Booze Talks

If you have any Galliano, the sweet, herbal Italian liqueur, lurking in your liquor cabinet, you'll know. Because there's no way this tall, skinny bottle and its Day-Glo yellow contents can ever get lost. Wildly popular back in the '70s (yes, we know that's hardly an endorsement), Galliano has graced plenty of sub-par cocktails, but today's talented bartenders have started to redeem its reputation.

Made from neutral alcohol steeped with a wide range of herbs and spices (juniper, anise, vanilla, and getting more obscure from there), Galliano has a distinctive vanilla sweetness that sets it apart from other herbal liqueurs, so when you're mixing with it, no simple syrup or other sweeteners are required. It's also full-throttle, at 42.5% ABV, a nudge higher than your standard spirit. It’s boozy like Sambuca, rather than gentler like an amaro.

A Few Ways to Drink It !
Fernet Branca because the bracingly bitter Italian amaro can easily overpower other spirits and modifiers.
Straight
Served either neat or on the rocks, Fernet-Branca’s the ultimate digestif
Soda
Lighten things up a bit by adding club soda or seltzer for a refreshing hot-weather
Coffee
Add a little to a cup of black coffee for a bracing after-dinner drink
Coke
Common in South America. Extremely popular in Argentina.The sweetness of the cola is muted by the amaro’s robust bitterness & the amaro becomes more palatable too.
Seltzer Water
One of the most intense and straightforward ways to imbibe fernet.seltzer doesn’t hide or soothe fernet’s pungent bitter notes, if you’re a fan of drinking straight, you will definitely enjoy this spritzy Highball.
Tonic Water
Bitter on bitter, but it’s also incredibly refreshing and thirst-quenching when the weather is uncomfortably hot. Use a quality tonic water like Q or Fever Tree that is more bitter than sweet. If you really want to bring out the more herbaceous notes in the fernet, garnish with a sprig of fresh rosemary.
Sparkling Wine
Brunch cocktails on the herbal side, unexpected mixer works incredibly well with the bitter Italian spirit. Make sure to balance it out with an Italian prosecco—or even a white or red Lambrusco—that errs on the sweeter side.
Beer
An IPA will create a cocktail of bitter notes, with a backbone of foresty, cannabis-esque herbalness.Combination as a Boilermaker or mix the fernet with the beer to make a Shandy.
Campari
Seem like a strange combination, but we assure you it is absolutely fantastic. It is probably one of the most complex and intensely bitter.You can take it as a shot made with equal parts of both amari (called a Ferrari), or you can mix the two Italian spirits together in cocktails like the Negroni, with fernet as a substitute for gin.

In a Cocktail
2-bitters riff on the Old-Fashioned called the Toronto, which calls for rye, Fernet-Branca, simple syrup, and Angostura bitters

Fernet is an Italian type of amaro, a bitter, aromatic spirit. Fernet is made from a number of herbs and spices which vary according to the brand, but usually include myrrh, rhubarb, chamomile, cardamom, aloe, and especially saffron,with a base of grape distilled spirits.

Fernet's roots lie in medicine. The first ever Fernet formula was designed by an Italian doctor, Dr.Fernet, who built his secret recipe with over 50 herbs and botanicals. In 1842, then Milan-based Felice Vittone modified the formula to be more palatable and sold the outcome as "Fernet Vittone." Three years later, Bernandino Branca at Fratelli Branca Distillerie, also in Milan, came out with his own Fernet, "Fernet-Branca," which today is the world's most popular Fernet. "Fernet" serves as a moniker to signify a style of drink, and "Branca" is actually this liquor's brand name.

Fernet also known as "Bartender's handshake"