato

1 oz. gin
1 oz. tomato shrub
3 oz. prosecco
2 dashes grapefruit bitters

Combine gin, shrub, and bitters in a shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a champagne glass or coupe. Top with prosecco. Garnish with cherry tomatoes.