Alpine-Style Winter Amaro

dozen seasonal botanicals, including pine needles, birch bark, and citrus peels, make for a cozy sipping spirit that’s worth the wait.

Makes
About ½ gallon
Time
10 minutes, plus 1–2 months aging

PHOTO: HEAMI LEE • FOOD STYLING: JASON SCHREIBER

By Danny Childs

Published on December 9, 2025

The category of alpine amaro is notoriously loose—defined only by the inclusion of “alpine herbs” and a bright, piney flavor profile. That ambiguity became the inspiration to reimagine the style by drawing on winter-hardy herbs from my garden (many of which can be found in the Alps) as well as foraged evergreens, birch, and sumac from New Jersey’s Pine Barrens. The result is a conifer-forward, deeply aromatic amaro that tastes like a cold walk through the forest. To go the extra mile, you can add the strained liquid to a 3-quart oak barrel and allow it to age for an additional month (or longer), which will impart the classic flavor notes of vanilla and spice. Enjoy this bold digestivo on its own or add it into your cocktails for a welcome bit of woodsy complexity.

Featured in “How to Make a Perfectly Balanced, Complex Amaro at Home” by Alex Testere.

Excerpted with permission from Slow Drinks by Danny Childs, published by ‎Hardie Grant North America, October 2023.

Ingredients

3 pine cones (about 1 oz.)
3½ oz. pine needles (about five 6-in. branch tips)
3½ oz. coarsely chopped juniper needles and nonwoody stems (about three 1-ft. branches)
1 cup sumac berries
½ cup dehydrated trifoliate orange peels or dried common orange peels
0.3 oz. birch bark (about one 3- by 6-in. swath of bark)
1½ tsp. dried horehound or three 6-in
One 6-in. sage sprig
Five 6-in. thyme sprigs
One 6-in. mint sprig
3 Tbsp. juniper berries
151-proof vodka, for topping (about 5 cups)
1½ cups maple syrup, plus more if needed

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Instructions

Step 1

To a 2-quart glass jar, add the pine cones, pine needles, juniper needles and stems, sumac, orange peels, birch bark, horehound, sage, thyme, mint, and juniper berries and top with the vodka. Tightly secure the lid and set aside to macerate for 5 weeks.

Step 2

Strain out the solids and reserve the liquid (it should yield about 4½ cups).

Step 3

Add the maple syrup and 3 cups of water. If the alcohol level feels too high or the flavor is too dry, add more water and maple syrup to adjust. Store at room temperature indefinitely.

To a 2-quart glass jar, add the pine cones, pine needles, juniper needles and stems, sumac, orange peels, birch bark, horehound, sage, thyme, mint, and juniper berries and top with the vodka. Tightly secure the lid and set aside to macerate for 5 weeks.
Strain out the solids and reserve the liquid (it should yield about 4½ cups).
Add the maple syrup and 3 cups of water. If the alcohol level feels too high or the flavor is too dry, add more water and maple syrup to adjust. Store at room temperature indefinitely.