Can you Sub Amaro for another Amaro?
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- čas přidán 25. 06. 2024
- Today we're diving into the VAST world of Amaro, or Amari when plural. And we are definitely getting plural in this video!
Amaro is a category of spirits that are so different from each other and so regional that finding the exact one you need for a cocktail can be really really hard. So the question is, CAN YOU SUBSTITUTE AMARO?
Recipe at the bottom. And for even more recipes and articles visit our website www.theeducatedbarfly.com
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00:00 What is an Amaro
02:47 Mild Amari
03:14 Paper Plane
04:09 Subbing with Vecchio Del Capo
05:08 Subbing with Amaro Montenegro
06:14 The Moderate Bunch
06:30 Artichoke Hold
07:34 Subbing with Averna
08:27 Subbing with Ramazzotti
09:35 The Strong Amari
10:02 Color in Your Cheeks
11:37 Subbing with Braulio
12:18 Subbing with Zucca Rabarbaro
13:00 Marius thinks Coca-cola is an amaro
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Recipe
Paper Plane
3/4oz (22ml) Aperol
3/4oz (22ml) Bourbon
3/4oz (22ml) Amaro Nonino
3/4oz (22ml) Lemon Juice
Artichoke Hold
3/4oz (22ml) Cynar
3/4oz (22ml) Jamaica Rum
1/2oz (15ml) Elderflower Liqueur
3/4oz (22ml) Lime Juice
1/2oz (15ml) Orgeat
Color in your Cheeks
1 1/4oz (37.5ml) Fernet-Branca
1/2oz (15ml) Applejack
3/4oz (22ml) Lemon Juice
3/4oz (22ml) Grade A Maple Syrup
Egg White - Jak na to + styl
I'd be interested in watching more videos about experimentation or substitutions in cocktails
Do more of those types of videos. Great format.
For those of us who have limited Amari in Kenya, the idea of breaking them into Mild, Medium and Strong will be very helpful. Asante sana!
You definitely can!
Results may vary though 🙂
When you mentioned the importance of matching the sweetness and bitterness, it got me thinking... That's a great point. I would be really interested to get a Brix value for various amari, and then use a gentian root tincture to bump up the bitterness as needed of similar amaro. As you say, it's obviously not perfect in terms of the flavor profile, but you could probably start with something in a similar category (alpine, fernet, etc) and make some tweaks in the sweetness and bitterness categories. I watched a Simone Caporale seminar recently where he was quoting Brix values on Campari which are much higher than one would expect, due to the bitterness. But if you've sipped Campari before, you know that the sweetness does really come through while it's in your mouth and the finish is really where you notice the bitterness most prominently.
Great video!
I've done similar amaro substitution experiments at home. For the Paper Plane, we find Amaro Meletti in place of Nonino to be an excellent (even preferred) variation.
I use Meletti at home and think it works beautifully
I've been doing Montenegro paper planes for some time, and I totally agree with the tasting notes. Awesome video!
Man talks about how difficult it would be to make this video and then absolutely kills it throughout 😂. Such a great video my friend!
Also the Hunt + Alpine Club is one of my favorite bars on this planet.
I am definitely grateful you made this video. Comparing a panel of substitutions is great content. This past Christmas I had the paper plane, flannel shirt, and Black Manhattan on the menu. I sub Amaro ninio for Averna amaro. The Black Manhattan was a "hair" sweeter and lighter. I couldn't tell the difference in the flannel shirt.
Not a lot of Amaros are available where I live, so I've been waiting for this video!
I love substituting 'similar' ingredients in cocktails to see how it works out... I often like the sub version Vs. the OG .
Wow man... Thanks for helping me find more uses for my beloved Braulio! The color in your cheeks was outstanding!
First time I tried a Paper Plane I could only find Montenegro so I tried it with that and loved it. Actually became my new fav cocktail at the time. Recently I was finally able to get a bottle of Nonino and was surprised I enjoyed the Montenegro version better. Maybe the lemons were not as good or something. Anyways, perfect video! Just the type of content I'm looking for. I'm gonna try another Paper Plane tonight.
