Bitter, Like my Soul

Saucyman, How can you abjure Gin and like Campari? Isn’t Campari just red Italian Gin? - Tonic

Careful there, sailor, you only got 2/3 of it right. Yes, Campari is Italian and it is unmistakably red but it isn’t Gin. Easy to understand the confusion though, it is often served with gin, most notably in a Negroni – equal parts gin, Campari and vermouth. Campari contains quinine, the bitter substance that both ameliorates symptoms of malaria and flavors tonic water – which on occasion has accompanied gin.

Campari was formulated in the late 1860s in Milan, Italy. Gaspare Campari opened a café/bar in the fashionable Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. His drink was known as bitter all’ ollandese – bitters in the style of Holland. In the modern era where all things Italian are affixed with a halo of beauty and artisan/artistic quality, it is hard to fathom that 150 years ago Italians, in fashion capital of Milan would view all things Hollandish (okay, Dutch) as the epitome of elegance and distinction.

Campari is a product that would never find traction in today’s market; where everything is made to be sweet, it is unapologetically bitter. Produced from 60 separate ingredients, the exact combination of ingredients is a secret, according to legend and PR materials only one person – IN THE WORLD - knows the precise recipe. Campari contains the alkaloid quinine along with, most likely, bergamot oil, bitter orange peel, rhubarb and ginseng. Originally, its hue was set by pulverizing the bodies of a cochineal insect/beetle, now the company, Gruppo Campari (who also own, produce, market and distribute SKYY Vodka, Cinzano Vermouth), uses artificial colorings to produce the desired red color.

Even if you can’t get around the taste, there are other reasons to like Campari: As cultural shorthand; when ordered by name in a movie, Campari always signifies its drinker is casually worldly in a way that those surrounding them are not. Campari turns up frequently in the work of Hemingway – it is nearly a minor character in A Farewell to Arms and perhaps because of the anti-malarial quinine, the drink turns up here and there in short stories set in Africa. Campari’s print advertising has been stunning, eye-popping, innovative and iconic for over 100 years – featuring such artists Fortunato Depero, Enrico Sacchetti and more recently Ugo Nespolo.

Besides the Negroni, Americano and the Campari & Soda, Waverly Root writes that marriage of Campari and eau de vie forms a drink called the Perfecto Amore - perfect love. Maybe not perfect and maybe not love but Campari, Soda and the juice from half an orange makes a really good and popular aperitif here in Saucyland. At 41 proof, about half the alcohol of whiskey or vodka, it is light. That along with the bitter flavor that really gets the salivary glands going, Campari is really is a good thing to enjoy before a meal even if the food isn’t Italian.