Campari

[crazyk78]

Hi all...I did a search but it only turned up a few topics on Campari, but not what I wanted.

Has anyone made their own?

If so can you advise how?

I'm planning on making some Limoncello first and then something different.

[EuroStiller]

Campari
Please remember that this is a “copycat” recipe and will not taste exactly like the real thing, but it sure does come close! I have not made it in years because we use very little Campari in my household. We prefer Aperol. A note on ingredients: I don’t know where you will find cascarilla bark and cochineal. The cochineal is very easily replaced by professional strength red food dye (E 129 Allura Red AC/ FD&C Red #40. Plus the idea of using insect shells, Carmine Natural Red #4/ E120, revolting. Yes, it has caused an allergic reaction in a very small number of the population, but that has only fueled the Campari Group to stop using it which is a damn shame if you ask me).
The cascarilla bark has to be the dark variety, indicating the outer bark, not the white variety, indicating the milled layer just below the bark. Maybe herbalists outside of Italy carry this, I do not know. The same goes for the cochineal. Purchase the whole shell, not the pre-milled powder. The carminic acid value drops. If you use cochineal, ideally you will want to use cochineal with the maximum carmine acid content (23-24%). Sometimes this can also be purchased at artist shops as well for those who make/ blend their own paints. If you plan to use the cochineal, you must prepare it before use. I will list that procedure after.


The Recipe, dated 1905

Zest of 12 Oranges, no pith, cut into very thin strips (Do not use Naval Oranges)
Dried Bitter Orange Peel 50 gr.
Quassia Wood 25 gr.
Wormwood Leaf and a few Flowers (ONLY) 25 gr.
Cascarilla Bark 50 gr.
Wall Germander 50 gr.
Calamus Root 50 gr.
Angelica Root 50 gr.
Chinese or Turkish Rhubarb Root 50 gr. (R. palmatum)
Grain Alcohol at 95% 6 Liters
Water 14 Liters
Sugar 7 Kilograms
Cochineal 60 gr.

Combine the ingredients well bruised in the 3 liters of the alcohol and ½ liter of water, and seal well. Agitate the mixture daily for 10 days. After 10 days prepare bain- marie still. Place the contents into the still along with 1 liter of water (used to clean out the maceration container). Distill very slowly via water bath and collect 4 liters of distillate then stop.
Change to a pot still and distill again. This time collect only 3 liters of distillate then stop distillation. Set the distillate aside.

Dissolve the sugar in 14 Liters of water. Bring to a full boil, and then remove from the fire. Cover and cool completely. When the syrup is cold, add the filtered color to the base (if using the cochineal), then work the alcoholic base into the syrup with the remaining 3 liters of alcohol. Filter the entire mixture and bottle. Store in a cool, dry place for 3- 6 months to age and then it is ready to serve.


To make cochineal coloring:

In a deep brass or bronze mortar and pestle, slowly reduce the cochineal to a powder to avoid making too much dust. When the cochineal is powdered, add 10 gr. Tartaric Acid and 10 gr. of Alum. Work the tartaric acid alum into the powdered cochineal. Pour over 200 gr. or pure alcohol and work the mixture into a paste. Scrape the mixture off of the spatula. Cover the mortar and set aside for 2 days. After 2 days, add 200 ml of tepid water and work into an even colorant. Filter into a bottle and set aside until needed. Shake well before using if prepared well in advance.

[kiwistiller]

Damn eurostiller, you need to write a book or three!

[crazyk78]

Wow that is excellent.

Thanks heaps for the reply.

I didn't realise that there were so many different ingredients...off hunting I will go.

PS made my first limoncello batch the other night. Will let you know how it turns out in 30 days.

[GuyIncognito]

So it was an interesting process, but I managed to track down some Cascarilla bark. I'm having trouble finding Wall Germander though. I was in italy recently and stopped in an herb shop, but after some translation i think he said that it was illegal to buy in Italy so I'm assuming that is why I can't find anywhere to order any. Anybody on the board have a lead?

[EuroStiller]

Wall germander (Teucrium chamaedrys) is not illegal to own, sell, buy, trade, or even grow in your own garden. There must have been some misscommunication. Your can order it from the following source in the USA:

http://www.pennherb.com/germander" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Good Luck

[Dnderhead]

right ,,i looked it up out of curiosity,some places it grows wiled others it is used a ornament but a caution some types are toxic.

[GuyIncognito]

Thank you so much for the response! I was about to order some Wall Germander starts to see about growing it, this should have a slightly quicker turn-around

I'm not sure what the guy actually said about it -> we went to an erboristeria in Turin, but I don't speak Italian so everything was filtered through my slightly fluent girlfriend. The clerk pulled out a giant reference book and flipped for a while and then they had a dialogue and I was told it couldn't be sold.

My Cascarilla bark arrived yesterday and smells great, I'm stoked to get the germander and give this a try! Thanks for all your help with posting this! I'm excited to try the Carpano Antico Formula and Fernet luxardo recipes you posted -> we visited Branca distillery in Milan and had a very extensive tour but unfortunately focused mainly on their advertising campaigns and family history and not on the production process...

[EuroStiller]

At the Branca distillery do they still take peope through the spice storage room?

[GuyIncognito]

They didn't take us to the spice room, but they had a large display with a wheel 15' across which held 27 of the spices used for fernet. It was quite interesting to see and smelled amazing, but unfortunately the host wasn't very involved in the production side so some of my questions went unanswered. He said they used to have a big section of saffron in the display but employees kept taking pinches for risotto, so they had to seal it in a glass vial. The .25L bottle he held up apparently had $5,000 EUR worth of saffron in it.

There was also an interesting case full of 'imitators', or other distillers brands of 'fernet'. Apparently not many fond feelings between Luxardo and Branca!

The herbs have been mixed and smell great, can't wait to run it through the still this weekend.

[GuyIncognito]

I am most of the way through the first distillation and is very interesting. The aroma is very powerfully orange, and initially quite a lot of oil came over (there was a bit of water left in the catch jar and it immediately turned opaque). I've yet to taste as its very high proof and concentrated with oils, but it seems to be missing the distinct bitter campari aroma it had while macerating all week. Perhaps that will come over at the end. Either way, i am excited about the results.

[Mauri]

Wow I've just discovered this forum.
Amazing guys! That's real know-how!

I was wondering, has anyone tried to do an Aperol? If so, could you advice how?

Thanks!!

[JohnnyJumpUp]

I would also like to try Aperol.

How did the Campari come out??

[still_stirrin]

I would also like to try Aperol.

How did the Campari come out??

Johnny,

Did you see the date of that post? And the fact that it was Mauri’s ONLY post? You’re not likely to get an answer from him, so don’t “hold your breath”.
ss

[Birrofilo]

Wall germander (Teucrium chamaedrys) is not illegal to own, sell, buy, trade, or even grow in your own garden. There must have been some misscommunication. Your can order it from the following source in the USA:

http://www.pennherb.com/germander" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Good Luck

According to Wikipedia, the use of Teucrium chamaedrys is forbidden in Italy for human consumption, because of an epatotoxic substance it contains.
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teucrium_ ... te-Pfaf-20" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
The modern Campari certainly does not contain any of it.

I don't know if it was substituted with a similar one (one of the many of the Teucrium with use in herbal preparations, several herbs of the same family are used in liquor making: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teucrium" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow ) or whether it was simply eliminated from the recipe. One should ask Campari but I don't think they will answer.

This specific ingredient can be eliminated from the list of the modern distiller (or maybe, knowing its flavour, one might imagine a suitable substitute maybe in the same family).

Interesting source for herbalists on the family, in Italian:
http://www.floraitaliae.actaplantarum.o ... php?t=7772" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[Infusionist_br]

Just wondering if anyone found a substitute to Wall germander...

[8Ball]

Spent two 6 month tours in the Mediterranean Sea area in the ‘70’s floating from port to port. Saw that stuff everywhere. Never could acquire a taste for it.

[contrahead]

Saw that stuff everywhere. Never could acquire a taste for it.

I hear that.
I don't have any use for that “Blue Curacao” stuff either. But some people (especially females) seem to like their fluffy and colorful cocktails – so no bar seems complete without having the two dyed liquors.

Cochineal has some history behind it. It was a very vivid crimson or scarlet red dye that the Spanish first discovered the Aztecs using, in Mexico. The pigment came from the bodies of crushed-up female bugs that were found on a specific type of cacti. Cochineal dye soon became second in value only to gold, as a commodity exported from the “New World” and traded in open "Old World" markets.

The bugs were carefully protected and cultivated. Portugal and Spain would selfishly hoard a valuable monopoly on the export of cochineal dye for 250 years; until a Frenchman smuggled cactus and insects to Haiti in 1777. A standard textile of the period to use as an example, might be the British soldier's uniform. Whereas an issued (dull red) “redcoat” for an infantryman was made with fabric dyed with alizarin- from madder root, an officer was expected to supply his own uniform; and officer's tunics were usually tailored and dyed a much brighter crimson with expensive cochineal dye.

Campari liqueur was named after its creator in 1860, and from the start it was tinted with cochineal bug juice (carmine). They stopped using this natural carminic acid to color the liqueur in 2006. Still cochineal (or natural red #4) is probably safer than the two synthetic red food dyes #2 and #40 which have been deemed or are suspected carcinogens.

Blue Curaçao is a synthetically dyed liqueur that might be older in origin than Campari. Curacao is an island offshore of Venezuela, that the Dutch took from the Spanish in 1634, and still control. The Spanish had already pillaged and occupied the island a century before the Dutch got there though. One of the plant species that the Spanish had transplanted to the island was a bitter citrus fruit from southeast Asia - the oils or dried peel of which is used to flavor the liqueur.

The Bols distillery, founded in 1575 in Amsterdam, had its fingers in the spice trade (including from islands like Curacao) from the early days. Early Curacao liqueurs were clear, but today Blue Curacao is mainly tinted with synthetic Blue #1 (or “Brilliant Blue”) food dye.