Ladies and gentlemen, you're listening to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I'm Greg, I do communications at Binny's. I'm Pat, I do specialty spirits. Bob, wine buyer. Roger, I do beer. We can't just let Bob sneak in like that. Glossed over Bob being on the podcast. We have a very special guest today who doesn't have anything to do with the topic that we're talking about. Bob Calamia has been a wine buyer at Binny's forever, but one of his loves, that he's not totally burnt out on, is also one of my loves, and that is Amaro, which is my favorite spirits category. I think Bob's too probably, and it's a wide-ranging, broad category with not a lot of rules and regulations, and there's a lot of variety in it, and there's a lot of fun stuff to drink and talk about. So, I mean, first and foremost, what is an Amaro? Amaro is the Italian word for bitter, so it encompasses this broad category of bittersweet Italian of course. They are almost always bitter and sweet, and there are many, many different styles. We're going to taste a bunch of them today, including, Roger was laughing at me before we started recording here, that there is a style of Amaro. Most people who think they've never had an Amaro in their life, I always ask them if they've had Jägermeister. They say yes, of course, and it's like, well, you've had an Amaro. That style of Amaro is called a Croucher Liquor. That's not how you win over fans though. There's nothing wrong with Jägermeister. Come on, we've all been there. 20 years ago, maybe. Yeah. Hey, it's coming back. Jägermeister and root beer, great drink, underappreciated. That's how they drink it there. It's not sweet enough for me. Yeah. So also, what sometimes people don't realize are part of this family of Amari is things like Campari or Aperol, these red bitters. And if you ask someone in Italy if that is an Amaro, they're going to tell you, of course not. That's a bitters. And Amaro means bitter. And their big point of differentiation is when you drink these, when you enjoy these. So before a meal, you have a bitters, a red bitters. After a meal, after dinner, when it's dark outside, is when you're going to have a brown Amaro. So we're kind of starting with my favorite of the red bitter family, and my kind of pick for alternative to those mainstream Aperol's Campari's. And this is from a company called Capoletti. So this would be an aperitivo as opposed to a digestivo? Correct. And now unique among this, this is also what's known as a Vien Amaro. So this is an Amaro with a wine base instead of a distilled spirit base. So it's really kind of a vermouth and it needs because it's a wine base, it needs to be treated with wine. So when this bottle is open, you need to keep it refrigerated and you should consume it within a couple weeks. Is that true for Campari and Aperol and others? That is not true for Campari and Aperol. Those have a base of distilled spirit. So usually what separates Amaro from vermouth is that vermouth is a spirit that gets macerated with botanicals and herbs and stuff, that then gets added to a base wine. With an Amaro, you have a neutral spirit, usually a grape base spirit that's been distilled to neutrality. It gets macerated in this custom secret formula botanical mixture. They all treat them. Everybody over there thinks they're Colonel Sanders with their secret recipe for Amaro. Nobody will tell you everything. They'll tell you a couple key, like we're going to taste one later that has saffron in it. Of course, they're going to brag about putting saffron in it. But most of them are very, very secretive about their ingredients. Then you have this concentrate of neutral spirit macerated with the stuff that then gets watered down, sugar gets added to it, and coloring gets added to it. Aperitivo, Capoletti, Vino, Amaro, Vino. Vino Amaro. Now, this is colored with carmine. You guys know what carmine is? The beetles. Yes, same thing as coquineal. So that is a coquineal beetles that are dried up and mashed up into a red powder, and that's how we get our red color in this. You probably want to keep some of that to yourself. No, I don't care. I mean, that's just what it is. Why? Would you rather have that or would you rather have red number whatever? Nature made this man. Come on. Yeah, not vegan friendly though. Suck on that, vegans. Oh, yeah. Yeah, suck on that, vegans. So I really like this though because it's kind of, it's a little more bitter than Aperol. It's a little less sweet than Aperol, but it isn't as bracingly bitter as Campari. Campari is stronger, more bitter. Aperol is just a little more citrusy and stuff. This