Rating: 13/23 N: Menthol, but a bit vegetal. The vegetal scent is adding a bit of complex funkiness here. There are touches of other herbs that are mostly hard to place, but I do get some sage and cilantro. P: Bitter with sweetness and menthol mixed with some vegetal (though not rotting) flavor. A bit of chocolate. A light touch of something fruity that borders on cherry, but isn't quite it. There are some other bitter herbs swirling in here, but they're hard to identify. This is more in the Amaro Montenegro range than the Campari range. I do get some of that cilantro from the nose, but I don't think I'm getting the sage. This fortunately tastes less soapy than Amaro Montenegro does, but it also tastes more bitter and minty, like it has a Fernet Branca influence. This has a bit more alcohol to it, but that's to be expected considering its higher proof (30% vs 23%). There's less nuance and balance here perhaps, but I kind of like the profile overall. This is nowhere nearly as funky and full of sweet and fun flavors as Averna is. F: Minty with some bitterness that isn't quite like licorice. Hints of bitter herbs dance throughout and there's a nice bit of sweetness that keeps this kind of tasty. - Conclusion - Amaro Montenegro (14/23) shines when mixed with tequila. How does this compare? Well, Amaro Montenegro is more subtle, so this needs to be treated more like bitters and included in smaller quantity. Getting past that, this still has more of a Fernet Branca (15/23) character to it that needs to be addressed. This ends up tasting more like a cocktail in general, whereas a small amount of Amaro Montenegro might be able to sneak in and pretend to be an altered tequila flavor. The dosage for this needs to be more like that for bitters than for normal liqueurs. A touch of this mixed with some blanco tequila has some nice reminiscence of an espadin mezcal. Both this and Amaro Montenegro work well with Old Forester Rye (16/23). Again, the characters are different, but both balance nicely and are tasty to sip. I consider this to be an improvement on the Old Forester, though not a massive one. Still, this is pretty good. Amaro Montenegro, on the other hand, is questionable as to whether it improves upon the base spirit in this case. This clearly trounces the base spirit. Now I don't want to have Old Forester Rye without this. The improvement is actually quite substantial. I'd been looking in the 15 to 16 range for this, but considering this mix, maybe I should be going higher? Honestly, I expected this to be barely drinkable. I guess I'm not confident enough in this still to give it an 18 based on how it mixed with the Old Forester, but I'm thinking at least a 16. Trying this with Pikesville (16/23) produces a bit of contention. I'm not sure that this is that good of a pairing. I'd give the neat Pikesville the win here. Moving to Whistlepig Piggyback (16/23), this still stands out, but reducing its concentration really helps the profile to balance. I'd give the mix with this the win here. Let's end with a comparison with Amaro Montenegro using a mezcal, since Amaro Montenegro makes a point that it's good with mezcal on its website. Los Vecinos Espadin will be the mezcal for this. A pretty substantial amount of amaro is needed to make a dent in the flavor here. When given enough power to actually come out here, the combination with the mezcal isn't bad, but it is sort of funkily unbalanced. Amaro Montenegro does a better job of gradually integrating withe mezcal, using its sweet flavor and mellow character. That stated, does the Montenegro mix beat the neat mezcal? Probably not. It's interesting, but the balance is kind of weird. On the other hand, this had some flavors that balance with the mezcal's bitter character, added some spiciness and other nuance. Is this better than the mezcal overall? Maybe, but maybe not. Based on this experience, I'm leaning toward a 16. Coming back to this, I'm not so enthusiastic. It has a bitterness that stands out in a way that reminds me a bit of red food coloring. Still, based on my previous experience, I can't totally discount this. I do find its uses to be quite limited though. Even with Old Forester Rye, I'm finding this to be inferior to both a mix with Amaro Montenegro and the neat rye. Wow, this is seeming actively bad now. It's hard to rate something in this situation. It was better than average before, but now it's bad? Ugh. OK, there is definitely something a bit artificial in here. It reminds me of Campari, but this is sadly not as good in cocktails. This is a tough one to rate, especially with such a small sample. Still, I'm quite confident now that a 16 is too high. A 15 also seems excessively high. I'm considering a 10 to 14 after that whiplash of a second tasting. Most likely, I'm thinking a 13 or 14. I keep finding that this is not as good as the spirit it's paired with. Often, it even is actively bad. Still, it's far from overwhelmingly bad. This is a tough score to choose, but I'm going with 13. I'd try a sample of this again to refine this rating, but there's no way I'm buying a full bottle.