Pasubio and Coke — An alpine vino-amaro over ice with cola, which works better than it reads

Pasubio and Coke

An alpine vino-amaro over ice with cola, which works better than it reads

Number of people

Ingredients

  • 2 ozAmaro Pasubio
    The wine-based alpine amaro, blueberry and pine
    Substitute: Another vino-amaro
  • 4 ozCola
    Cane sugar rather than corn syrup, if you can get it

Instructions

  1. Fill a tall glass with ice
  2. Add 2 oz Amaro Pasubio
  3. Top with 4 oz cola
  4. Squeeze a lemon wedge into the glass and drop it in

    Into the drink, not onto the rim; the acid has to arrive with the sweetness

Technique Notes

Squeeze the lemon into the glass rather than perching it on the rim. Cola is already sweet and Pasubio is already fruity, and without acid arriving at the same moment the drink reads as syrup with a herbal aftertaste.

Why the Pasubio and Coke Works

Cola is vanilla, caramel and citrus oil, which is most of what an amaro already has. Pasubio adds blueberry and pine on top of that, and the result tastes less like a novelty than like a cola with the fruit and the bitterness turned up.