I just like as a fun alternative, but again, you do have to keep it refrigerated though. Quick question, Frey. When you serve these, do you drink this neat on the rocks, one cube, two cubes? I drink it on the rocks usually with a citrus peel twist. I keep it pretty simple. Sometimes if I feel it's a little sweet or a little syrupy, I'm going to add some soda water to it, club soda to it. Just drink it up a bit. Usually an ice cube. Yeah. Yeah. I think this would most adeptly be served in one of those little plastic vials that you deliver liquid medicine to your children, because this tastes like penicillin. It's overly sweet and horrifically bitter on the finish. Oh man. Roger, we're just getting started. It's going to be a long day for you. Yeah, this is going to be a long day for you. So next, we're gonna try one of the best-selling Amari in our store, and I know Bob's got a bottle list open in his office too, and that's Nonino's Amaro. Nonino's a big Grappa producer as well. And I don't know if they're actually bottling wine there, do you, Bob? I don't think they are, and I haven't bothered to find out. I love this one for the aromatics. If I do a course of them like five or six, this is always the first one I start with. Yeah, so it makes sense to start with this first, because this is, as styles of Amari go, this is a light Amaro. So you're going to see light Amaro would cover something like no Nino here, or also Amaro Del Capo, which is pretty popular one of our stores. Notably here, this guy is aged in Sherry barrels and limousine oak barrels. Limousine oak, French forest famous for making cognac casks. So limousine oak, Sherry casks, it has the known ingredients are gentian, rhubarb, tamarind, licorice, saffron, cinchona. It smells like one of those chocolate oranges. It smells delicious. Yeah. Absolutely fantastic. It's a pretty citrus for it Amaro. I like them personally a little more woodsy and bitter. Like the walnuts, yeah. This is definitely the approachable easy drinking Amaro. This is the one you should start with. Well. I love it. The thing about Nonino is, I think aromatically it's one of the most complex ones you're going to find. A lot of these other ones as they get heavier, can kind of hit one note or two notes like a walnut or some certain herb or a cherry, where this one just has a whole range of, yeah. It's a complex nose, and I like that it's not particularly syrupy. So we're going to taste some soon actually that are going to be pretty thick and syrupy, and those ones I definitely would recommend serving over ice with some soda water. This is on the syrupy side. Yeah. Just wait. Roger, are you going to **** on this one? It's only going to get worse. Look where we started with Roger. No, I mean, this one's not too bad. This is very citrus forward. I like the chocolate orange comparison. Bitterness is pretty muted. Pat, where do these fall alcohol wise? Amaro usually falls between 18 and 40 percent alcohol. Everyone here, and most people listening, has probably heard of Fernet before, Fernet Branca. Fernet is actually a style of Amaro. When an Amaro producer saves the use of the word Fernet for usually traditionally their strongest and most bitter Amaro. That usually is associated with chewing tobacco and bubble gum? Yeah. Fernet Branca is known for having that intensely menthol-y character. Fernets don't have to be particularly minty like that, but they usually and often are. Which one is this? Montenegro? This is Montenegro. This has long been one of our best sellers. It's in a funny traditional shape bottle. Gallo actually bought these guys recently and took over the import and everything. I think when you go to Italy, just about every restaurant will have that on the shelf. It's everywhere. That's one of the things I remember from being in Florence. Do you get more of a woodsy herbal thing? That's usually a sign of gentian root. It tends to have a woodsy bitterness to it. This has a mintiness to it too. This reminds me a lot of root beer. Sarsaparilla. Yeah. Root beer, sarsaparilla, kola nut, that kind of stuff is pretty common in here. I would usually recommend this to people as a good beginner. They're open in saying that there is vanilla and orange peel in this, but they're pretty tight-lipped about the rest of it. There's definitely some baking spices in there too. It's light and fresh. We've talked earlier about how Amaro are traditionally used as a digestivo. What's interesting about that is the way that actually works. The reason we use these bitter liqueurs as digestives or aperitifs is because your body has built this natural