Campari
Campari is an Italian bitter liqueur infused with herbs, roots, and orange peel, known for its vivid red colour and assertive, medicinal bitterness balanced by sweetness. Its exact recipe is a closely guarded secret. It is the defining ingredient in many classic Italian aperitivo cocktails.
Common uses
- core ingredient in bitter aperitivo cocktails
- built drinks with soda
Buying & storage
Keeps more or less indefinitely: Alcohol is preserving it. An open bottle keeps for a very long time, though aromatics do fade slowly.
Buying: There is one Campari, so the only decision is bottle size. If you are unsure whether you like bitter drinks, buy the smallest and make an Americano before you commit to a Negroni.
Storage: keeps well once opened, store upright away from light
In depth
Understanding campari
How it is made, where it comes from, what it pairs with, and how it behaves in an alcohol-free drink.
How it's made
A bitter Italian aperitif infused with botanicals, produced in Milan since the 1860s. Its distinctive red once came from cochineal and now comes from artificial colouring — worth knowing if you are cooking for vegans, though the modern recipe is no longer a problem.
Origin
An Italian bitter liqueur created in Novara, Italy, in 1860, with a recipe still kept secret.
What it pairs with
Bitterness needs either sweetness or dilution to work: gin and vermouth in a Negroni, sparkling wine and soda in a Spritz. It overwhelms delicate flavours, so it belongs with assertive ones.
In alcohol-free drinks
- Alcohol-free bitter aperitifs are the closest thing available and are among the better products in the category
- Grapefruit juice supplies a similar bitterness from a different direction, at the cost of the colour
Recipes
Cocktails containing this ingredient
Stand-in
Where campari is a recommended substitute
Recipes that name it as a swap for something else, with what it replaces.
- Aperol Spritzin place of aperol
- Paper Planein place of amaro (nutty, honeyed style such as nonino)
- Amaro Sourin place of amaro (such as averna or montenegro)
- Alcohol-Free Negroniin place of alcohol-free bitter aperitif
- Brooklynin place of amaro
Swap it
Possible substitutions
Explore