Sitting in Parlour Amaro Bar, upstairs from Providence Restaurant in Beechworth, you will find yourself unsurprisingly surrounded by Amaro. The back bar is overflowing with hard to find bottles that you would be hard pressed to find in other places. But the focus for today is owner, MIchael Ryan's own brand, Beechworth Bitters Company. Below are Michaels own descriptions of the bottles as he guides me through a full tasting of the range.

Yuzucello

"Linden flower, jasmine, lemongrass, osmanthus. So simple compared to the Amaro ingredients. But I just wanted to make something as an approachable point of entry. 
It’s a delightful flavour. Unlike any cocktail ingredient."

Orchard Amaro

"So, eleven types of citrus, all local, actually twelve now, because I've got some cinnamon orange. 
Yep. Some herbal notes from Sage, bay leaf, and parsley. 12 pint sugar. And... 22% of the alcohol. 
Yep. The least bitter in the lineup. Yep. 
I said, no caramel, so it's just a natural colour."

Beetlejuice

"It’s primarily rhubarb, citrus, and green tea. 
The green tea is a really small part of the recipe, but it really comes through. Yep. Called Beetlejuice, because of the colour of cochineal, of course. 
In hindsight it is the most expensive way to colour your drink. 
So I get it from Mexico. But, you know, it's a point of difference. Now, it's called Beetlejuice, so I can't change the formula now."

B8

"Tomato, beetroot, carrot, cucumber, celery with Kombu and Koji in it. Smells like soup, it’s quite savoury. Pretty unusual. People either love it or they’re confused by it. Interesting and complex, it goes great with food."

Daisy Age

"So this is fifteen local flowers (including daisy, violet, magnolia, saffron, jasmine, lavender and elderflower)  and unpasteurised honey. It presents sweeter than the others, even though it has the same level of fructose and glucose as the others. I think that honey, it automatically makes you think of sweetness. It has such a big honey nose."

In The Weeds

"I always wanted to have a herbal liqueur, and the name really came before the recipe. It’s a bit of work, but in a way it's one of the easiest to make as it’s all maceration. Definitely the most complex in terms of flavour though, fifty different ingredients, 45% abv but with much higher sugar."

Walk in the Black Forest

"So cherry, red fruits, touch of coffee, cocoa, vanilla, aged on oaks. Sweet caramel, rather than sugar, which is, and I used to caramelise my own sugar, but now getting up to caramelising 60 kilos of sugar, it's quite difficult. In the end, the only way I could do it was a small batch, like a kilo here and there.

Up to Eleven

"The fernet, so four types of mint, douglas fur,blue spruce, which I get from up the road. Low sugar, 6%, higher alcohol at 33% abv. A good lasting bitterness, for a lot of people, it's too bitter."

Yet to be released Vin Amaro

"Chardonnay is the base, at  about 18%. 
Green tea, Yuzu leaf, Yuzu rind, and hops are the main botanics, but there's quite a lot of other ingredients. 
  
And it's quite bitter, it’s that gray line between vermouth and vin amaro."