"amaretto" news and stories

Happy National Amaretto Day!

This caramel, almond-flavored Italian cordial dates back to the 16th century, but is only recently beginning to gain popularity in the American cocktail landscape, as it wasn't imported to the U.S. until the 1960s. Served pure on the rocks or mixed into cocktails, Amaretto was named from the Italian term "amaro," meaning slightly bitter. The smooth almond flavor is the result of a unique mix of ingredients including kennel oil, burnt surgar, apricot and spices.

As is often the case, the exact origins of the drink are uncertain, though two Italian families claim to have created it. Inventors of the Lazzaroni Amaretto cookies, the Lazzaroni clan argue they created the cordial by extracting Amaretto from the cookies. Meanwhile, the Reina family argues the cocktail was created by a cuckholding wife who created the drink in her attempts to charm an associate of Leonardo Da Vinci with whom she was having an affair.

Though the drink inarguably has ties to the Italian town of Saronno, it is becoming increasingly popular with American mixologists and cooks, who use it for everything from cocktails to desserts.

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As pumpkin season lands upon us with a slightly squishy thud, allow me to share this recipe for pumpkin cocktails. These are always a huge hit at Thanksgiving, but also enjoyably appropriate for Halloween. Be aware that you need to prepare in advance to give the vodka time to infuse....

There was a brief period, somewhere around my sophomore year in college, when I drank a lot of Captain Morgan spiced rum. Looking back, it's not hard to see why I fell in love with the stuff: I've always been a big fan of root beer and cream soda, and Captain Morgan was like an alcoholic cross between mulled cider and cake frosting. It was sweet and spicy, and when I mixed it with cola, it tasted like a cream soda with overtones of lighter fluid.

After about a year, the love affair was over. Part of this was the fact that my tastes had wandered away from rum, and part was the fact that Captain Morgan's had gone from refreshingly tasty to cloyingly sweet. Mostly, I think, I had learned to enjoy the flavor of liquor and was no longer interested in drowning it under a mass of sugar and spice. With tears in my eyes, I bid farewell to the Captain and shifted my focus to other shores.

My thoughts returned to the Captain recently when I tried Rogue Spirits' Hazelnut Spice Rum. The "spiced rum" moniker, combined with the fact that Edward Teach is prominently featured on the bottle, led me to anticipate an aggressively seasoned, supersweet flavor; instead, I found a delicate, mild rum with a hint of vanilla, the slightest touch of spice, and the smooth, rounded flavor of hazelnuts. To put it mildly, this was a whole other ball game.

Having now tried and retried the Rogue rum, I don't really know how to characterize it. My tastes tend toward golden rums, notably Appletons Estate, and Rogue seems mild, almost delicate by comparison. Moreover, most of the hazelnut-flavored tipples that I've consumed have been hyper-sweetened, artificial, and aggressively nutty. Rogue, on the other hand, is subtle and sly, with a flavor that tastes very natural. It's odd to describe a flavored rum as "pure," but that's a pretty good description of this spirit. Basically, it's a spiced rum for grownups, as oxymoronic as that may sound.

The downside of Rogue's delicacy is that I could very easily see the flavor getting drowned out by mixers. The distillers suggest combining it with buttershot liqueur for a "butternut," or mixing a "fuzzy nuts" with Irish cream and Amaretto. While these sound interesting, I find it hard to imagine the flavor of this rum remaining intact when combined with stronger-tasting additives. Personally, I think I'm going to stick to the occasional shot on the rocks, slowly sipped to enjoy the complex blend of flavors!

Mmmm...hot chocolate. Is there any other drink that is so tied-in and associated with a season than hot chocolate's association with winter? It truly is the comfort drink of the season.

For this happy hour, I figured I'd find something that was hot chocolate, but kicked up a notch* for the adults who read Slashfood. This Grown-Up Hot Chocolate has Ghirardelli chocolate chips and cocoa as the main ingredient, along with amaretto. You can substitute a hazelnut, orange, or coffee liqueur or peppermint schnapps or extract. The link above has a bunch of other winter cocktail recipes too, including Baroque, Glogg, and Silk Stocking.

* Seriously, I don't mean this in an "Emeril Lagasse" sort of way.

So you have to work tomorrow, how about one more drink tonight before you go to bed?

This is the Chocolate Kiev. I'm not a big vodka drinker (ever since drinking too much in one night many years ago), so I'm not familiar with vanilla vodka, but this one sounds like it has a good kick but enough chocolate sweetness too.

Chocolate Kiev

1 oz hot cocoa mix
4 oz hot milk
1 oz vanilla vodka
3/4 oz Amaretto

Combine in a mug, and stir well.