Barrel House – Silvio Carta Bitter Roma
There is a growing number of Campari alternatives on the market. While of course Campari is great for mixing your Negronis and Boulevardiers, the new bitters on the block sometimes have a bit more flavour to offer. In this case, the Silvio Carta Bitter Roma Assoluto is an intense bitter which still manages to taste harmonic. Especially, when paired with bourbon, a Quinquina and a coffee stout.
Silvio Carta produces the Bitter Roma Assoluto in Sardinia. Basically, they pump up their regular Bitter Roma with a little more ABV. Apart from that, the Assoluto is also more bitter. Silvio Carta uses rosemary, sage, juniper, Helichrysum, Mugwort, oranges, tangerines and cloves as botanicals in the mix. It is bottled at 25.8 % ABV.
Bitter with citrus notes
The Bitter Roma Assoluto starts of with noticeable sweetness, but after a short while you can taste bitter notes. The bitter notes are more intense than with regular Campari. At the same time, you can also find some familiar notes of pink grapefruits in the taste. Apart from that, there are some herbal notes of thyme and rosemary in the bitter.
A lot of coffee notes
For the cocktail with the Bitter Assoluto, I chose a Boulevardier variation. However, I also wanted to stay with the theme of beer cocktails a little while longer. So, I ended up with a Boulevardier topped off with an interesting coffee porter. Apart from that, I also added a cacao eau de vie and replaced the vermouth with Byrrh.
0,75 cl Ascaim Cacao Eau de Vie
2,25 cl Silvio Carta Bitter Roma Assoluto
3 cl Byrrh
Stir – strain – chilled Double Old-Fashioned glass over ice cubes – top off with coffee porter; Garnish: Grated Cacao Nibs;
Song: Band of Horses – Barrel House;
The “Barrel House” starts off with classic Boulevardier notes of bourbon and bitter liqueurs. Yet, after a short while coffee and cacao notes become noticeable. The Bitter Assoluto blends in perfectly. The coffee porter works exceptionally well with the other ingredients in the cocktail.
Coffee beer
Magic Rock Brewery brews the Common Grounds Coffee Porter from seven different types of malts, seven types of coffee, cacao and vanilla. The malts used are Brown, Carafa Special 3, Chocolate, Dark Crystal, Golden Promise, Oat and Pale Crystal. On top of that, the brewers use Magnum, Pacific Gem, Pioneer and Sorachi Ace hops in the coffee porter.
Roasted notes with cacao
The “Common Grounds” is a beautifully balanced porter. You can find a lot of malt, with some hints of green notes. Of course, you notice the coffee in the form of portafilter, espresso and cold drip. Nevertheless, the coffee does not overwhelm the overall taste of the beer. Without a doubt, this is the best coffee porter I had so far.
*The fact that I received a product reviewed in this article for free, did not – in any way – influence the rating of said product. The bitter was provided by Silvio Carta.
