Fernet-Branca

Love the herbaceous fernet

I’m from San Francisco and I have to love this stuff because of tradition. Extreme Bitter, mint, herbs and earth. This will settle your stomach right away if you aren’t feeling good

Nose: Spearmint forward with a bit of ethanol and dark chocolate. Taste: A hint of vanilla and dark chocolate opens up into heavy spearmint and herbal bitterness similar to bitter orange and grass. Slurping in some air opens up some cinnamon and cloves, and transforms the dark chocolate into milk chocolate. Wonderfully complex, and it performs very well in a few key cocktails including whiskey. Wonderfully complex and interesting. Haven't had anything like it yet.

Menthol nose. Bitter herbs and menthol. Weird.

I’m sure there’re some nuanced and delicate flavors that I’m missing in this Fernet, but to me it tastes like somebody infused NyQuil with Andes mints. Not generally a fan of Italian bitters by themselves, but I can see how to work this into some interesting cocktails. Nowhere near as much licorice flavor as I was expecting, but the mint-forward taste makes me wanna try Branca Menta next.