Mild Amari is definitely my sweet spot. Nonino being my favorite & Montenegro my 2nd Favorite
I like this format. I'm a big fan of amaro because they are so often unique. One of my favorite things to do when picking up a new amaro I've never tried is to taste it plain, put it sort of in a category (is it similar to fernet or averna?) and then sub it in a cocktail. So, basically exactly this episode. Cheers to more experimentation!
I'm just a few minutes in and I already like where this is going. Good idea with categorizing based on sweetness, bitterness, etc.
Great episode. I've always had a very basic understanding of amaro's but this helped elevate my understanding! Can't wait to move on from sweet vermouth in my Manhattans and try Averna!
Damn, the switch of perspective at 2:09 nearly cost me my sanity :D
Me too! I'm paused during my first run-through to make this comment, then realized I couldn't be the first. Marius, why???
I’ve run similar substitution experiments at home. Mostly because of cost. As long as you’re not going way towards the opposite end of the bitter/sweet spectrum, almost anything will work. It might not be an exact version of the cocktail you’re trying to make but it’s still a balanced and tasty drink.
Awesome episode. I've always wanted to know this!
This was an excellent video!
I love substitution comparisons because, like most people, I don't have all liquors at home, so I substitute frequently, but then I wonder if what flavor differences I'm missing out.
Thanks, Leandro!
omg thank you so much for this. I have been trying to understand this for the past year! Love it
0:52 Now that's a sound I haven't heard for a long time! Takes me back to the old days of getting a sudden call from parents while playing games on Win XP on my old PC haha.
Anyway, very interesting, and indeed long awaited video! As someone who's trying to maintain/ build a hobby-level home bar with very minimal space it's a hot topic how to sub amari for one another! Trying to be minimalistic but amari + bitters is already my widest collection of alcohol categories.
Such a cool format. Masterfully done!
Hi Leandro, what an interesting post! I have Nonino, Averna, Melletti, Montenegro Amaros, Cynar, Fernet Branca and Branca Menta.
Since starting my cocktail making, I have tended to buy the bottle for the drink, rather than subbing or omitting a specified ingredient. Hence, I have a sizeable bottle stock.
I am now 2.5 years retired so funds are no longer there to buy every desired bottle. That is why this video is so good.
Nick from York
Another awesome video and great concept.
Really enjoyed this video
Ended up splitting the fernet and zucca and man it’s good. Added a lemon spritz and 3 drops of ango.
Thanks so much for this episode, Leandro. I've been appreciating and experimenting with Amari more and more lately in cocktails, and coincidentally just picked up a bottle of Vecchio Del Capo last week.
I think for the paper plane, it comes from the excellent last word format (more than the sweetness/bitterness) of 1:1:1:1, base spirit, citrus, sweetening liqueur, herbal liqueur.
Yes it’s a riff of a last word. Though I prefer 1-1-1-3 as a fan of drier drinks.
@@LemonMeIon yeah my observation isn't about highlighting it as a riff, but is just that as the paper plane and many other drinks come from the root/format/template, that format itself may be a "confounding variable" to the amaro replacement test. The format itself just lends itself well naturally for almost all subs that fill the role(s). I think at this point the last word is its own category (like Old Fashioned s, Sours, Daisies, etc.)
@@ShuWii I agree, the Last Word should definitely be considered it's own category. There are so many variations and many of them are just as good as the original and many are pretty famous in their own right! Last Word, Final Ward, Paper Plane, Naked and Famous, Division Bell, Closing Argument, the list goes on!
And to be clear my note is more of a testament to the Last Word ratios and ingredient types, rather than a criticism of the experiment or methods.
@@ShuWii I think calling something a riff implies it matches another cocktails format, but important you noted that you can’t substitute just any amaro; It must match the balance of sweetness and herbaceousness.
In my opinion, the Mai Thai also deserves its own category because of the unique texture and flavor of orgeat (assuming it’s a good quality). Some bartenders have been substituting almonds for cashews and macadamia nuts.
