It takes balls to launch a new herbal liqueur these days. Bittersweet amaro-type liqueurs are not exactly part of a category which has bartenders and consumers jumping up and down, clamoring for more. But Art in the Age did it anyway, adding to their balls 13 herbs, spices, roots, and other ingredients — and the liqueur they’ve come up with — the alcoholic precursor to root beer — called merely Root, is a winner.

It takes balls to launch a new herbal liqueur these days. Bittersweet amaro-type liqueurs are not exactly part of a category which has bartenders and consumers jumping up and down, clamoring for more.

But Art in the Age did it anyway, adding to their balls 13 herbs, spices, roots, and other ingredients — and the liqueur they’ve come up with — the alcoholic precursor to root beer — called merely Root, is a winner.

The bottle claims 13 ingredients: Anise, allspice, cardamom, cinnamon, spearmint, lemon, smoked black tea, wintergreen, clove, orange, nutmeg, sugar cane, and birch bark. Just reading that list it all sounds pretty good, I have to admit… like a killer Christmas cake, perhaps.

In the glass, it’s that anise which, as usual, comes to the forefront. A good licorice kick is ably abetted by the mint components, with a touch of the orange and lemon citrus peeking through behind. The spices — nutmeg, cinnamon — are also evident in wisps through the big finish.

Much sweeter than, say, Fernet Branca, Root is quite easy-drinking as a digestif and even with even the mildest affinity for anise should find this quite the drinking experience.

I like it.

80 proof.

A- / $42 / artintheage.com

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“Art in the Age” Root Liqueur