Best Amaro for Beginners (2026)

Ramazzotti is the amaro to buy if you are not yet sure you like amaro. Made in Milan since 1815 from a recipe of around 33 botanicals, it leads with cola, orange peel and a little star anise, and the bitter finish arrives late and politely. Nothing about it is challenging.

That gentleness is the point. It gives you the shape of the category - sweet arrival, herbal middle, bitter close - without the gentian slap that puts people off Fernet or Campari. Drink it over ice with a wedge of orange, or top it with soda for something closer to an aperitivo.

It also makes the most forgiving Black Manhattan of any bottle here, because it will not overpower the whiskey. If you buy one amaro in your life, the odds are good this is the one you finish.

Vecchio del Capo is the Calabrian answer to the question 'what if amaro were easy?' It is sweeter and mintier than almost anything else in the category, with liquorice, eucalyptus and citrus over a soft bitter base.

The traditional serve is straight from the freezer, in a small glass, after food - and served that cold the sweetness tightens up and the mint does the work. At room temperature it can read as slightly confected; chilled hard it is excellent.

This is a habit bottle rather than a cocktail bottle. It does not have a classic drink built around it, and it does not need one.

Amaro Lucano sits in the middle of the beginner range and is arguably the best-balanced bottle on this page. Made in Basilicata since 1894, it is drier than Ramazzotti and more herbal - bitter orange, wormwood, a little sage - without ever getting aggressive.

It is the bottle that most reliably converts someone from 'amaro is medicine' to 'I understand what this is for.' The bitterness is present enough to be the point, restrained enough not to be a dare.

It is also the most versatile mixer here. It makes a clean Black Manhattan, it works in a Paper Plane when you do not want to open the Nonino, and it is good neat.

Nonino is the outlier and the one worth the money. Where most amari are built on a neutral spirit, Quintessentia is built on Nonino's own grappa and aged in barriques - and the result tastes more like a dry sherry or a light brandy than a digestif.

Apricot, orange oil, honey, a touch of oak, and a bitter finish that is more suggestion than statement. It is the least bitter amaro here by feel, even though it is not the sweetest.

It is also the single ingredient that makes the Paper Plane work, which is the reason most people buy it. If you already know you like amaro and want to understand how good the category gets, this is the bottle.

Montenegro is the floral one. Forty botanicals, a distinctly orange-and-rose-petal nose, and a bitterness that arrives in the middle of the sip rather than at the end. At 23% it is the lowest-proof bottle on this page, which makes it easy to drink and easy to over-pour.

People tend to feel strongly about it in one direction or the other. The floral character is either the most attractive thing in the category or faintly soapy, and there is not much middle ground.

Try it neat before you commit to a cocktail with it. If you like it neat, it makes an excellent, slightly sweeter Paper Plane.

Averna is the classic Sicilian digestivo and the traditional call for a Black Manhattan. Caramel, liquorice, dried fig and burnt orange, with a genuinely bitter finish that separates it from the gentler bottles above.

This is where the category starts asking something of you. It is noticeably darker and heavier than Lucano or Ramazzotti, and it is better after a meal than before one.

Stock on it runs thin. If it is unavailable, Lucano is the closest available substitute for cocktails, though it is lighter.

The American entry, from a Maryland rye distillery, and it behaves differently from the Italians. Finished in rye whiskey barrels, it brings baking spice and oak to a category that usually leans on roots and citrus.

Bitterness is moderate but drier than the Italian bottles - less sugar to cushion it. For an American whiskey drinker curious about amaro, this is probably the most natural entry point on the whole page, because the barrel character is already familiar.

It makes a Black Manhattan that tastes deliberate rather than adapted.

Fernet-Branca is not a beginner bottle and it is on this page so you know what you are avoiding, and why you might eventually want it. Menthol, saffron, myrrh, bitter bark, 78 proof, and almost no sugar to soften any of it.

The first sip is genuinely unpleasant for most people. The category term for what happens next is 'acquired taste,' and it is accurate - a meaningful number of people who hate it at first end up keeping a bottle permanently.

Buy it last, not first. Use it as a seasoning: two dashes in a gin and sweet vermouth makes a Hanky Panky, and that is the drink that explains the bottle.