Sambuca
This transparent Italian digestivo liqueur is known for its particular sweet, anise flavour. This distillate is based with essential oils from star anise and dill, and sometimes other spices such as elderflower and liquorice, although these are not required per the legal definition.
Sambuca may also sometimes take on a deep blue colour (known as black sambuca) or bright red (red sambuca). The most common variety is white sambuca, the colourless type served throughout Italy.
The digestif can be served in a variety of ways. The most common is served neat, topped with 3 toasted espresso beans; this is called “con la mosca” (with the fly) and it highlights the flavour of Sambuca. It is customary to flambé the shot before consumption. Sambuca can also be splashed in coffee in place of sugar, served on the rocks with ice, or diluted in water to observe the “ouzo effect” where the drink becomes cloudy.
History of Sambuca
The word sambuca didn’t originally belong to this liqueur, it was the name of an elderberry liquor created in Citavecchia around 130 years ago. This explains the epistemology of the name, as it comes from the Latin word sambucus, meaning elderberry.
Sambuca’s origins are debatable: some say it was produced by the Etruscans in Medieval times, and others root it back to the Arab tradition. Nonetheless, the liqueur we know today was launched in 1945 by Angelo Molinari.
The “con la mosca” ritual of the coffee beans & flambé dates back to an Italian legend. The story tells that three flies were attracted by the sweet smell of Sambuca, disturbing an old lady and her family as they were drinking. From then on, the shot was lit alight before drinking so that this no longer happened, and the flies (now coffee beans) were roasted as a result.
