Rabarbaro

Rabarbaro is a subcategory of amaro wherein Chinese rhubarb root is a main botanical. This ingredient is naturally smoky, which is a throughline flavor in the category, as is earthiness (roots will do that!). Producers can distinguish themselves through their choices of other botanicals.

YOUR NAME HERE’S DIGESTIVO

Combine two parts sweet vermouth with one part Campari or other bitter aperitivo liqueur and one part amaro. (I have included this recipe with this week’s amaro category because I love rabarbaro in my digestivo mix.)

It’s nice to have a go-to combo, but it’s also fun to create an ‘infinity bottle’ of your digestivo where, once you’ve depleted some of it, you estimate how much space you have in the bottle then mix that much digestivo (with different combos) and add to the bottle. It makes for lots of layers!

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ABV LEVEL

The two main products available in the U.S. are:

• Rabarbaro Zucca Amaro, created in Milan in 1845, is arguably the impetus of this subcategory. Its other major botanicals include cardamom and bitter orange peel, which tempers its smokiness, as does the sugar content.

• Amaro Sfumato Rabarbaro is a far newer product, produced in Trento by Cappelletti (one of my favorite producers!). It is lower in sugar than Zucca and a darling of the cocktail scene; we are very fond of it at Gigantic. Woodsy alpine herbs give it a hint of “forest floor.”