The original recipe for this heavy amaro was given to Salvatore Averna by Benedictine friars in 1859. Averna quickly established itself as the drink of choice for Italian nobility: in 1912, King Vittorio Emanuele III permitted Averna to carry the House of Savoy’s coat-of-arms. Averna has a dark, thick appearance, not unlike iodine. It is quite sweet beneath a pronounced flavour of burnt orange, burnt sugar and a little burnt rubber.