Amaro Montenegro

Classic syrupy amaro

Rating: 14/23 I've heard good things about this one, but I'm an amaro novice and my understanding is that it's a loose category. Seems like an adventure awaits! N: Hmm, there's a sweet menthol scent with soap and this enticing floral fragrance that I'm having trouble placing. It's very sweet, but also has some bitter herbal richness and a clean minerality. I'm interested, but a little nervous. P: Very sweet! it goes through the floral flavor with hints of herbal spices before settling into the soap and bitterness. Surprisingly, despite that description, it's pretty tasty! I get minerality up front with the sweetness and carrying into the middle. The burst of floral flavor is very engaging and it ties everything together. I get mint in there too, but it's nowhere near Fernet Branca in its austerity. The soapy bitterness builds throughout, but I don't find it to be overwhelming. This is a bit funky and challenging and I can't say that I love the soap or know what to do with it, but I like how clean the flavor is. F: Bitterness. There are bits of mint, soap, and miscellaneous herbs. Faint, sweet floral wafts come in from time to time. It's a bit bitter, but it's a good counterpoint to the sweetness. - Conclusion - This is an interesting and tasty liqueur. I'm not sure how I feel about it overall considering the soap flavor and my dearth of ideas for what to do with it, but I like it overall. Amero Montenegro really strikes me as a more refined Jägermeister. It's sort of like how Wild Turkey 101 is aggressive and bold, but then Russell's Reserve 10 is more subdued and stately. So this is at least a 12, but I had much higher expectations that that considering all of the praise it has received. I'm considering up to a 17, but that soapy flavor is proving to be a real challenge and I'm not sure what to do with this aside from drink it neat. I feel like I might like Fernet Branca a bit better. I was thinking more like a 12 to 16 for this, which puts a 14 in the middle. I gave Fernet-Branca a 15. Done - this is a 14 (most unfortunately). OK, but here are some last attempts to find something to do with this. Mixed with Pure Scot Virgin Oak - quite good actually! Adds some nice sweetness and complexity, making for an interesting cocktail. Bourbon - pretty dicey. Rye - if it's a sweet rye, this can add some nice complexity for a cocktail. It was especially good for killing my bottle of Templeton 4. Rum - Something like Appleton Estate 12 goes well with this - but the Appleton Estate 12 functions best as a small addition to a glass of this neat (surprisingly). A very different way to go is to mix this with Plantation Xaymaca to create a super funky cocktail. Milder and subtler rums like Plantation 20th Anniversary cmostly get squashed. Gin - this seemed very hard to balance. Though the negroni is an acquired taste in my book, so maybe sufficient advertising would make the two taste better together (optionally with some amount of dry or rosso vermouth - both of which I tried). There might be a good cocktail with the right gin and rosso vermouth hiding here, but it won't be similar to a negroni. Peated whisk(e)y - this was largely awful. Ardbeg An Oa fit in pretty well. That one demands more investigation, but the rest should be avoided at all costs. Tequila - shockingly, this is this best combination I've found so far. Tequila is funky and often minty. I usually expect it to be sweeter than it is (because shouldn't agave be super sweet?). Amaro Montenegro adds those characteristics. This warrants more investigation. The thing that gives me the most hope is that many spirits really dull that soapiness. I think that cocktails deserve further investigation, but for the time being I am sticking with a 14 based on my neat pour and initial attempts to replace other amari in cocktails.

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