Lounge of Tomorrow - Vintage Liqueurs?

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Fiore d'Alpe or Flora Alpina: Made in northern Italy, this is packaged with a twig in the bottle, upon which excess sugar crystallizes. Traditionally, a real twig was used, but today it is likely to be made of plastic. The liqueur is fairly sweet and features herbal and mint flavors. Bottling proof is high, up to 92o.

Lots of mini bottles on ebay, but it looks like there is no US distributor. Anyone going to Milan soon? Or, perhaps Canada would have it?

Oh, I'd volunteer to go to Milan to pick some up. ;)

I think this was known as Enzian in my household - but I don't recall the sugar crust. I do recall it was rare to come across prompting my mom to buy out supplies whenever they were found at Liquor Barn the Bevmo of the day.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Not Afraid (Post 293670)

My mom is in Canada for the next month. So if you can tell me exactly to tell her what to look for I can probably get a bottle.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BarTopDancer (Post 293714)

My mom is in Canada for the next month. So if you can tell me exactly to tell her what to look for I can probably get a bottle.

BtD

That would be awesome!

So far I've not been able to come up with a maker, if she could ask if they carry fior d'alpe aka flora alpina.

If successful, I be sending $$ via paypal! :snap:

I will ask her to make a trip to the liquor commission and look for it. If they don't have it in the town she is at I'll have her look in Halifax on her way home.

Drat! My local purveyor of spirits sent me this:

Quote:

Hi Donna,

Looks like this product isn’t exported—I got no US hits on the various product searches I ran. Sorry!

Must up the ante, anyone know anyone going to Italy???

I strongly recommend this article:

Quote:

The cocktail is a lovely simple thing: a mixture of spirits and flavorings that whets the appetite, pleases the eye, and stimulates the mind. It is one of our conspicuous contributions to cultured living, up there with the Great American Songbook and the tuxedo. Yet, like almost everything else to do with culture in this country, the cocktail fell on hard times in the 1960s. A generation preferred other intoxicants and, when they drank, took their alcohol in sickly sweet concoctions that defied any idea of sophistication. As time passed, the places one could order a decent cocktail grew farther in between. By the 1990s, few establishments outside of the fustiest hotels could produce a passable Martini or Manhattan. Fewer still a Negroni, a Jack Rose, or a Sazerac.

Some of it is the ignorance of the folks behind the bar, who not only have a limited mastery of the ratios that make such cocktails refreshing but also fail to measure--every drink should be meted out accurately with jiggers and spoons. It is a profession after all dominated by disabused actors and women comfortable in brief attire. But it is just as much the lack of audience. For a Negroni, your sweet vermouth and your Campari must be fresh, used and replaced regularly. For a Jack Rose, you not only need bottled-in-bond applejack or high-grade Calvados, but also real grenadine, which at this point you must make yourself as the product sold domestically has no pomegranates in it. And a Sazerac?

To make the signature drink of New Orleans, you need not only good rye and an absinthe substitute, but a bottle of Antoine Amedie Peychaud's anise-dominated bitters. You need, in other words, fresh ingredients, a fair amount of knowledge, and practiced skills.

H/T @Maddow

Quote:

Originally Posted by bewitched (Post 294090)

Ebay

Thanks Whitney!

I saw these, but am I really going to pop one of these open and drink it? Besides, $20+ for a mini bottle?

I'm convinced I can find it, just going to take some patience! :)