Drinks like the Artichoke Hold, Bitter Mai Thai, or Strawberry Fields (Elise Godwin shared by Steve the Bartender) are further set apart by adding that bitter element whilst maintaining balance.
Ohhh man I loved this one. More please!!
Meletti is sooooooo sweet.
Great episode. Excited to try the Averna-subbed Artichoke Hold ❤
This is a really great experiment. Super interesting. Thanks!
I see subbing Amari VERY similar to subbing whiskies. When you sub a different type of whiskey, you get a similar, but distinct, different cocktail
This type of video was awesome and fairly informative on how a take on one ingredient can change the cocktail and creat variety 🎉
Now this is a video I have been looking for!!
By coincidence I did an A/B test of the Artichoke Hold with Cynar and Averna, just yesterday. We (my wife and I) preferred the Averna version.
You can definetly see a different colour in your cheeks with the last drink from all that tasting!!! :) Great and infomative video - thanks!
I hit the like button without even watching because I knew this was going to be great! Nice work and please make more Amaro sub videos. I'm going to try the Amaro Montenegro Paper Plane ASAP. I've used Amaro Meletti in the Plane and it's pretty tasty.
Growing up in Maine, I was certainly aware of our local soda Moxie, but I maybe only tried it once and wasn’t into it. Got bit with the cocktail bug during the pandemic, largely inspired and informed by your channel. My recollection was that people described Moxie as having a somewhat medicinal taste, so having acquired all of these new flavors, I decided to give it another go. I tried it, and I was like holy crap, it’s amaro and soda!
Leandro, if you can get your hands on some, I’d love to see it incorporated into some kind of cocktail if you have any ideas.
I love Amari, so I really enjoyed this episode. The problem with Amari is that there are so MANY of them. Unless you’re a fanatic or an Amaro bar, there’s no way you can have them all. I have a decent collection, maybe 25-30 and have been fascinated with tasting and comparing them. I have been looking (in vain) for a comprehensive chart that gives substitution info across the entire spectrum of Amari. I don’t think such an animal exists. Your idea of grouping them as mild, moderate and strong is one way to approach the confusion. I think this works better at the milder end because the “strong” examples are so wildly different from one another.
I have come up with a few pair that I think are very similar to one another, especially in a cocktail. If you had an expert do a paired comparison of the neat liquids, I’m sure they would note differences, but I think the presence of all of the other cocktail components masks some of the more subtle flavor details. I think Meletti is an excellent sub for Montenegro, Bigallet China-China is almost identical to Cio Ciaro and Braulio is almost identical to Averna. The last one surprised me, but I repeated the comparison several times and confirmed it (at least for my palate).
I would love to undertake the project of constructing a comprehensive amaro comparison/substitution chart, but the person I live with would probably harm me if I bought another 50 bottles of amari, so it might be inadvisable. 😂😂
A top video which could be part of a series with different substitutions. It would be interesting to see how an Artichoke Hold with Zucca Rabarbaro (making a Rhubarb Hold) would be for people who really like rhubarb.
Great topic, and well understood by any American who has wanted to make a Brooklyn
0:25 … $20 says Leandro still has an “Oh I forgot such and such” moment during the video!
That was really interesting! Thanks
Another great episode, Leandro! This is kinda where I'm at mixology wise in my bartending. Eventually, I'd like to understand the chemistry behind why certain pairings work so well and create more cocktails with local ingredients. Your breakdown of the cocktail, approachable understanding and execution never go unnoticed. You got me into this craft and I'm always happy to come back and learn some more. Cheers!
I don't think I've seen your orgeat recipe... But that sounds great.
2:06 For a funny hair flip I randomly noticed. On a serious note, this was an awesome video! I love the cocktails you chose to showcase. I am very interested in making the last 2 cocktails and will definitely be trying the Montenegro Paper Plane since Nonino is expensive. I would never have thought of categorizing amaro on bitterness but it was very cool to see the results.
The bittersweet flip!
I know this was a lot of work but this was great!
