Bordiga Centum Herbis Bitters Liqueur 700ml

Bordiga was founded in 1888 by Pietro Bordiga, a bartender and herbalist working in Cuneo, in the Piedmontese Alps near the border with France. Centum Herbis, Latin for "one hundred herbs," represents his take on a style of alpine herbal liqueur historically associated with monastic production and found on both sides of the Franco-Italian Alps, in the same family as French Chartreuse. Rather than a precise count of ingredients, the name reflects a tradition of complex, botanically dense herbal liqueurs from the region, and the recipe has remained part of Bordiga's lineup since the distillery's founding.

The liqueur draws mainly on local botanicals grown at altitude in the mountains surrounding the distillery, hand harvested by local foragers and dried in dark, ventilated rooms before use. Mint leads the blend, joined by peppermint and eucalyptus for a mentholated character, genepy for herbal and floral lift, and small amounts of gentian and cinchona for bitterness, along with other botanicals such as juniper, quassia bark, thyme, and linden leaves. Each botanical is infused separately in alcohol until fully extracted, then blended together by the distillery's master distiller along with water and sugar. The liqueur rests for several weeks before filtration and bottling, without recourse to modern extraction shortcuts like centrifuging or chemical solvents.

The color carries a natural green hue from its herbal base. The nose offers fresh cut grass and mint. On the palate, mentholated freshness meets a moderate, balanced bitterness from gentian and cinchona, with genepy adding a floral undertone, finishing clean and slightly bitter rather than sweet. It works well as an after-dinner digestivo and can substitute for green Chartreuse in cocktails.