Florita Amer Traditionnel Haitien
Origin: Haiti/Italy(Velier) / 30% / 42,3% / 43% / 47,3% / 94,2% / Price: 30€
A bitter/amer range that I had my eyes on for a very long time. Bottled and created by Velier, the luxury Italian bottler known especially for its independent rum and whiskey bottlings.
Beautiful bottles with great pieces of art on their labels, a price that one is accustomed to with Velier (about 26-30€ for a half bottle aka 0.35l, over double what you usually pay for amari or bitter liqueurs) and only selected, regional ingredients for the quite special result you get in the bottle. For the sake of clarity, I will list the "conclusion" to all bottles in order first, followed by all the notes for this particularly interesting series.
The Amande-Pays would be in so some drinks certainly an exciting alternative to amari, maybe not Averna & Co, but rather dry amaro drinks with e.g. Amaro Nonino I could think of immediately. You can definitely not use it as a pure replacement for orgeat, it is too bitter and especially of course completely lacks the body and the creaminess of orgeat, but on the other hand 1 barspoon or more could certainly make some drinks with orgeat more exciting.
The Bitter Orange I can imagine as an interesting substitute for a Triple Sec, but be careful, it has a somewhat fragile body, like elegant, dry Triple Sec, but it is great for a nice added sharpness for your standard orange liqueur containing drinks.
The Chadèque will work great especially in stirred drinks, which are looking for these ethereal citrus notes, think of Italicus (or other bergamot liqueurs) or Acqua di Cedro with a bit more spicyness. Also significantly more oily, that is why I think it would lose too much with real citrus juices in your cocktail, the exciting notes would be suppressed too much, he should rather be the co-star to your spirit. Maybe it can work with just a minimal amount of one or two barspoons of citrus, like a Ti Punch, there he could work wonders too.
The Dandelion, on the other hand, will be tough to incorporate into your drinks, the dandelion note is not characteristic enough and quite bitter and unique, the sharpness (not of the alcohol but the roots) comes through quite strongly and then suddenly disappears, at least as a beginner I would certainly rather start with Suze here, ginger liqueur or other herbal liqueurs, which have more volume and a clear character.
Finally the Pete Panno, certainly just because of the % the craziest of the line-up. I like it a lot and can see it being used in actually many rum drinks (but not only), Asian spirits or probably also cognac/brandy could fit, I would use it similar to cocktail bitters or pimento dram, so depending on the appropriate use either in dashes or sometimes a barspoon to give drinks a great, tropical-grassy depth.
Amande-Pays:
Nose:
An aroma that immediately makes you want to taste, you get that special almond character, with some herbs however to it, between light amaro and orgeat, bitter orange peel, vanilla, touch of gentian, vanilla
Taste:
The notes from the nore continue here in their basic form, amaro meets orgeat, bitter cinchona bark and fruit peels, bitter orange and bitter orange, roots, chamomile tea, grasses, behind it almond puree, but also this rather bitter note with peels and not pure creaminess like orgeat
Finish:
Almonds dry and bitter, ginger, chamomile, grasses, bitter orange, long
Bitter Orange:
Nose:
Very clear & elegant orange, essential oils, zero sweetness in the sense of soggy, very fine liquidity and silkyness to it, slight acidity also contained in the orange zest notes
Taste:
Spicy from the beginning, you are not used to that from your normal orange liqueurs, very nice ginger heat, some anise, plus these great, candied orange peel, also blood orange there, lemongrass and some camphor
Finish:
Ginger, a little almond and fennel, lemongrass, anise, orange peel and grapefruit peel
Chadèque:
Nose:
Interesting mix of green notes and citrus peel, partly dried, partly candied, bergamot and a bit of Buddha's hand (the citrus fruit), a bit of white grapefruit peel, behind it some camphor and ginger, possibly also lemongrass, but all in all rather fragile or you could call it elegant, depending on how you want to see and use it
Taste:
Again the spicy surprise, bergamot with wasabi and ginger pieces in between, exciting mixture, lavender and lime zest candied, lemongrass, white grapefruit or rather only the oil of the peel, very ethereal and oily, sweet grasses
Finish:
Sweet grasses, ginger, camphor, touch of anise, bergamot and grapefruit peel, still oily
Dandelion:
Nose:
Interesting nose, notes of ginger, gentian, caramel, oily, almost a little lamp oil, chamomile, dandelion
Taste:
Phew, sharper and spicier than expected from the nose, really herbal spiciness at the start, imagine Suze together with a very, very spicy ginger liqueur, but it calms down fast, rather the first 3-5 seconds are very clear, then come almonds, herbal honey, a unique herbal bitterness from the dandelion, camphor
Finish:
Anise, ginger and herbal tea with dandelion, gentian
Pete Panno:
Nose:
Great nose, which also releases a lot of aroma with the high volume of alcohol, has something of a homemade lemon balm, creamy, subtly herbal, ginger, cardamom, if you go deeper with the nose you already notice the beast behind it
Taste:
Undiluted you need some seconds to taste anything, you should try it this way in a few drops maximum, as with cocktail bitters, even before touching your tongue you notice a heat coming, the salivation starts immediately, then you get lemon verbena, bergamot, great variety of roots and grasses, overall elegant (sounds crazy at the %) and coherent herbal citrus blend, green pepper
Finish:
Clove, ginger, bergamot peel, grasses