Great video. TL; DR: sure, you can sub one amaro for another, but it will produce a different drink. One must consider sugar content, flavor profile, and bitterness to balance the final cocktail. Just be willing to accept another variation, and be open to the idea that it might inspire you to buy the original product as specified in the recipe to create the original drink.
I was in Austin for the eclipse and I went to a fabulous bar called In Plain Sight (sister bar to the speakeasy around the corner). The amazing bartender (Finn) made me a last drink that seemed a riff on the Color in your Cheeks based on me asking some questions about bottles at the bar. His drink used Condesa gin, Braulio, and coffee liqueur (I missed which one), lemon, and egg white (i think that was it - I got distracted while he was making it). It was A-mazing!
My favorite bourbon cocktail! What a great choice to experiment with.
I think this is a great way to break it down! Levels of sweet and and bitter seem like the critical aspects of amari for achieving *balance*. The rest of the flavor is what they bring uniquely to the cocktail. So if you can classify them reasonably consistently this works great. You can of course measure Brix for sugar content, which can approximate perceptions of sweet (with some confounding factors like actual flavors that taste sweet, e.g. licorice, chamomile), but I'm not sure there is a way to directly measure perceived bitterness. 🤔
Loved the video, been collecting and playing with Amari recently... glad to see I wasn't the only one who saw the switch at 2:08 into an alternate parallel universe 😂... mirrored, backwards, 'darkside'... the Barflied Educator?! 😆
Literally bought my first Amaro this week and compared it to another Amaro my boss bought using Paper Planes yesterday. The timing of this episode is a day late and $30 of bad Amaro short 😭
I was just pondering if I should get Amaro Nonino online or the Amaro Montenegro from my local liquor store for a my paper planes! Great video as always.
Awesome video idea! Doing an amaro montenegro paper plane as soon as I get home
Interesting video, I like the way you picked the amari to sub
Brovo Uncharted Rhapsody is an amazing Green Chartreuse alternative!
I'm going to call the Averna Artichoke Hold 'The Sicilian Chokehold'.
Immediately added to my watch later list 🙌
Hey Steve, it's later!
And midnight but whatever
I've played this game in my home bar. I like the families you used. That Averna/Cynar sub doesn't always work-out so well with the lower alcohol content of the Cynar sometimes not holding-up its end of the bargain. I can see where substituting in the direction you did, going for the stronger Amaro in a Apertiki drink, works. (After all, what's more tiki than creating ever stronger drinks in that sweet, sour, and spiced family template?)
Braulio, tried for the first time on St patrick's day (oddly enough), delicious!
Hey I think you've got the old bottle of averna, nice! The newer ones are made sweeter. Great vid too
I find amari to be especially challenging to get into, as there really isn't a consistent thread through the immense variety. With other big families of spirits and liqueurs (wine, rum, tequila, whisky etc) there isn't really massive variation between closely-related types, e.g. white wines tend to all taste very similar, the only big differences being oaking and dryness; a Chardonnay grape grown in Chile will taste imperceptibly different to one from France for most people. For things like whisky, there is more variation, but once you know your "families" (bourbons, Islay, scotch etc) you can find the obvious themes within them. With amari, apart from them being herbal and somewhat bitter, there is huge variation from brand to brand with almost nothing to relate them. You could go one valley over from the last one and their amaro would have a totally different make-up and a totally different herb emphasised. It really requires an encyclopaedic knowledge of all the varieties and that becomes intimidating very quickly, esp if you have to buy them to know them and any one bottle is not cheap.
Loved this episode. I'd also be interested in an episode that compared the amari in this episode to some of the Spirits Direct amari & liqueurs from Total Wine.
I actually make my Paper Planes with Averna. Color’s nothing to write home about, but it’s damn sure tasty.
I made an excellent paper plane with China-China instead of Aperol--an unexpected substitution but it will be my go-to recipe until I get another bottle of Aperol.
Montenegro is my go to for paper planes! I prefer it so much more
In love with paper plane and Nonino. Recently though I was surprised by a bartender’s take on the paper plane using mostly Montenegro and a bit of Averna that played quite well. Any thoughts on mixing different Amaro to bring in multiple notes?
