Type Bitter | Producer Campari Group | Region Italy > Milan | ABV 25% | Volume 700 ml | Price (AUD) ~$45
House notes
Campari is the bottle that tastes like the first time you tried Campari: slightly alarming, deeply red, bitter in a way that announces itself. Then something happens around your third Negroni and you understand. Bitter orange, rhubarb, cinchona bark, a long finish that hangs around like a good guest who has figured out when to leave. The recipe is still a trade secret. The colour, famously, used to come from cochineal beetles; since 2006 it is mostly beetroot and red 40 which is less poetic but better for vegans. In a Negroni it carries the whole drink. In a Boulevardier it makes bourbon taste like an adult decision. In a Spritz it is more than Aperol can be and less than a full Negroni wants to be.
What it pairs with
Negroni, Boulevardier, Americano, Milano-Torino, Campari Spritz, Jungle Bird (if you have pineapple juice and aged rum). Food: salty aperitivo stuff, grissini wrapped in prosciutto, olives, anchovies on toast, a good focaccia with tomato and basil. The bitter cuts through salt in a way that feels specifically Italian. Some people hate it; those people are wrong but they are allowed.
About the producer
Campari was invented in 1860 by Gaspare Campari in Novara, Italy, and is still made in Milan by the company that now owns Aperol, SKYY Vodka, Wild Turkey, Grand Marnier, and approximately half the rest of the cocktail cabinet.