Cynar

Cynar is an Italian amaro — a bittersweet herbal liqueur — famous for being flavoured with artichoke, the plant whose Latin name Cynara scolymus gives the brand its name and the leaf that fills its label. Created in Padua in 1952 by the Venetian-born entrepreneur and philanthropist Angelo Dalle Molle — who with his brothers ran the G.B. Pezziol distillery there — it is made by infusing a neutral-spirit base with a blend of thirteen herbs and plants, of which the artichoke is only one, and sweetening the result with caramelised sugar. The liquid is dark mahogany-brown and syrupy, with a flavour that runs from bittersweet and vegetal to notes of caramel, dried herbs and bitter root. Bottled at a gentle 16.5% ABV — low for an amaro — it drinks easily as an aperitivo or digestivo, taken neat, over ice, or long with soda. It shines in a Cynar Spritz (Cynar, prosecco and soda) and in bittersweet Negroni riffs, where its herbal-caramel bitterness stands in for or alongside Campari.