Italian Aperitifs from Malyasia

I never loose any opportunity of asking alcoholic favours. . Dont get me wrong, I dont get drunk on others wallets. I am refering to this penchant thing in me to ask any friends travelling out of India to get me exotic liqueurs. This time a father of two young lovly twins & a close friend of Smita & me, BJ, was coming back from Kaulalumpur.
So I got him to buy for me two amazing Italian spirits - Bianco & Amaretto. Allow me to educate you about these a bit.

Bianco

Bianco is the product of the Italian licquor giant - Martini & Ross. It is sold under the Martini Brand. Lets tear it up.
Bianco is part of the Vermouth family, its siblings being Extra dry & Rosso. I have owned & currently using a bottle of an Extra Dry. It is a great martini maker. I was hoping to get one more bottle of the same, but Mr B, got me Bianco. First impressions as soon as I opened this bottle , reminded me of Absynthe. This one is extra light green in colour.Italian white wine is the base for Bianco . The sweetness comes from some refined sugar. It is then blended with aromatic herbs & most nicely - Vanilla which seems to be giving the great flavour.

Bianco is a great party drink outside India since generations. It has a very intense flavour. I am yet to try it but the smell surly suggests smoothness & sweetness. I will keep you guys posted as soon as I try the long or short version of this aperitif very soon. Apparently it can be served on the rocks with some strawberry slices or with tonic water, ice & lime juice as a tall drink. My personal guess is that it will o well with Gingerale or cranberry or apple juice too.
Damn inexpensive like the Extra Dry, in a duty free zone it is not more than INR450 for a litre bottle.

Amaretto

Almonds and apricots are the main flavours in this brandy-based drink from Italy. I am not near my bar counter to go look for the name of the manufactuer of the bottle that I posses now. But Italy is the source.
The bottle is extremly beautiful. The colour of amaretto is medium brown. You can guess that becasue of almonds in it. The bottle that I own has a cork stopper at its neck instead of a screw cap. I guess the cork keeps the suttle & sweet fragrance of the almonds in tact.
Looks like there is a lot of cultural reference to the Italian underworld around Amaretto. There are many cocktails based on this liqueur that have names like Godfather & Mafia`s Kiss. I am yet to open this one too & I plan to make the Godfather out of it.
Here is the recipie:
One part of Scotch & one part of Amaretto poured over an old fashioned glass filled with ice. No shaking, no stirring. Gulp it up.

Amaretto goes well with Gin & Vodka as well. It makes an excellent liqueur for coffee and goes well with desserts. There are quite a few cooking recipies as well that you might find on the net.
A 1 litre bottle of Amaretto from the KLIA duty free cost me around INR.1400.

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About Shank

Shank is a cocktail enthusiast & a self-proclaimed mixologist. He likes to experiment with spirits. He has traveled around a bit visiting hundreds of bars and tasting the buzziest of alcohols, cocktails and shooters.



Shank spent early years of his dizziness in Mumbai. He has lived in Hyderabad for long and for the past few years is chilling his glass in Bangalore.



He is currently busy spreading his love for spirits through this blog - Cocktail Nirvana.



This blog is part of his ongoing quest for fine spirits, creative cocktails and classic mixology. These online journals will capture his cocktail inventions, adventures with alcohol, trips to bars, meeting with ace mixologists, lessons in the art of drinking and much more.

This apart, ignoring good judgment, the fine folks at www.mybangalore.com also allow him to take up valuable space on their portal with his words & pictures.

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