Amore Amaro

Original photo by: Elena Peabody. Unfortuntately, this specimen died in the garden.

Hyssop’s flavor resembles licorice and fennel, but also has hints of camphor and pine. It is a known ingredient in many top-secret amaro recipes.

Uses

Hyssop, licorice, fennel and anise are three plants with a similar flavor-profiles but different herbal-medicinal characteristics. The flavor has been characterized as bitter, pungent, dry, slightly warming.”¹ Although it features heavily in licorice-flavored liquors such as absinthe, it “actually has more camphor and pine-flavored components.”² As an ingredient, it has found its way into legitimate DIY recipes from amaro aficionados such as Brad Thomas Parsons, who wrote an entire book on the subject.³

The aerial parts are harvest during flowering in the summer, and used in a tincture or an infusion.⁴

Historical context

The German abbess and polymath Hildegard von Bingen said of hyssop, “Its strength is so great that even stone is not able to resist it since it grows where it is sown.”⁵ In Medieval English Gardens, Teresa McLean writes that hyssop is “(t)raditionally religious, generally purifying, astringent and stimulant uses...bitter taste and sweet aroma….”⁶ She also writes that:

Unlike the benign and soothing sages, hyssop is a metabolic stimulant…[sic] was used by monks, and indeed by many medieval households, to strew on the floor because it releases a surprisingly orange-flavored, resinous scent when walked on. This scent won it a place in the incomparable liqueur made by the monks at Chartreuse, and in medieval perfumes.⁷

The Antidarium Nicolai noted that, among other things, Hyssop could purify the spleen, liver and bladder, and could comfort the stomach.⁸ And according to Culpeper, “(w)ith fresh new figs bruised, [hyssop] helps loosen the belly — more forcibly if Fleur-de-lys and Cresses be added.”⁹

Cultivation

Hyssop grows well in Full sun to part shade. It does well with dry to medium water, and established plants are reasonably drought tolerant. It does best in well-draining fertile loams, but will tolerate sandy soil.¹⁰

Pests

Hyssop has no serious pests.¹¹

For this project

The harvest will consist of flowers and leaves. These will be turned into an extract to mix and match with other flavors. The Drunken Botanist notes: “Extracts can cause seizures in large quantities but are considered safe in the kinds of low doses used in spirits.”¹²

References

1. A – Z of Medicinal Herbs (p. 69). CITATION NEEDED.
2. Stewart, Amy. The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World’s Great Drinks (Kindle edition). Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 2013. (loc. 2708).
3. Parsons, Brad Thomas. Amaro: The Spirited World of Bittersweet, Herbal Liqueurs, with Cocktails, Recipes, and Formulas (Kindle edition). New York: Ten Speed Press, 2016 (loc. 3298).
4. A – Z of Medicinal Herbs (p. 69). CITATION NEEDED.
5. von Bingen, Hildegard. Hildegard’s Healing Plants, from Her Medieval Classic Physica. Bruce W. Hozeski, trans. Boston: Beacon Press, 2001 (p. 60).
6. McLean, Teresa. Medieval English Gardens. New York: Viking Press, 1980 (p. 178).
7. Ibid (p. 177).
8. González Blanco, Marta Isabel. “An edition of the Middle English translation of the Antidotarium Nicolai.” MPhil thesis, University of Glasgow, 2018 (p. 115).
9. Culpepper, Nicholas. Culpepper’s Color Herbal. David Potterton, ed. New York: Sterling Publishing Company, 1983 (p. 103).
10. Missouri Botanical Garden, “Hyssopus officinalis.” http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid= 281391. Accessed July 9, 2019.
11. Ibid.
12. Stewart, op. cit. (loc. 2715).