Amaro Camatti is a typical Genoese liqueur. It is obtained by the infusion and distillation of flowers, herbs, aromatic and tonic roots through a process still scrupulously respected today without any changes. It is moderately alcoholic (20°) and has a pleasantly bitter and delicate flavor of gentian and cinchona, with menthol notes and a persistent amaretto finish. Perfect at the end of a meal, as with every Italian bitter.
Amaro Camatti, a piece of Ligurian history
The birth of Amaro Camatti dates back to the first half of the twentieth century. It was invented by the chemist, pharmacist, and herbalist Umberto Briganti together with his wife Teresa Camatti, from whom the liqueur takes its name.
The couple is actually not Ligurian. He was born in 1872 in Cecina, in the province of Livorno, she is from Montecreto, in the Modena Apennines. They moved in 1923 to Recco (Genoa), a water-rich area, and opened a distillery there.
The war and the liqueur crisis
The liqueur was marketed as a ‘great Genoese specialty useful for stimulating appetite and for seasickness’ (claims that would be prohibited today) and had good success in Liguria and beyond, in Lower Piedmont and Tuscany. The outbreak of the war was devastating also for Amaro Camatti.
Production was suspended and the factory used as a barracks. Sugar, a rare commodity at the time, present in the distillery, was used as barter to obtain food. After the war ended, business picked up very well.
The comeback of Amaro Camatti
After the inventor’s death in 1964, Amaro Camatti declined. In 1989 it was sold to Sangallo, Distilleria delle Cinque Terre in San Salvatore di Cogorno, which still continues its production today based on the original recipe.
Among the places where you can taste this typical Genoese liqueur is the one of the inventor's granddaughter, in via David Chiossone, in the historic center of Genoa. On the walls are displayed photos of the old factory, the inventor with his wife, a very old cardboard advertisement, and a poster from the '60s.
