Italian drinking bitter Fernet in questions and answers

Yes and no. Obviously, Fernet-Branca is a fernet as a category of drinks, but not the only representative of this not too extensive, but still diverse group of amaro. So, in different parts of the world are known: Italian Martini & Rossi Amaro Fernet, Nardini Fernet and Luxardo Fernet Amaro, American Letherbee Fernet and Fernet Leopold Highland Amaro, Czech Fernet Stock and R. Jelinek Fernet, Mexican Fernet-Vallet and many others. By the way, black Riga balsam is also often referred to as a fernet (now you can imagine the taste of a typical fernet). But try to order a fernet in any bar and in 9 cases out of 10 you will be poured a Ferent Branca – it cannot be taken away from popularity, because it was from him that fernets as such began.

Ferent Branca is the brainchild of a native of Milan, self-taught apothecary Bernardino Branca. Shortly after the invention of bitter in 1845, the Branca di Romanico family founded the Fratelli Branca Distillerie, which produces the drink to this day. The name “Fernet” comes from the name of the fictional Swedish doctor Fernet, with whom Branca allegedly invented the “magic elixir” for all diseases (with a fictional Swede pharmacist, the new drink quickly gained fame as the No. 1 drug). Today, Fratelli Branca Distillerie, in addition to the classic fernet, produces Brancamenta mint fernet, grappa under the Candolini and Sensèa brands, Strevecchio Branca brandy, Caffè Borghetti coffee liqueur and other drinks. The holding also owns the rights to distribute Sierra tequila, Southern Comfort New Orleans liqueur and Tsarine champagne.

Fernet Branca’s recipe remains a trade secret, but of the 27 herbal ingredients that the manufacturer claims, we know as many as 14: Chinese cinchona, rhubarb root, chamomile flowers, cinnamon, lime blossom, orris root, saffron (they say that 75% of all saffron , produced in the world, buys Fratelli Branca Distillerie), zedoaria turmeric root, galangal root, myrrh, gentian root, aloe, bitter orange peel and cardamom.

You can, of course, but the recipes will not please you. For example, this is a recipe for a typical fernet from Italy (closest in taste to Luxardo Fernet Amaro at 45%).

How to cook:

Grind all botany as finely as possible, place in a jar of a suitable volume and pour 1 liter of alcohol with 200 ml of water. Maceration should take place in a dark warm (possibly very warm, for example, near the battery) place for at least 15 days. Then strain the infusion through several layers of gauze, squeeze out the residue, filter through a cotton filter. Mix with the rest of the alcohol and water, add a drop of peppermint essential oil. Color the fernet in the desired color with caramel and pour into clean bottles. The drink must rest for 6 months before it can be tasted. It can also be aged for several months in a new white oak or chestnut barrel. There is no sugar in the recipe, as this does not correlate with the medicinal effect of the bitter – it worsens digestion.

We admire the recipe, google botany, smack our lips with annoyance and cook something simpler. For example, not too strong, not too sweet Amaro alle Erbe (herb bitter).

* – about 3-5 g each, depending on preferences (orris root is bitter-sweet and enhances the taste, gentian is a bitter component, calamus is the source of a bitter-spicy taste, and thorny root has a bitter-sweet, almond flavor).

Grind all the botany and soak in alcohol for 5 days, placing everything in a glass jar with an airtight lid. It is advisable to leave the jar in a dark, warm place, you can near the battery. Pour sugar into vermouth – let it also stand for 5 days until dissolved. After 5 days, strain the infusion into a clean jar and set aside to be stored in a dark, cool place, and pour the remaining botany with vermouth with sugar for another 7 days. After a week, strain the vermouth through a sieve into a jar of flavored alcohol, let the mixture stand for 1 day, and then filter through a cotton wool or coffee filter. Pour the finished drink into a clean bottle, cork tightly and let it rest for 6-8 months before tasting.

A stack of such amaro will be an excellent digestif at the end of a hearty dinner – bitter stimulates digestion and pleasantly warms from the inside.

By and large, yes. Distillation is not applied. But the production process is quite complex and includes several different types of maceration. The Fernet Branca factory occupies an entire city block and is a labyrinth of rooms filled with maceration vessels, tanks and wooden vats of every shape, size and configuration. After mixing the macerates, the drink is aged for 12 months in huge vats made of Slovenian oak with a volume of 15000 to 20000 liters each. There are more than 300 of these in the factory.

How else? Fernet is a unique alcoholic drink, the taste of which is not given to everyone. It has a very medicinal, bitter and rough taste, but at the same time the traditional way of consumption is in its pure form or in rock with ice. Not the best way to get acquainted with such an exotic. We recommend that you first take a small sip (in Fernet Branca they recommend taking three such sips – this will make it possible to appreciate the entire flavor spectrum of the digestif) in order to understand the general meaning of the drink, and then choose a base for mixing with it.

In San Francisco, where bitter has been a cult favorite since before Prohibition, and today the bay accounts for 25% of U.S. fernet consumption, it’s customary to wash down a shot of flavored bitterness with a glass of ginger ale (an excellent combination, especially if it’s homemade ginger ale of your own making) . In Argentina, fernet with cola (1:7) has become a national cocktail. It is even removed from the menu everywhere to encourage people to order more expensive cocktails.

Fernet is extraordinarily popular in Argentina, where he got back during the great European immigration wave to the country at the end of the 19th century. Especially in the province of Cordoba, called the “fernet capital of the world”. Almost 3 million liters of it are drunk there every year, which is just under 30% of the national consumption. Fratelli Branca Distillerie even had to open a factory in Argentina. In total, 25 million liters of fernet are produced in the South American country, 35% of which are bought up in Buenos Aires and its environs.

A good solution would be to follow the experience of the Italians and add your fernet to a cup of espresso. But the best way to get acquainted with the bitter is to mix a cocktail with it. Preferably one in which its rough botany becomes not an obstacle to a harmonious, balanced taste, but its predecessor. The reference in this regard is the Hanky ​​Panky cocktail, created back in 1903 at the Savoy Hotel in London by bar-woman Ada Coleman.

Other fernet cocktails are as balanced as the Hanky ​​Panky, and in some of them the bitters play a major role. Here, in our opinion, are four cocktails that will allow you to fully appreciate the richness of the taste of the Italian digestif: