Amer Nouvelle? Amer Picon?

[The Big Crunch]

Just saw the mention of Amer Nouvelle in another thread and since it's new to me, thought I'd toss it out to the experts and see who's tried it and what you thought. It's from Bittermen's and the things I've tried from them, albeit not that much, have been quality ingredients. That said, the proof on this is pretty low - closer to what the current European product is at than the strength of historical Amer Picon.

I've been meaning to buy another bottle of Ramazotti in the near future and make a scaled back batch of the homemade Amer Picon that Jeffrey Morganthaler came up with, but am wondering from those who really know about Amer Picon, whether the Amer Nouvelle is really a good alternative.

[cacio e pepe]

Are we not doing Amaro Ciociaro anymore? Did I miss the switch? Honestly, I threw out my bottle of the Torani garbage as soon as I tasted a Brooklyn with the Amaro Ciociaro and I stopped trying to convince myself to make the Boudreau replica.

I am excited to try the Bittermen's product as they seem to be universally awesome.

Has anyone done a taste test with:
True Amer Picon vs. Torani Amer vs. Amer-Boudreau vs. Amer Nouvelle vs. Amaro Ciociaro?

I'd be very curious to see those tasting notes for a Picon Punch and Brooklyn.

[EvergreenDan]

Perhaps I'll do a tasting and post the results, as I have some Picon Bierre. It is confusing whether this is the same product as what we call today's Amer Picon. I also have Amere Nouvelle and homemade Amer Boudreau.

Please follow yarms suggestion elsewhere to NOT infuse the orange nearly as long as Boudreau instructs. I used a 50/50 mix of dried regular and bitter orange peel. The results his hugely strong in the orange and bitter dimension. Perhaps I should add more of the other ingredients until I arrive at something closer to the other two products.

Regardless, the Bittermen's product is very delicious. I would happily drink it straight, with a squeeze of lemon, and I enjoy it in cocktails.

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www.kindredcocktails.com | Craft + Collect + Concoct + Categorize + Community

[The Big Crunch]

Thanks for the heads-up. If I read the thread where yarm mentioned that, I certainly forgot it. I'll do a search today for it and save the URL for when I finally get around to making the stuff.

[yarm]

Definitely fresh peel made my friend's Picon replica way too bright. The ones made a bar with all dried peel seemed decent.

And yes, orange peels will take under a week to infuse. A month is excessive (and might be more what happened the first time than what Boudreau actually would recommend if he edited or re-wrote the article).

[barleywino]

Amer Nouvelle tastes quite similar to Amer Picon but is not caramel colored. I much prefer the Picon/ Nouvelle over the Torani Amer, which is not even close imo.

[yarm]

I think it depends on whether the caramel-richness aspect of the Picon is important to you or not. The Bittermens did not want that aspect and were not trying to make Amer Picon, but they were making a bitter orange liqueur that would pair well with a Czech Pilsner to make Amer-beer.

At my home bar, I have a bottle of Amer Picon, but I would consider my options once that bottle is drained and then figure out if my bottles of Torani Amer were worth using or whether I should buy the Bittermens product. The Amer-Boudreau replica recipe is pretty close to Amer Picon, and the Bittermens product does give people an easy solution.

http://cocktailvirgin.blogspot.com/

[The Big Crunch]

Good to know. Also, I just realized I cited the wrong mixologist/blogger. Morganthaler may have mentioned it somewhere in his blog, but the recipe I was referring to was, indeed, the one Jamie Boudreau posted on his blog.