Amaro is Italy's bitter herbal liqueur — the digestivo poured after dinner and the backbone of modern cocktails like the Black Manhattan and the Paper Plane. Del Mesa Liquor, a family-owned liquor store in San Diego, California, stocks the classic Italian range from Milan's original recipe to an alpine amaro aged in oak, and every bottle below is available to order online at Del Mesa Liquor today. Explore the wider shelf in our liqueurs collection.
Six classics, from bittersweet to bone dry
- Ramazzotti Amaro — $29.99. The original: created in Milan in 1815 by Ausano Ramazzotti, still made from his secret recipe of 33 herbs, roots, spices and botanicals at 30% ABV. Bittersweet, cola-and-orange in character, and the gentlest entry point in this guide.
- Cynar Artichoke Liqueur — $37.99. A 1L bottle at 16.5% ABV, built on an infusion of 13 herbs and plants — predominantly artichoke, the plant it is named for. Launched in Italy in 1952, it is bitter enough to open an appetite and rounded enough to finish a meal, and a natural in a spritz.
- Fernet Branca Liqueur — $39.99. The fernet benchmark: 27 herbs, spices and roots from four continents, macerated and aged twelve months in Slovenian oak, following Bernardino Branca's 1845 Milan recipe. At 39% ABV it is intensely bitter, bone dry and utterly unmistakable.
- Averna Amaro Siciliano — $39.99. Sicily's bittersweet classic from Caltanissetta, made to a recipe the Benedictine monks of the Abbazia di Santo Spirito gifted to Salvatore Averna in 1868 — some 60 botanicals at 29% ABV, round and warming over ice.
- Amaro Nonino Quintessentia — $54.99. The flagship amaro of Nonino in Friuli: herbs, spices, fruit, berries and roots enriched with the family's grape distillate, itself aged at least twelve months in barriques, bottled at 35% ABV. The amaro behind the Paper Plane cocktail.
- Braulio Amaro Alpino — $64.99. A 1L alpine amaro from Bormio in the Italian Alps: more than 20 mountain botanicals — gentian, juniper, yarrow and wormwood among the few revealed — aged two years in Slavonian oak casks, at 21% ABV. A recipe that began with a Bormio pharmacist in 1826.
How to drink amaro
Start neat or over one big cube after dinner — that is the digestivo tradition every bottle here was made for. Ramazzotti and Averna are the bittersweet, beginner-friendly pours; Nonino is brighter and citrus-led, and doubles as the Paper Plane's signature ingredient; Cynar loves soda and an orange slice; Braulio is the alpine, gentian-driven sipper; and Fernet-Branca is the bartender's handshake — the driest, most intense pour on the shelf. For the cocktail side of the family, our vermouth guide covers the other half of a Manhattan, and the Del Mesa blog keeps the full run of our category guides.
Frequently asked questions
What is amaro?
Amaro is an Italian bitter herbal liqueur, traditionally sipped after dinner as a digestivo. Each house guards a secret botanical recipe — Ramazzotti uses 33 botanicals, Fernet-Branca 27 — and styles range from bittersweet (Averna, $39.99) to bone dry (Fernet-Branca, $39.99). All six classics in this guide are available to order online at Del Mesa Liquor.
Which amaro should a beginner start with?
Ramazzotti ($29.99) or Averna ($39.99). Both are bittersweet rather than aggressively bitter, work over ice with an orange twist, and give a true sense of the category before you move to alpine Braulio or the intensity of Fernet-Branca.
What amaro is in a Paper Plane cocktail?
Amaro Nonino Quintessentia — its bright, grape-distillate-based profile is what the modern classic was built around. Del Mesa lists it at $54.99. Nonino also works beautifully neat, lightly chilled.
Where can I buy Italian amaro online?
At Del Mesa Liquor, a family-owned store in San Diego, California. Our amaro shelf runs from Ramazzotti at $29.99 to Braulio at $64.99, inside the wider liqueurs collection, and every bottle here was verified available to order at publish time. See our FAQs for ordering help.