Like dialects, there are many Italian bitters that we find on our tables at the end of an important meal. Business card of every territory, bitters are a very ancient tradition of our country: every bell tower has its recipe, its herb, its root, finally its secret. According to Matteo Zamberlan, bartender and author of the recent "The great book of Italian bitters" (Giunti), there are 975 bitters in Italy. They will not all be on display and can be tasted on Monday 25 November at Villa Zarri near Bologna, but Amaroteca has the ambition to show about forty national labels, small niche productions of the highest quality.
The Bitter Fair is a good bet by Edoardo Schiazza, patron of Caffè Rubik in Bologna, in collaboration with Ascom, the city's trade association. “Behind every amaro there is a cultural history, a local tradition to be preserved – he explains – Yet today amaro is still an underrated product, often even given as a gift at the end of a meal. This is why it should be enhanced by promoting the smaller labels as we will try to do at Amaroteca”.
The tradition of bitters has its roots in our Middle Ages: before they were curative medicines and had therapeutic properties. We are around the year one thousand, it is the friars in the convents who prepare liqueurs obtained from the alcoholic maceration of roots and herbs. But it is Italian families, especially in the countryside, who encourage tradition, each with its own formula not to be disclosed: it is a question of grams of sugar, of alcohol content, of kept recipes.
This story will be told at Villa Zarri: there will be no big brands but smaller producers within a market exhibition (from 10 to 18, admission free) which aims to spread the pleasure and culture of amaro by bringing producers and consumers directly together. Forty exhibitors from all over Italy: from the Bolognese Amaro Zarri (which mixes 28 herbs and roots such as licorice, mint, absinthe, gentian) and Amaro della Salute based on aromatic plants (including artichoke and gentian) produced by Essenziali of the Villaggio della Salute Più to the Varnelli from the Marches with its unmistakable anise flavor, from the Brescian Amaro Guelfo which refers to the orange to the Partisan one from the Lunigiana woods to the Limolivo from the Gargano with lemons and olive leaves.
