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L I Q U E U R S WRITTEN BY GABE TOTH
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he American cocktail market is creating a bitter opportunity for distillers. Or maybe it’s an Amaro opportunity, or Amer. Whatever you want to call it, the herbal liqueur category is allowing producers to create bold, unique flavors that bartenders and cocktail drinkers are searching for. Once used medicinally or to aid in digestion, they can range in flavor from deep, palate-coating licorice, to sharp citrus, to complex and herbal. They can be sweetened, a little or a lot, they can be intensely bitter, they can be fairly simple or include a list of a dozen or more ingredients. They can be enjoyed neat, but thanks to the growing craft cocktail scene, bartenders are increasingly introducing them to customers, both in revived classical drinks and new formulations. “The palate of the American cocktail drinker is changing and maturing,” said Stephen Gould, who makes herbal liqueurs at his Colorado distillery, Golden Moon. “The market for these products is growing rapidly. Bartenders are figuring out that there is such a variety. It gives them huge additional reach.” Those bartenders are
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“The palate of the American cocktail drinker is changing and maturing. The market for these products is growing rapidly. Bartenders are figuring out that there is such a variety. It gives them huge additional reach.” — STEPHEN GOULD, GOLDEN MOON DISTILLERY
gradually growing the segment for these products by introducing one customer at a time, one cocktail at a time. For Tremaine Atkinson of Chicago’s CH Distillers, a bartender even went so far as to push him into bringing out something new. Atkinson was trying to get his spirit picked up at a local establishment when the head bartender told him, “If you make an amaro, I’d sell a ton of it.” Three or four months later, the CH
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