Asterley Bros
A British take on a wonderful Sicilian family recipe for 'amaro'
It was a Summer’s evening in Palermo, Sicily, and Rob Berry had married into a Sicilian family just a few hours ago. At the reception Rob was handed a precious heirloom by the in-laws; the treasured family recipe for their 'Amaro'. He was sworn to lifelong secrecy and vowed only to pass the recipe onto his first born children. Obviously he promptly broke that vow by telling his brother Jim 5 minutes later.
That was in 2009 and in the years since they have made Amaro many times back in London, and that is how Dispense was born. They studied the recipes from Culpeper's 'London Dispensatory', a 17th Century catalogue of London’s rich history of tonics and liqueurs. They then infused them with the intense aromas of Sicily to create something that is uniquely British but retains the heat and charm of a Sicilian Summer and while they called it Dispense Amaro, Ollie Lloyd described it as 'Brexit's dream'.
24 botanicals combine to create a rich and heady liqueur where fragrant citrus notes embrace the warmth of cardamom and clove. There's some bitterness with British hops, milk thistle & hyssop and their signature vermouth made with wine from one of England’s best producers.
The end result is a balanced and complex British liqueur for the modern palate: Dispense Amaro. Listen to the podcast again here and don't forget to visit Asterley Bros website.
