Cocktails with Amer Picon
Amer Picon is a French bitter-orange aperitif liqueur flavored with dried orange peel, gentian root and cinchona bark.
ABV21%(older bottlings ran up to 39%)
Substitutes for Amer Picon
Orange over gentian and quinine, and the bitterness is the half that is hard to find at the right strength. A sweeter orange bottle needs a bitters added; a bitterer one needs syrup, half a barspoon at a time.
Often confused with
Orange liqueur (triple sec / curaçao)
Amer Picon is an amer: its bitterness comes from gentian and quinine, with dried orange peel over the top. Triple sec and curaçao are plain orange-peel liqueurs — sweet, not bitter, so they leave a drink built on Picon sugary and spineless.
Bigallet China-China
The closest thing on an American shelf — orange peel over cinchona and gentian, the same construction. It swaps measure for measure in a Brooklyn; it is a little sweeter, so a dash of orange bitters restores the edge.
Amaro CioCiaro
An Italian amaro led by bitter orange, so it covers the flavor and lands rounder and sweeter. Use the same measure; it will need a little bitterness put back, or the drink loses the dry bite Picon was carrying.
Torani Amer
Widely stocked in the western US and much the sweetest of the three — candied orange rather than bitter. Expect to add two or three dashes of a gentian or orange bitters and to cut the syrup from the build.
