How to Make Your Own Italian Herbal Liqueur (Amaro alle erbe)

By
Kyle Phillips
Kyle Phillips
Food, wine, and travel writer Kyle Phillips lived in Tuscany and developed his passion and expertise for food and cooking through travel.
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Updated on 07/15/21
Alcoholic beverage on dinner table
Comstock Images / Getty Images
Prep: 5 mins
Cook: 0 mins
Total: 5 mins
Servings: 4 servings
Nutrition Facts (per serving)
629 Calories
6g Fat
82g Carbs
7g Protein
Show Full Nutrition Label Hide Full Nutrition Label
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4
Amount per serving
Calories 629
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 6g 7%
Saturated Fat 3g 15%
Cholesterol 13mg 4%
Sodium 78mg 3%
Total Carbohydrate 82g 30%
Dietary Fiber 7g 24%
Total Sugars 58g
Protein 7g
Vitamin C 58mg 288%
Calcium 262mg 20%
Iron 3mg 16%
Potassium 606mg 13%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

An amaro (meaning "bitter") is the quintessential Italian after-dinner cordial, an herbal liqueur made by infusing alcohol with a wide variety of herbs, roots, aromatics, and spices.

The major commercially produced varieties include Ramazzotti, Averna, Fernet-Branca and Amaro Montenegro and there are hundreds more. Many are made by monasteries throughout Italy, following centuries-old traditional recipes that were originally believed to have medicinal properties.

This recipe for a homemade version yields a simple amaro that's not too sweet and not too strong, about 30% alcohol. A tiny glass will be very tasty at the end of a meal, aiding digestion and spreading a pleasing warmth through your insides. It calls for some somewhat-obscure roots and spices. Your best bet for finding them would probably be a natural-foods store or a homeopathic pharmacy. Use dry vermouth for this recipe. Dry vermouth is often more citrusy, herbaceous, and will taste more floral than sweet vermouth.

A homemade amaro also makes for a really original—and much-appreciated—hostess or holiday gift.

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Ingredients

  • 5 lemon balm leaves

  • 5 sage leaves

  • 10 rosemary leaves

  • 1 flowered top European Centaury

  • 15 juniper berries

  • 5 whole cloves

  • 1 cinnamon stick, about 1/2-inch long

  • 1 piece Florentine iris root, (orris root), broken up into smaller pieces

  • 1 piece calamus root, sweet flag, broken up into smaller pieces

  • 1 piece yellow gentian root, bitter root, broken up into smaller pieces

  • 1 piece carline thistle root, broken up into smaller pieces

  • 2 milk thistle leaves, with flowers

  • 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons alcohol

  • 2 2/3 cups dry white vermouth

  • 2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather the ingredients.

  2. Macerate all of the herbs and spices in the grain alcohol for 5 days in a large glass jar, tightly closed. If it's warm and sunny out, wrap the jar in dark paper to keep the light out and set it in the sun to steep.

  3. At the same time, combine the vermouth and the sugar in a second glass jar, close it tightly, and store it in a cool, dark place for the same 5-day period; the sugar will gradually dissolve.

  4. After 5 days, strain the alcohol through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean glass bottle, stopper it, and store in a cool dark place. Transfer the strained herbs and spices to the vermouth-and-sugar jar and let them steep for another 7 days.

  5. Then strain the infused and sweetened vermouth through a fine-mesh sieve into the bottle with the infused alcohol. Let the mixture sit for 1 day, then filter (through a paper coffee filter). You can, at this point, transfer your homemade amaro into an elegant bottle, tightly corked. Let it age in a cool, dark place for at least 8 months.

  6. Enjoy!