Sip Northwest, Spring 2019

33 S I P N O R T H W E S T C O M Luckily OMalley says the Portland and Seattle markets tend to appreciate those flavors meaning they dont have to dumb down the flavors they aim for to please the masses And that means they can make what they want using what is grown nearby like native flora The drinking culture here in the Northwest shies away from cloying flavors and is really quite comfortable with aggressive bitterness he adds When formulating for a PNW audience I dont have to downplay my love for certain bitter botanicals Sara Newton beverage director of Vancouver Washington restaurant AMAROS TABLE is a big fan of using local ingredients to create their in house custom amaro The Pacific Northwest has some of the best biodiversity of herbal and medicinal plants in the world which makes it a perfect place to craft amari from locally sourced ingredients she explains mentioning the use of huckleberries angelica and Western Red Cedar These forests are home to a bevy of herbs perfect for concocting herbal tonics both for leisure and medicinal purposes LETTERPRESS DISTILLING owner Skip Tognetti says the locality of ingredients isnt as important as getting the flavors right on Growing up going to his familys home country of Italy Tognetti says he got accustomed to how Italians use what they have around them Much of what Italy is known for in terms of food has always come from somewhere else the Seattle distiller says In some ways theres nothing more Italian than taking ingredients from around the world and making them their own While cocktail menus may be brimming with amari these days Andrea Loreto president and founder of ELIXIR CRAFT SPIRITS in Eugene Oregon points out that only 10 years ago Italian bitter liqueurs were oddities in U S liquor stores and bars When making his Calisaya liqueur he had to decrease his use of cinchona to comply with FDA limits The FDA doesnt permit me to use it at the levels routinely used by Italian producers he says However Loretto believes the American palate is evolving resulting in a gradual increase in the categorys popularity like Fernet the most bitter amaro WHY THE WAIT BROVO SPIRITS in Woodinville Washington was one of the first in the game but it wasnt easy The small distillery started experimenting with a wide variety of flavor profiles six years ago successfully partnering with bartenders around the region to develop those flavors and ensuring the resulting spirits would feel right at home on those back bars Most Italian distilleries have been making it for centuries CEO Mhairi Voelsgen says of the lack of Northwest amari brands on the scene When your competition has centuries of experience its tough to break into a market It takes a lot of experimentation Tognetti points out the amari trend is still relatively young Ninety percent of the people I sell my amaro to in the tasting room have never heard of the category he says I spend half my time trying to answer the question What is amaro Another reason amari has been slow to catch on in the region may be cultural Id attribute it to our lack of familiarity and comfort with the types of ingredients that go into amari says Townshends OMalley When it comes to botanical spirits American producers have only recently begun exploring beyond the types of ingredients we find in gin or in spice aisles l The Pacific Northwest has some of the best biodiversity of herbal and medicinal plants in the world which makes it a perfect place to craft amari from locally sourced ingredients says Sara Newton of Amaros Table Letterpress Distilling Elixir Craft Spirits