Is Disaronno the Same as Amaretto? What Is Actually in the Bottle
Somebody hands you a square glass bottle with a big square cap and asks whether it is Disaronno or amaretto. It is a fair question and it comes up constantly, because the two words get used as if they were interchangeable. They are not, quite.
The short answer
Amaretto is a kind of drink. Disaronno is a brand of it. Every bottle of Disaronno is an amaretto; not every amaretto is a Disaronno.
It is the same relationship as scotch and Glenlivet, or cola and Coke. Disaronno happens to be so dominant that people started saying its name when they meant the category, and now the category and the brand have blurred into one another.
The full name on the label used to be Amaretto di Saronno, which is where the confusion started. Saronno is the town near Milan where it is made. The house shortened it to Disaronno in the 1990s, but the old name stuck in enough kitchens that both are still searched for.
What the word amaretto means
Italian for "a little bitter." Amaro is bitter, and the -etto ending makes it small. So: slightly bitter. That is the almond edge underneath all the sugar, and it is what keeps a good amaretto from tasting like syrup.
The category has no legal definition the way cognac or Prosecco does. An amaretto is a sweet liqueur that tastes of almond and marzipan. How a given house gets there is up to them.
Does Disaronno actually contain almonds?
No. This surprises people every time, and it matters if there is a nut allergy at the table.
Disaronno is built on apricot kernel oil, plus seventeen herbs and fruits steeped in alcohol and sugar. Apricot kernels carry the same benzaldehyde compound that gives almonds their smell, which is why the drink reads as almond to the nose and the tongue. There is no almond in it.
That is Disaronno specifically. Other amarettos are made other ways, some of them with actual almonds, so it is not a statement about the whole category. Read the bottle in front of you.
What it tastes like
Sweet almond and marzipan first, then vanilla, then a thin line of orange peel across the top. The body is silky rather than thick. The finish is long and warm and goes back to almond and vanilla.
It is sweet. There is no getting around that, and nobody making it is trying to. The bitter note is there to stop the sweetness from being the only thing happening.
How strong is it?
28 percent, so 56 proof. That is a little over half the strength of a whiskey and a good deal more than most people assume from how easily it goes down. It is not a shot drink.
The bottle on our shelf
- Disaronno Original Amaretto, 750ml, $39.99 — made by ILLVA Saronno in Saronno, Italy, under OU certification. 28% alcohol. The square bottle everybody recognises.
It is not marked Kosher for Passover, so if that is what you are shopping for, the Kosher for Passover spirits shelf is the place to start instead.
What to do with it
Four things, in rough order of how often people actually do them.
- Neat or over one large cube, after a long meal, with a twist of orange if you have one. This is what it is for.
- The Godfather. Two parts bourbon or scotch to one part Disaronno, over ice, stirred. The whiskey takes the sugar down and the amaretto takes the burn off. Any of the kosher bourbon shelf works; the sweeter ones work best.
- Amaretto sour. Two parts Disaronno, one part lemon juice, shaken hard and poured over ice. The lemon does the same job the whiskey does.
- Over ice cream, or into coffee. A spoonful over vanilla is a dessert with no work in it.
The rest of the sweet shelf
If Disaronno is the one you already know, these are the neighbours worth meeting.
- Luxardo Sangue Morlacco Cherry Liqueur, $31.99 — dark marasca cherry, less sweet than it looks.
- Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur, $36.99 — clear, dry, and the backbone of a great many classic cocktails.
- Sabra Chocolate Orange Liqueur, $39.99 — the Israeli one, chocolate and Jaffa orange.
- Lavie Koffee Espresso Liqueur, $29.99 — the espresso martini bottle. Also in a 375ml at $15.99.
- Misceo Coffee Liqueur, $32.99 — the other coffee one, a touch drier.
- Luxardo Aperitivo Italiano, $29.99 — bitter orange, for spritzes rather than dessert.
The whole kosher liqueur shelf runs to eighty-odd bottles. If you want the category explained rather than the brand, there is a guide to what amaretto is, one on cherry liqueur, one on coffee liqueur, and one on what an aperitivo actually is. If you are stocking from nothing, start with how to build a home bar.
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