evolutionary response over millions of years around poisons. Most poisonous things in nature, most plants that are poisonous, things like that, are almost all the time bitter. So when your body ingests something bitter, your natural response is it salivates, your gastric juices start going, it wants to force that bitter thing out of your body as soon as possible. And that's why these work as aperitifs and digestives. It really does work. Dad, now can you explain why I like hot sauce? Because you're an animal. Endorphins. Yeah. Is that why? No. Well, I mean, it opens up the nasal cavity so I can. I like it because it opens the nasal cavity. Yeah. But Greg goes in that intense hot, where you literally get a euphoric high from the heat. It's like dopamine or something. There's some drug associated with it, if you're into that kind of thing. So going around next, I like this one a lot. It is pretty syrupy. This is Mileti, and this is, I alluded to earlier, had some saffron in it. So it's got anise, saffron, and violet actually in it. I've never had saffron. You're not missing much. I always wanted to just bring the 18 bucks to get the saffron from Amazon or wherever. I went to the display shop with Bogue down, and they keep the saffron in a locked cabinet. They think it is some bottle or a gallon or something. Yeah. Both the clerks have to turn the key at the same time. You got the football. These are all in cool bottles too. Yeah, they all have old school labels, things like that. It's part of the charm. So when I started working at Binny's, we had maybe three different Amaro on the shelf, I want to say. We had no Nino, we had Montenegro always, and there might have been another one or maybe down in the city a couple more. Now it's gotten popular to the point where we actually had to put an Amaro sign in our store in Lincoln Park because we have that much Amaro and so many people were looking for it. We've got a solid half aisle of just Amaro. Now it's time for me to get out of it. Once it gets that popular, which is crazy. Your favorite band has sold out. Right. Aren't there certain bars downtown that have like for Nat On Tap? No, I haven't seen it. I know of a bar downtown that has Angostura Bitters on tap. That's weird. Which they pour floaters over pints of highlife. It's awesome. All right. Maletti, Amaro Maletti. Yes. I dig it. Sweet though. It's getting into that Woodsy men's cologne quality. Getting there, not quite there yet. Stetson. Yeah, I was thinking Coleman. Smells good like a man should. What do you think of that one, Roger? It's definitely perfumed. It's got a, I don't know, real citrusy. Citrusy, I like that floral character. It's not overly perfumey. You know, it's not like Bombay gin perfumey. Yeah, it is starting to get kind of bitter now. Yeah, well, we're gonna get more bitter. If you let it sit there for a bit, yeah. So, up next is Zucca Rebarbaro, which is actually a style of Amaro as well. A Rebarbaro is a rhubarb Amaro. So, rhubarb, even if you're not calling it out as a rhubarb, rhubarb is a very common botanical used in Amaro. So, you can immediately smell here more of that, what I was kind of calling a woodsy bitterness. That thing looks like it's from your grandfather's garage, and that it was holding something other than rhubarb-uro. Or like motor oil or something like that. This smells like potting soil. Zucca rhubarb-uro. Is it okay to say if you don't like it? Oh, yes, of course. Okay. I mean, none of these things work in a vacuum. As you go down the line, your palate kind of gets adjusted to them. It's really hard to say what this tastes like. But this one is probably my least favorite of all of them. It does taste like something that came out of your lawnmower. I think it's quite lovely. It's got kind of a vegetal cut to it, I agree, with these guys. Anybody getting some quinine in there? Yes. Yes. So quinine comes from cinchona bark. There's a style of Amaro called a chinachina, sometimes pronounced China China and spelled China China. That is from the Italian pronunciation of the cinchona tree, which is a tree native to Peru that when Jesuit missionaries were over there, missionarying and pillaging and whatnot. Air quotes, folks. Air quotes, yes. They all came down with malaria, of course, and the natives there had told them about these trees, and if they could make this tea out of this bark, they'd feel better, and they brought that back. Malaria was quite a problem around Rome at the time, and then quinine just became the global anti-malarial for decades and decades and decades. And that's kind of also why these were so popular, is