Cocktail Questions: A Bottle of Cynar?

Where to start with the most versatile bottle in your home bar.

In this edition of Cocktail Questions:

• What are you going to do with a bottle of Cynar? (Short answer: Anything you want.)

Do you have a question about cocktails, bars, booze, home bartending, or something else related to the topics discussed in this newsletter? Send your pithy, clear question to me at cocktailswithsuderman@gmail.com

Hello,

I am in possession of a brand new subscription to your newsletter and my first ever bottle of Cynar. Any suggestions on where to start?

Thank you, and Happy New Year!

With gratitude from a very novice cocktail maker,

—Jason

Hi Jason! Welcome—and happy New Year to you too.

A newsletter subscription and a bottle of Cynar? Sounds like you had a very good holiday. I suspect there are other subscribers in a similar position. Cheers and welcome to all the new readers.

One of my most strongly held cocktail-related views is that Cynar is the most versatile bottle in a home bartender’s arsenal. Not necessarily the most important—that would be Rittenhouse rye—but the most adaptable, since it can play almost any role in a cocktail.

Cynar is earthy, intense, subtly sweet, and intriguingly bitter. Its most common use is as a bittersweet modifier, but in some drinks it can play a vermouth-like role as well, and at times it can be cast as the base spirit or foundation of a drink.

Like a great character actor with some eccentric qualities who nevertheless occasionally finds his way into leading roles—think Paul Giamatti, who also balances sweet, bitter, and complex—Cynar really can do just about everything.

So what should you make first? To some extent, the answer will depend on what other bottles you have in your possession. The good news is that Cynar goes with—and in—almost everything. So even if you have just a few other well-chosen bottles on hand, you should have some options.

To me, the essential Cynar cocktails are the Little Italy, which is a Cynar-ified Manhattan that pairs it with rye whiskey and sweet vermouth, and the Mezcal Negroni with Cynar, which simply swaps out Campari and replaces it with the artichoke bottle.

Both call for sweet vermouth, but if you don’t have a bottle on hand, you can pair Cynar with mezcal in an even split—just an ounce of each—plus orange bitters, in the Conor’s Favorite, which drinks a little like a bitter, smoky, strange Old Fashioned.

In most cases, you can profitably swap Cynar into any recipe that calls for Campari, for a darker, richer, earthier drink. An exception is the Scorched Earth, an intense but excellent riff on the Mezcal Negroni that calls for both Campari and Cynar, with no sweet vermouth, because it casts Cynar in the vermouth role.¹

In addition to mezcal and rye, Cynar pairs exceptionally well with apple brandy, another underrated bottle that should be in every home bar.

Cynar is an amaro, and it can often stand in for other dark-colored amari: If you see Averna, Braulio, CioCiaro, Gran Classico, or China-China Amer in a recipe, try it with Cynar instead. It may not work in every single instance, but it should produce good results far more often than not.

If you’re feeling more adventurous, try using Cynar as a base spirit—the star slot more commonly reserved for whiskey, gin, rum, and so forth, in something like the Bitter Giuseppe, a brain-meltingly tasty concoction that is essentially a Manhattan, but with Cynar instead of whiskey. Or make a Cynar Sazerac, which is just a Sazerac, but with Cynar instead of rye.

Are you still feeling that holiday spirit? Try this Scotch-Cynar-maple-coffee eggnog, which sounds sort of insane, and perhaps even is sort of insane. But it is truly magnificent in the glass.

For something a little lighter, try a Cynar Inquisition, which is really just a Cynar sour with a bit of Suze. If you’re feeling summery, try a C&T, Cynar & Tonic, which swaps Cynar in for gin.

Cynar is considerably lower ABV than gin or whiskey, so these Cynar-ized iterations won’t hit quite as hard. Cynar-heavy drinks are great for those who aren’t doing Dry January, but want to keep it lower proof.

Or just pour an ounce or so and enjoy a few considered sips. Yes, you can drink Cynar straight. I don’t recommend downing shots, but Cynar is underrated as a solo sipper, and it makes for a truly satisfying nightcap or post-meal digestif. Indeed, I think I’ll have a pour right now.

Lil Cuz Loves a Snow Day

1. To be clear, you can’t really swap Cynar for Campari in this drink because it calls for both, and then, instead of Cynar + Campari, you’d be left with Cynar…and more Cynar. Which in this very rare case would actually be too much Cynar.