Quinquina and China: The Cinchona Aperitifs

An aperitif bittered with cinchona bark, which the French call quinquina and the Italians china. Cinchona is the bark quinine comes from, and it gives a dry, dusty bitterness quite unlike gentian's sharp one. Most quinquinas are built on wine rather than spirit, which is why they sit near vermouth on a shelf and are treated the same way.

The word, mostly, and the word does not track the border. Byrrh Grand Quinquina and Mattei's Cap Corse use the French term. Bigallet's China-China takes the Italian one while being French itself, and China Martini is Italian. Cocchi Americano is Piedmontese but sits with the French bottles in every way that matters. The division that does anything is wine against spirit: the two china bottles are spirit-based at 40 and 31 percent and behave like an amaro, while Bonal, Byrrh, Cap Corse and Cocchi Americano are wine-based at 16 to 18 and behave like a vermouth.

The Vesper is the famous one. Its original spec called for Kina Lillet, a quinquina that was reformulated away, and Cocchi Americano is the bottle most bartenders reach for in its place. This site's Vesper uses exactly that. Byrrh Cassis, Bonal and Rye, the Mediterranean Martini on Cap Corse and Picon Bière all sit on the same shelf.

It contains cinchona bark, which is where quinine is extracted from, so a small amount is present. The quantity is a fraction of what a historical tonic carried; the bark is there because it tastes bitter and holds a wine aperitif together. Tonic water is bittered with the same material.

The wine-based ones behave like an open bottle of vermouth: refrigerated after opening, and drunk within a month or so before the fruit flattens. Bonal, Byrrh, Cocchi Americano and Cap Corse are all in that group. What decides is the base rather than the strength, which matters for Amer Picon: it is only 18 percent but it is spirit-based, so it keeps at room temperature alongside China-China and China Martini.