they had to figure out a way to get this kind of medicinal component for these various ailments to taste not like total sh**, like tree bark and stuff. So that's where you add the different botanicals and the sugar to it. It's definitely higher up the poison scale. Higher up the poison scale. It's a bit earthy on the nose, but I think it's still a good balance of like, a good balance of botanical and bitter and sweet on the palate. Any of these not from Italy? None of the ones we're tasting, no. No one else would bother. Well, there's some, you know, tattoo sleeve Pacific Northwesterners that are- Yeah, we're definitely, you know, there's Amaro coming around all over the place now, which has kind of caused a bit of a stir because now the Italians are out there trying to say that they need AOC production for the word Amaro, and I'm kind of of So where else, like Spain has to be doing some of this? Oh yeah, everywhere. I mean Germany. Germany? Oh, Crowder, of course, yeah. Yeah, the Nordic countries make- Scandinavia. Yeah, I mean, they have Akavit, which is really just flavored vodka, but it's a neutral spirit, then it gets infused usually with caraway or dill. Not quite as bitter for this, but it's used for the same purpose. After you have this really rich meal of preserved fish and pork, that's what they traditionally drink afterwards up there. Sounds like a hoot, doesn't it? Sounds like a party is what it sounds like. Dude, that one, it just keeps going on and on. I cannot get that out of my. You are not prepared for what is coming later. I know. I'm just telling you right now. Not a fan of the rhubarb-o, Roger? Never rub another man's rhubarb on it. It's a joker quote. So going around next year, another one I really love, this is Amaro del Etna. Shocking by the name, it actually comes from Sicily, and it's made with a variety of things found on the foothills of Mount Etna, and also, of course, because it's Sicily, some bitter orange as well, though. So that's something you really see in Italian amari. Northern Italian stuff tends to be more like the woodsy kind of bitter. Southern Italian almost always relies on the bitter orange peel. This is nice. This is kind of like the Montenegro, but not as sweet. Not as heavy. Citrus. Yeah, I like the lighter body on this. There's more mint up front though. It kind of straddles that northern, southern style. So a lot of the northern Italian Amari are of a style of Amaro called Alpine, which is what we're going to taste next, which tends to have very typical Alpine flowers. They tend to be very piney, woodsy, things like that. I think this does a good kind of straddling act of that woodsy, piney, but then also like a nice, bittersweet orange peel thing going on. That's a good one. Yeah, I like it. When I taste these, I get them as gifts a lot. People know that I like olive oil and Amaro or Marie, but I don't look for fine detail or fine grain in them. I just assess the general sweetness level, the quality of the aromatics. Is it bright and floral? Is it citric or not? I look for the size and the shape of it, and that's what I like. This is exactly what I'd be looking for. Like if I could distill it all down and put one in a bottle on my desk, that would be it. That's a great Amaro. You heard it straight from our token Italian guy. From a guy with not one, but two vowels at the end of his name. All right. This one is probably my all-time favorite, and this is a quintessential alpine style Amaro. This is Braulio. The gastric juices are flowing, everyone. Those juices is flowing. Look at that label, Roger. How can you drink this and just not be risked away to the alpine foothills? I feel like someone should be yodeling. I feel like it should be you. Of course, he can. Of course. Yeah. For people who can't see this label, it's a bucolic painting of botanicals in front of some white-capped alpine mountains, majestically thrusting up into the pale blue sky that is just the color of your grandma's decorative soaps. It smells like soap. It smells like your grandma's medicine cabinet. Yeah, it does. There's a lot of wormwood in here for sure. Oh, wow. I love this one. I like this. I swear to God, my grandpa had this Coleman Lantern full of cologne. It was Coleman cologne. It smelled just like this. Yeah, this tastes like cologne. And the aftertaste. Oh, that's better. Plenty of aftertaste. We need the aftertaste. What's the bitterness coming from here, do you think? A root? Wormwood, gentian root for sure. Wormwood, though. You're getting close to Malort here. Oh, we're not even close. Actually, this is gentian, juniper, wormwood, and