Cappelletti Amaro Trentino

Appearance: Very dark, opaque brown with gold flecks to the meniscus when held up to a light. Aroma: Soiled bandages. Pus. Taste and Texture: Sweet arrival with just a little bitterness. Coffee, dark chocolate, mint, bitter citrus peel but an overarching presence of the used bandage quality from the nose. The texture is creamy and good – reminiscent of heavily sweetened black coffee. The finish is short but an unpleasant herbal flavour lingers in the background. I did not like this amaro at all. The taste is not too bad at first but there is a dominant aroma of an herbal ingredient that I find very off-putting. It’s not something I have ever experienced before and it’s hard to find a descriptive parallel. To me it smelled like a gauze bandage, but not a fresh one. It made me feel distinctly queasy and the aftertaste almost made me nauseous. On the Cappelletti website they list woodruff (sweetscented bedstraw or Galium ororatum to give it its botanical name) as a major ingredient and their tasting notes say the nose is “mint and woodruff” so I can only conclude that woodruff is the particular aroma and taste I dislike. Woodruff contains a high concentration of the chemical coumarin, which is related to warfarin. Presumably it's a compound that is physically repellent for me, but others might have a different response. I’ve tried a number of Cappelletti amari with varying results. Pasubio and Sfumato Rabarbaro are both very good, but the Navasalus that I tried recently was less engaging and this one is, well to be blunt it's disgusting. Mrs Cascode & I have now tried it three times, and each time we have both emptied our glasses down the sink after a couple of small sips. The rest of the bottle is about to follow suit, and good riddance. “Most Unpleasant” : 50/100 (0.25 stars)