Cynar substitute

Substitutes for Cynar with ratios

1. 2Ramazzotti

   Different taste

   Use the same amount

   Milanese amaro with a similar strength and colour, built around orange peel and star anise.

   What changes

   Best for

   Cynar Negroni, amaro and soda, spritz, Black Manhattan variations

   Comparable in sweetness and bitterness to Cynar, which makes the balance of a stirred drink easy to keep. The aromatics are the difference: expect a clear orange-peel and anise note where Cynar gives you earth and vegetable bitterness. A Cynar Negroni made this way is very good but noticeably more perfumed and less savoury, and it loses the slightly cola-like darkness Cynar contributes to a highball.

2. 3Amaro Montenegro

   Different taste

   Use the same amount

   Light, aromatic Italian amaro built on orange, rose and vanilla, with gentle bitterness.

   What changes

   Best for

   amaro spritz, amaro and soda, lighter cocktails, sours

   Use this when you want an easy drink rather than a faithful copy. Montenegro is much less bitter than Cynar and distinctly floral, with rose and orange blossom over vanilla. A Cynar Negroni made with it is soft and pretty rather than bitter and savoury, and against gin and vermouth it can get lost. Reasonable in a spritz, poor in a Bitter Giuseppe where the amaro is meant to be the bass note.

3. 4Campari

   Different taste

   Use 3 tsp Campari plus ½ tsp simple syrup for every 1 tbsp Cynar

   Bright red Italian bitter aperitivo, considerably more bitter and higher in alcohol at around 24 percent.

   What changes

   Best for

   Negroni, Boulevardier, spritz, bitter highballs

   Every bar has it, so this is the practical answer for most people, but it changes the drink substantially. Campari is far more bitter and its bitterness is citrus-rind and grapefruit rather than earthy, and it is brilliant red rather than brown, so a Bitter Giuseppe made with it looks and tastes aggressive and loses the mellow, almost cola-like bass that Cynar provides. Cut the volume to about three-quarters and add a small amount of syrup to compensate for Cynar being sweeter.

4. 5Fernet-Branca, heavily reduced

   Taste and texture differ

   Use 1 to 1.5 tsp Fernet plus 2 tsp simple syrup for every 1 tbsp Cynar

   Intensely bitter menthol-heavy Italian fernet at 39 percent alcohol.

   What changes

   Best for

   bitter cocktails, amaro and soda, digestifs

   This is the least-bad option rather than a good one, and it is worth being blunt about that. Fernet is several times as bitter as Cynar and dominated by menthol, saffron and myrrh, and it is more than twice the alcohol. Used at anything close to a 1:1 pour it obliterates the drink. At a third to a half the volume with syrup added it reads as a dark bitter amaro, which in a pinch is what you needed. Add it a bar spoon at a time and taste as you go.

5. 6Strong chicory or dandelion root coffee plus simple syrup (no alcohol)

   Taste and texture differ

   Use 3 tsp strong brewed chicory or dandelion coffee plus 1 tsp simple syrup for every 1 tbsp Cynar

   Roasted root infusion, bitter in a vegetal and earthy way.

   What changes

   Best for

   mocktails, non-alcoholic spritz, amaro-style sodas

   The closest alcohol-free approximation of Cynar's specific character, because roasted chicory and dandelion root are bitter in the earthy, vegetal register rather than the citrus one. Brew it double strength and sweeten it lightly. What is missing is the alcohol, which in a drink carries the aroma and gives the bitterness somewhere to sit, so the result tastes flatter and shorter on the finish. Genuinely useful for a non-alcoholic spritz.