Saveur – July 2019

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LOVE TO COOK

BUT DREAD SORE FEET?

traditionally made with
an obscure French bitter
called Amer Picon. It’s
the local drink of choice
for ranchers in Elko and
Reno, brought there, it’s
surmised, by waves of
Basque immigrants in
the Gold Rush era, when
many migrant shepherds
by trade found work in
Nevada as cattle ranchers.
In the classic drink,
for which every local bar-
tender has their own riff,
the amer is tempered with
a touch of grenadine and
soda, then served over ice
with a brandy f loat and
a lemon twist. Outside
here and certain Basque
enclaves in Idaho and Cal-
ifornia, the punch is all
but unknown. But there’s
a wider group who adore
and even fetishize Amer
Picon itself: modern-day
mixologists. The liqueur fig-
ures in a number of classic
cocktail books, and its rar-
ity has made it a subject of
great fascination. I’ve had
a bartender at a venerable
Japanese hotel pour me half
an ounce from a bottle he’d
smuggled home. And some
mixologists are devoting

considerable time to per-

fecting their own replicas

with aromatic botanicals.

Like so many bitter

liqueurs, Amer Picon

had a medicinal purpose

early on: A Frenchman,

Gaétan Picon, developed it

as a ma la ria remedy in 1837

while stationed in Algeria,

using enough Algerian

orange to make it palat-

able. He produced it for

French soldiers, and its

popularity grew; by the late

19th century, it was known

throughout Europe and,

later, the U.S. In the 1990s,

the French makers stopped

exporting the orangey bit-

ter. But this hasn’t slowed

the Nevada devotees: “The

way New Orleans has the

Sazerac, northern Nevada

has the Picon punch,” says

Brandon Wright, co-owner

of the Depot, a brewery-

distillery in Reno, who now

bottles his own amer.

Today, v ir t ua lly no one

in Nevada drinks true

Amer Picon—often swap-

ping in the Depot’s amer,

or one made by the Torani

brand out of San Francisco.

A little light and heavy on

the orange, respectively,

neither the Depot’s nor

Torani’s is an exact match

for the original, but either

is a brawny anchor for the

punch, which is a perfect

aperitif: bitter and boozy,

girding you for a meaty,

convivial feast ahead. It’s

not just for weathered old

ranchers anymore either.

“When I was growing up, it

was what dads and grand-

pas drank,” says Anamarie

Loategui, co-owner of Ogi

Deli in Elko. “But today,

you’ll see people in their

20s trying an amer, and

they’ll enjoy it. Culturally,

it’s interesting. People love

it across the board.” 

For more about amer and

two recipes for bracingly

bitter cocktails, head to

saveur.com/amer.

PHOTOGRAPH BY EVA KOLENKO