yarrow are the known botanicals in Braulio. Pine, menthol, good alpine amount. It's very pining. That's what I'm saying. That alpine style, man. It's good. It's not syrupy at all either, really. A little bit, but it's the same kind of syrupy as all the others were. I mean, I think this would be a little more pleasant over ice. Yeah, this one, I'd put a couple of cubes in it. Yeah. I usually stick to one of the big two by two cubes, and then it chills it down a bit, it waters it down a bit, but it doesn't really cut it. This smells like you ever used those. Greg's rolling his eyes in my ice cube choice. I mean, whatever, it's fine. I have some ice cubes that look like the Death Star. Yeah, I have frigid air ice cubes. They get them out of the thing at home. That's it. This smells like those natural bug sprays, like buzz away, the alternatives to the deep ones. So, this is a really interesting one. We're into Bob's office Amaro stash here. This is the private stash? Yeah, this is from Varnelli, and it's Amaro del Urborista. And this one, they actually smoke the botanicals over wood, and then they add them. And it's pretty unfiltered, too. It's got this cloudy look, so Roger the Hazy Boy Adamson should like it. It's natural. Yeah. It's gotta be good, it's natural. This looks like it's not approved for sale in the United States. Oh, no, we carry this one. I bought it in the store, yeah. Dude, it looks like mud. Yeah, this is also what... There's a smoked rhubarb Amaro called Sfumato out there, also made by Capoletti, that looks like this, but even murkier. It's pretty interesting. I like the aroma on this a lot. This is one of the first aromas I had where I realized these things change over time. When I first opened the bottle, I got a lot more citrus, more lemon, and as time went on, everything got a little bit more muted. It just lost a bit of its freshness. But it takes a while, maybe a month. Nice, bitter finish. Very bitter finish. You got some sulfur on the nose. It's got a little bit of fireworks that match the black cats. A little bit of spray paint. Thanks. F*** you when you're f***ing Amaro. My favorite child. It tastes like you black cats and spray paint. On the mean streets of Council Bluffs. So do you guys, when you talk about these things, you ever talk about the value, how much these cost, or what you would buy if you were starting out? That's a good question. I would buy Montenegro if I was starting out because it provides a pretty good value. Mileti is actually an excellent value. It's only $18 for $750, which is one of the best deals in the store. Both Amaro, Delatino and Braulio, I believe Delatino is $35 and Braulio is $40. They might both be $40. So they're a little high for Amaro. Nonino for as much as a starter Amaro as it is, it's actually like $60 or $55. It's not cheap, no. Yeah. But when you consider it's Asian limousine oak and Sherry wood, it's pretty understandable for the price. The Varnelli is pretty expensive too, right? $65. Yeah, that's one of the most expensive Amaro we carry. But these things have such distinct personalities. You spend the money because there's nothing else like it. Correct. That's it. What have we got? The Zucca Rebarber, I want to say is only like $30, pretty solid value. Capoletti Aperitivo is only like $18 too, $22, something like that. I would never drink that. I can't imagine a place where I would ever drink that. The Montenegro as an awesome. I mean, if I was in Italy on somebody's yacht somewhere in the Cinque Terre or something like that and so they would you like this instead of an Aperol Spritz? I'd go, yeah, sure. I'd have one. So if you didn't want to offend some rich guy, you would have one. Final try. How much deeper are we going here? We got three more to try. We don't know. I don't know. Two of them are from my office and I haven't tried them yet. This one is the bell of the ball, as Joe Maloney would say. Really? Yeah. Next, we're going to try this one from Berta. Berta is a grappa producer that we do carry some of their grappas. This is straight from Italy though, it looks like for Bob, 30 percent alcohol, Amaro di Erbe. Is that Italian for herb? Yeah. Ingredients, alcohol, brandy, sugar, flavorings, infusions, and distillates of selected herbs and aromatic roots. So, they're really none of your business. The transparency is just key here. Secret stash, Amaro. We're tasting it so you don't have to. I'm giving the best nose to this one thus far. Better than none, yeah. I mean, it's the most unique, I think. It's got berry fruit in it. Yeah, there's some red fruit in here and there's a bit of