Indecision – Mancino Vermouth

Three weeks into the Tiki month and still no rum! I know it sounds like I am doing this on purpose, but I promise you it is just a coincident, that all the drinks I came up with this year use other ingredients besides rum! This time we will ponder over the question if there can be a “light” Tiki drink? For me the answer clearly is yes, but does a drink which prominently features vermouth as its main ingredient, still have that Tiki vibe?

First, some facts about the vermouth in question: Mancino Vermouth is made in the Piedmont region of northern Italy using forty botanicals in total which took four years of travel to select. During production the botanicals are milled and mixed with sugar beet alcohol with an ABV of 30 % and Trebbiano wine with 12 % ABV. After the cooling of the vermouth the fortified wine is filtered and stored in stainless steel tanks for at least six months. In total there are six different styles Mancino produces. The two I want to introduce to you today are the: Mancino Bianco Ambrato and the Rosso Amaranto. The Bianco is based on 37 botanicals and supposed to be a sweet, but white vermouth. In contrast to that, the recipe of the Rosso Amaranto calls for 38 botanicals with 10 of them also being used in Amaros.

Sweet herbal and wine flavour!

Both vermouths are exceptionally well made! Especially, the combination of complex herbal notes with a nice wine flavour and a slight bitterness makes them very well balanced. I can perfectly picture myself sipping them over ice cubes with an orange twist. Of course, there are well-established vermouths out there which are also great. However, you notice that a lot of thinking went into the Mancino vermouth’s combination of different herbs and the blending of the ingredients!

Indecision and spontaneity

Originally, I had other ingredients in mind when creating a vermouth based Tiki drink. However, during my first try at mixing the drink I impulsively decided to use the rum based Clément orange liqueur instead of Falernum and pineapple instead of grapefruit juice. Moreover, I replaced the Orgeat with homemade vanilla syrup. To complete the recipe I added a few drops of Nardini China Elixir to underline the herbal flavours of the two Mancino vermouths.

As you might expect from the list of ingredients above, the resulting drink is a smooth mix of herbal and exotic flavours. I am almost surprised how well the vermouth works with pineapple. Apart from that, the orange liqueur gives the drink a dry and fruity backbone in combination with some exotic spices. Of course, those spice flavours also go well with the vanilla, which is lingering beyond the first sip. You will only notice a slight hint of the herbal and slightly bitter China Elixir. All in all, as assumed you actually can create a lighter Tiki drink which has all the characteristics of “regular” Tiki drinks.

*The fact that I received a product reviewed in this article for free, did not – in any way – influence the rating of said product.