I like the idea of Holiday cocktails –and not just because many of us are in particular need of a drink during this season. But I often don’t like the drinks themselves. They’re usually too sweet, and the flavors can be pedestrian (usually some spiced winter fruit spiked with a neutral hooch). And just thinking of eggnog makes me shudder.
I hope this drink based on pear brandy breaks free of those cliches. Pear, of course, is a fruit we associate with the Holiday season, but brandy made from pears delivers that flavor in a relatively dry spirit with a nice clean finish. The complexity in the drink comes from an amaro (“bitter” in Italian), a large family of Italian digestives with intensely bitter-sweet flavors that come from plants, roots, herbs, spices and citrus. Traditionally served to finish a meal, amari also mix well with spirits to make appetite-stimulating cocktails.
Their flavors are all variations on a bitter-sweet theme, but different amari have distinct personalities, so you’ll want to experiment with the proportions and do a little taste testing before you mix up a big batch of this drink for guests. This recipe uses Cardamaro, a relatively smooth, soft amaro that you could mix in up to equal parts with the brandy. With other amari such as Amaro Nonino, Amaro Averna and Amaro Lucano (there are literally thousands of amari produced in Italy and dozens imported into the U.S.), I would start at 1 to 3, taste and work up from there. Similarly, sharper, spicer amari may not need the dash of Angostura bitters in the recipe, and those with stronger citrus flavors could forego the hit orange bitters.
And a final warning: on its own, amaro can be a habit-forming after-dinner drink.
Recipe
2 oz pear brandy (I used Kammer Williams, but there are several good imported and domestic pear brandies available. Just make sure it’s brandy made from pears and not a sweet pear flavored liqueur or other spirit flavored with pears.)
1 oz* Cardamaro (or another Amaro such as Luxardo Amaro Abano, Amaro Nonino or Ramazotti)
2 dashes of Angostura bitters
1 dash orange bitters (optional)
*more or less depending on the bitterness of your Amaro.
Pour all ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice and shake well. Strain into a small cocktail glass and garnish with a strip of orange peel or sour cherries.