anise. Damn, that's yummy. Yeah, this smells really nice. It's a little sweeter than I would like. Guys, it smells like cough syrup. It smells like cherry menthol cough syrup. It's everything Roger was shitting on earlier. I get more raspberry than anything else. It's not very bitter, which is kind of surprising. It's so thick. Yeah, it's pretty thick. And then it has this creamy vanilla finish. It's nice. Weird. It's pretty nice. You have those little candies you get. Yeah. That's delicious. Yeah. And the feel, the mouthfeel, it's so buttery and round compared to, you know. I got to hide that one in the office then. All right. Last one from Bob's Secret Amaro Stache. Wow. This one lists all the ingredients. This is Scaramalli, S-C-A-R-A-M-A-G-L-I, Amaro Ale Urbe. I'm keeping that one. However, I'm supposed to pronounce that. Let's see here, Artemisia, Arantio, Carchiopho, which is a style of Amaro. An artichoke based Amaro is a Carchiopho. That would be like Cynar. Everybody's probably seen Cynar on our shelves. I was going to guess Cynar. Yeah. Angelica root, cardamom, carmelized canela. It looks like it's coming in a Stroh's bottle. Yeah, it's got this apothecary medicinal bottle and a real Spartan label on it. Bob, you've never tried these? This one I probably have. There's something out of the bottle, but I don't necessarily remember all of them, and I tend to go back to my favorites. I may have opened it and left it there for other people when I try them and we'll take it through a progression. That is if you took a carton of cool cigarettes and left black licorice in it to condition them for a couple months. Yeah, yeah. Oh, man. I get the pencil shavings, pencilette and pencil shavings. Band-aid. Forest Preserve Bathroom. Oh my God, that's a great one. Dude, that was probably a gift from somebody, and now I'm mother-fucking Amaro right in the- I think it's fine. That's right in the wheelhouse here. I'm just telling you what I think it reminds me of. That one time I f***ed the case of Koolz with licorice. Vinyl. We need to have a vinyl, like a pinto that's been sitting in the sun with the windows up for 20 minutes. This smells like a car wash. You relieve your air on during the car wash. You're saying Forest Service Bathroom and car wash. Those things don't jive in my world, all right? Yeah, right. It tastes like freshly cracked black pepper on top of Irish Spring. It does taste like Irish Spring. It tastes like soap. Yeah, that's awful. It's fine. It's supposed to be. There's an ask for every seat. Yep. Well, I've saved the best for last for you, Roger. This is another Vien Amaro from Capoletti. This is Elisser Nova Salus. This is an Amaro that I would probably call a Fernet. It's not that strong. It's only 16 percent alcohol because it is a wine based Amaro. Not going to be as strong. It is bracingly bitter. I have no use for this Amaro at all in a cocktail. It cannot be mixed. It is too strong of a flavor. This is purely a digestive. Do you ever make cocktails with any of these? Me? No. Do I order them and drink them? Yes. But this one is not mixable. Well, I think he meant mixing multiple things with it, but you drink some of these on the rocks with soda. I drink a lot on the rocks with soda, but I do have them in a lot of cocktails mixed with other things. So Black Manhattan is probably the biggest Amaro cocktail out there where you substitute the vermouth in a Manhattan for Amaro. I've done that out of necessity. It's also worth pointing out that if you mix this with club soda, you got it. No, you need to try it out a real amount, Roger. This is enough. That is not. Oh my God. Seriously? It's the bell of the ball, man. It's the bell of the ball. When you go back and you edit all this sh** down, this is going to be one of the funniest parts of the podcast is when it sits there and just slams all the flavors in this thing. This is, you know what? It stinks. All of these need, right now. Wait till you taste it. I need like a slice of lemon and an espresso to go with all of this. Well, that's the other thing too, is nothing works in a vacuum. If you try this with espresso. Wait till you taste the finish on this. It does not go away. And if you drink water, it makes it worse. It's like hot sauce. This smells like if you put a tomato plant in a blender. That's not right. Tomato leaves. Ashtray. Tomato and ashtray. And ashtray too. It has a rich cocoa, mole quality. It smells like a college dorm room where the guy just sit in there all day and smoke. That's what this smells like. And used a vinyl record as an ashtray. Wow. I was not expecting that at all. That's like the