Fernet Branca is a bitter liqueur made from a grape alcohol base and flavoured with over 40 ingredients, including absinthe, aloe, anise seed, bay leaves, bitter orange, basil, cardamom, chamomile, cinchona bark, colombus, echinacea, galangal, gentian, liquorice, mushrooms, myrrh, nutmeg, peppermint, rhubarb, rue, saffron, sage, valerian and zedoary. It is aged in oak casks for a year, and ends up as a dark amber-coloured liquid that is 40% alcohol. It can be drunk neat as a digestivo, used in cocktails or mixed with soda water. Many would agree that Fernet Branca’s medicinal taste and smell with hints of peppermint and chalky aftertaste are certainly an acquired taste: there are even those who claim it makes for an effective hangover cure...!
Fernet Branca was invented by Bernardino Branca, a self—taught apothecary from Pallanza on Lake Maggiore. Bernadino and his wife Carolina lived a well-to-do life in 19th century Milan. Their story is typical of those of the individuals that were contributing to the formation of the emerging entrpreneurial class that would in time make the city rich.
