Cynar is an Italian amaro-style liqueur flavored with artichokes – wait! Come back! – and over a dozen other types of botanicals. Its warm, bittersweet flavor makes it highly versatile, able to serve as both aperitif and digestif when served on the rocks while also blending into all sorts of cocktails where other amari like Campari or Fernet might be too strident. You really don’t taste the artichoke, honest.
Cocktail Recipe: Man About Town
Whereas the Negroni is the perfect spring/summer drink, the two-steps-removed Man About Town, invented at the Gramercy Tavern in New York, works great in fall/winter, with spicy rye subbing in as the base spirit (as in a Boulevardier) and the bright citrus-y Campari replaced by dark, vegetal Cynar. In a mixing glass over ice stir together
- 2 oz. Rye
- 1 oz. Cynar
- 1 oz. Sweet Vermouth
Then pour over one big cube in a rocks glass and garnish with a Luxardo cherry.