most bitter chocolate you've ever had. Why is it so salty? And it has like a raisin quality too. And a little bit of like tar. It's like bismol. No, it's great. That's great. Isn't it great? That is terrific. And it smells like Bigfoot's ****. That's terrific, my ass. It is terrific. That's an intense flavor. That is not a beverage of pleasure. It's not. When we move on and try... That's what you punish yourself with when you overeat. Self-flagellating for having that extra slice. Oh, man. No, that's great. That's really good. Isn't that cool? It's intense. But unfortunately, it doesn't need to be kept refrigerated though. Considering how bitter it is, it has a shockingly short shelf life. Praise be to God. Yeah. Yeah. And again, it's 16%. Wait, what happens when it ages? I haven't tried it yet. I drink it too fast. Oh, okay. Oh, it's still there too. Just hanging out. It's not going anywhere. That flavor is just hanging out in the palate. Like a slow divorce. The slow divorce of Amaro, Elixir Nova Salus. How much is it? 25 bucks, I want to say. That's amazing. Yeah. And it's 16% alcohol. You mix any of these, the most basic cocktail, like a little bit of club soda, you've got a low alcohol cocktail, and you feel like you have a substantial drink. Yeah. And seriously, like you could feel you could eat a second Thanksgiving dinner after having some of this stuff. Once you get those juices flowing. Yeah. Once you get those gastric juices flowing. So if you ever accidentally drank your dad's cologne as a child, and you want to relive that experience. One style of Amaro we didn't touch on was no chinos, which are made with green or unripened walnuts, which are pretty cool. There's a couple of small craft producers in America make one. We actually have one hit in the shelves later this season from Whiskey Acres, where they made it with walnuts from the Morton Arboretum. Where would you put something like coquí americano? Coquí americano is technically an aromatized wine, so it is a vermouth. An americano is a style of vermouth that is particularly gentian root heavy. So one of my favorites, I mix coquí americano with something like capoletti or Aperol and a little bit of club soda is my summer cocktail choice. Throw aromatic bitters on top? Yeah, sure. Cool. So that was a whirlwind of Amaro. It's my favorite category. I absolutely love it and I love how much there is to explore within the category. Thanks for bringing the good stuff. I try. Bob, thanks for bringing the good stuff too. You're very welcome. Yeah. Secret Amaro stash. Bob, do you have time to stick around for the customer Q&A? No. All right. Do the outro so I can go drink water. You gotta drink more of this. I'm gonna finish my Nova Salus. I saved the Bob's in the, I can't even talk, it's so disturbing. The one in the perfume bottle I saved, and then I washed the Amaro out. No, not that one, that's a medicine bottle. The perfume bottle's the one with the burgundy top there. That's pretty. How do you guys not like this? Which one? The last one. Oh, it's just- To me, obviously- It's a beverage of pleasure, and if you're not enjoying it, don't drink it. It goes with everything, any wine or whatever, or food. You wouldn't sit down and finish the whole dish if you thought it sucked, you just move on to the next thing. Take it from Uncle Bob, the pleasure man, Calamia. I'm telling you, life doesn't go on forever. If you don't like it, go try something else. I'm still tasting this right now. Great advice. It's terrific. Yeah, it's pretty good advice. Life advice. Thanks for listening to another episode of Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. We'll be back in your feed in like a week. Until next time, I'm Greg. I'm Pat. I'm Roger. I'm Bob. Keep tasting. It's overly sweet and horrifically bitter on the finish. Oh man, Roger, we're just getting started. This smells like potting soil. It's definitely higher up the poison scale. Dude, that one, it just keeps going on and on. I cannot get that out of my... It smells like your grandma's medicine cabinet. This tastes like cologne. This smells like those natural bug sprays, buzz away the alternatives to the deet ones. It tastes like you black cats in spray paint. Forest Preserve Bathroom. Oh my God, that's strange. It smells like a car wash. You relieve your air on during the car wash. This smells like if you put a tomato plant in a blender. That's not right. Tomato leaves. No, ashtray. Tomato and ashtray. And ashtray too. Why is it so salty? It's too red. So if you ever accidentally drank your dad's cologne as a child, and you want to relive that experience.