Amaro Lucano and digestion
By: Warren Bobrow
Published: March 20, 2015

In the mountainous regions of Italy, herbs grow uninhibited by modern life.  The gathering of life giving folk remedy ingredients is not a mechanized production, nor is it done by novices.  The hands of the clock go faster than the process of picking beneficial herbs.  One doesn't grow up and one day say, I think I'll gather herbs for a living.  This is a craft that is passed down from grandfather to father to son.  There is also mysticism at work here.  Folk healing is a mystical science.  Then of course there is the addition of alcohol.  Some say it is for intoxication, still others say it is for healing.  I'm convinced that it is for healing the gut- from the age of non-refrigeration to the present tense.  If you have a tummy ache drink some beneficial herbs in a drink known as Amaro.  Amaro means quite liberally, bitter or bitter digestive.  It is commonly enjoyed as an after dinner drink, and it was originally invented to stimulate digestion in an age where most were completely constipated from rotten food.  What most people in the modern era fail to realize with electric everything, is that there was a time, not so far into the past where there was no electricity or dare I say, refrigeration. 
Ice boxes were the way to keep things cool, if you were wealthy.  If not, your food was probably not too fresh, hence the need for herbal stimulants for the gut.  Amaro is a digestive, yes, we have established that.  But what is a digestive?  Quite simply, a digestive helps the drinker clean his system out.  That's the deep dark secret of digestives and Amaro.  Who knew they were so good for you?
I did.  And so it goes, into a Punch of sorts.. Another one if you allow me the pleasure.  And if you can imagine a more healing cocktail, please tell me.  This one is pretty darned thirst quenching.
 
Kentucky Afternoon Punch
Ingredients for a small crowd of about 10 rather thirsty persons...
1 Bottle Amaro Lucano
2 Bottles Barrell Bourbon #004
3 *750 ml.*  Bottles Ginger Beer  (made from Pickett's Ginger Beer Concentrate Syrup and Seltzer)
1 750 ml. Bottle Broiled Grapefruit Juice (half 6 grapefruits or more as necessary, sprinkle with rum and Demerara sugar, broil until caramelized, cool and then juice)
500 ml. Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice
250 ml. Freshly Squeezed Lime Juice
200 ml. Royal Rose Simple Syrup of Roses
 
Mix all ingredients together in a punch bowl.  Add ice to the glass, not to the punch!