Been subbing Montenegro for a couple years with rye instead of bourbon in my Paper Planes
Would love to see a video that’s all just obscure amari and other uncommon ingredients
I just had a amazing drink that was called a Bird On A Wire. Evan Williams Bourbon, Angostura, Averna, Maraschino liquor, Lemon, shaken served over pebble ice with a clove studded Lemon twist. Do try it sometime. Keep up the great content Leandro
Thanks for liking this Leandro.Quick question does Marius have a favourite drink that you've made for him?
After years of following legit orgeat recipes, I now just blend a chunk of white marzipan with boiling water and a pinch of salt, until it's the right consistency and add cognac and orange flower water. 10 second orgeat with awesome flavor :)
I swap all the time. Paper plane with Montenegro, Pineapple Amaro, Dente De Leon, etc.
guessing just from the thumbnail, but I'm 99% sure that's an Averna Paper Plane just by the color. I only know because I can't find Amaro Nonino anywhere around here!
Thank you for doing this. Sometimes it's hard to get every bottle of different liqueurs for cocktails, and Amari are a rabbit hole of liqueurs. I have an opened bottle of Averna that I don't know what to use for, and this just gives me an opportunity to use it as a sub for Cynar or Ramazotti in different drinks. Same with Amaro Nonino.
Another fun experiment if you like Amaro is to sub curacao or Cointreau for Averna, it still adds a lot of orange flavor but with the added depth of some bitterness and herbs. An Amaro whiskey sour or margarita really works, and a lot of tiki drinks work as well.
@@barstoolbanter7212 huh, that's interesting. And the lower ABV is ok? I should try it...
@@Petrosman It doesn't make that big of a difference usually because it's such a small quantity, usually about a half ounce or so in most drinks.
Fun fact, in argentina fernet is not considered an ammaro, well argentina's food regultaions, is considered an herb liquor than an ammaro
Fernet is so dry, the other two "strong" amari were bound to make a cocktail that was too sweet (nothing that can't be tweaked, of course). On the other hand, the Paper Plane segment is about to convince me to run out and buy a bottle of del Capo.
Fun video! Bit of an abrupt ending though
I clicked this video expecting interesting insight on amari in mixology, didn't expect it to derail me into a multiple hour long nostalgia trip on CRT and analogue television due to the cellphone interference sound at 0:52
Easter egg!
I once spent a week or so making paper planes with every amaro I had on hand. Most were bangers, to be honest.
Question pertaining to Amaros: I believe you once made a cocktail whose specs included Lucano Amaro. I didn't put it in my black book, because it was un-find-able where I live. But I actually got some today, and would love to try it. Does this ring any bells? Faint hope, I know, but thought I would try.
I would put Meletti in the mild category. Do you agree, Leandro? I think that's the only one I have that you didn't talk about.
More amari content please
I really wanted to try a paper plane and my local liquor store didn’t have Amaro Nonino. I have been making them with Amaro Montenegro. It’s my favorite cocktail.
Amaro Gentile Mazzetti also works well
Very similar thing happened to me, but with Vecchio. I still haven't made one with Nonino! I did buy a bottle to try the original recipe, but Vecchio is excellent in that drink (and half the price!).
Same! I've actually never had a proper Paper Plane to compare but it's so good with the Montenegro that I'm not too upset about it
How would you characterize Amaro Lucano in terms of these 3 categories?
I was just wondering earlier today if Montenegro would work in a paper plane.
the phone call audio interference sound brought me back
Wondering why you guys mirrored the camera shot at 2:08 😂😂
Anyone else think that Amaro Montenegro reminds them of Thrills gum?
I’d like to hear more about your orgeat recipe with amaretto. That pastry was a tease😊
What is with the mirror image transition at 2:15?
I actually use Montenegro in all my paper planes at home. There's just something "better" to me about it.
What about a paper plane with averna???
This is my Roman Empire
Can you sub Orgeat with Amaretto?
WTF, why the mirror at 2.09, freaky!!!
first
*applauding noises*
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