Spirits: The new fernets

“For decades, the category of fernet has been synonymous with Fernet-Branca,” said Brad Thomas Parsons in the online magazine Punch. But the 176-year-old Milan-based company doesn’t have a monopoly on the bracing amaro. There have been fernets made in Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and Mexico, and since 2011, when the first postProhibition U.S. fernet debuted, “the category has been exploding.”

Arcane Fernet ($39.50). Twenty-seven botanicals meet in this dark fernet from Brooklyn. It combines peppermint, “the complex herbal sweetness of a small-batch root beer,” and “a delicately bitter finish.”

Rhine Hall Fernet Lola ($45). This Chicago fernet has a fruit-brandy base and “comes on strong” before it “eases into a mellow richness.” Geijer Spirits California Fernet ($36.50). A good “gateway” fernet, this “mildly bitter” blend from San Francisco offers “notes of cinnamon and warm baking spices.”