Co-owner/bar manager Matt See pours shots of Fernet Branca at the People’s Eatery in Toronto in November., November 22, 2014.Darren Calabrese/The Globe and Mail
It's a hopping night at Peoples Eatery in Toronto's Chinatown – funk on the stereo, snacks on every table. Co-owner/bar manager Matt See sets some Chinese teacups on the marble bar top, pours a stream of Brio-hued liqueur into them, and slides the cups toward a few of his front-row patrons, myself included. The shot goes down like medicine, as herbaceous as a newfangled GNC supplement, so bitter that my body stiffens as if in expectation of poison. Then an incredibly soothing warmth kicks in.
"The first time I tried this," See says, "I was like, 'Why would you? Why would you?'"
It wasn't so long ago when See might have unthinkingly busted out Jameson Irish Whiskey, an age-old favourite among Canadian bartenders, as his mood-lightener of choice. But more and more, he reaches for Fernet-Branca, quite possibly the most dry and fanatically bitter amaro in existence. (Amaro, it should be noted, is Italian for "bitter" and is a category of herbal liqueurs that includes Montenegro, Campari and Ramazzotti.)
Long popular in Italy and Argentina, Fernet-Branca started to build a cult following among servers in San Francisco in the early 2000s. From there, bartenders say, this new appreciation moved up the West Coast to Vancouver. It's now heading east. Usually it's consumed straight or on the rocks. Most people hate it the first time they try it. Bartenders adore it (except for the ones who hate it, of course).
"It's a shocking experience the first time if you're unprepared for it," says Josh Pape, co-owner and bar manager at Wildebeest in Vancouver. "It is kind of a rite of passage, a badge of honour, for bartenders to take it. Some people feel that you're not really a proper bartender unless you drink it."
Fernet-Branca was first concocted in 1845 in Milan, Italy. The recipe, a myriad of herbs, roots and spices, is treated with the secrecy of a military document (apparently, only Fernet-Branca's current president, Niccolo Branca, knows the formula in its entirety). Most of the known ingredients, such as myrrh, bitter orange and gentian, are bittering agents. Basically, it's bitter layered atop bitter, with extra bitter for good measure.
Its rise in popularity shouldn't be surprising – bitter is gaining recognition as a sophisticated, multifaceted taste. Consider that kale is the new lettuce, and that chef-author Jennifer McLagan has just written an entire book dedicated to the flavour.
Like the taste it represents, Fernet-Branca is more elaborate than it first appears. "On ice, with a drop or two of simple syrup, Fernet just opens up," says David Bain, bar manager at Model Milk in Calgary. "It opens into some really cool herbal nuances. It almost feels like you're walking through the fields in northern Sweden."
As testament to the love-hate relationship that the liqueur inspires, the tasting notes aren't always positive: "I always compare it to Buckley's," says Pat Orgera, manager and sommelier at Barberian's Steak House in Toronto.
Many of Fernet-Branca's ingredients are known for their medicinal qualities, and it's often considered unparalleled as a digestive. (It's like something an 1800s grandmother would force down an ailing child's throat in the hopes that it would kill the disease and not the patient.)
"I always suggest Fernet after a meal," says Oliver Stern, bar manager at the Toronto Temperance Society. "If someone's feeling a little sick, if someone has a scratchy throat or if they're coming down with a cold, a warm Fernet is great. Fernet and Chartreuse are my two sick remedies. Between the two of them, there are so many herbs and botanicals that they have to cure something."
It's true that Fernet can alleviate postprandial discomfort immediately – miraculously, even – but I always felt unsure as to whether this was a real or an imagined effect. Amy Stewart, bestselling author of The Drunken Botanist and five other books on plants and herbs, says that many ingredients found in liqueurs such as Fernet – particularly gentian – are known to stimulate saliva and other digestive fluids.
"The thing to remember is that these liqueurs started as medicine," she says. "Back before we had pills of any kind, all we had were plants, and the best way to turn those plants into medicine was to soak those plants in alcohol to extract the active ingredients."
Still, she says it's hard to gauge how healthy a beverage like Fernet actually is, because we don't know exactly which ingredients are in it, or in what quantity.
"Let's not fool ourselves into thinking that this is a great way to get medicine into our system. People always want their evening cocktail to have health benefits, but for the most part, any healthy attributes of a plant that end up in the bottle is a small quantity."
Other types of Fernet do exist (Branca just happens to be the most popular one), but those all seem to contain a lingering sweetness. Perhaps it's Fernet-Branca's extremism, the fact that it's not at all approachable, that gives it its appeal.
"Once you develop a palate for it, if you learn to appreciate it, you start to almost crave it," Pape says.