Monte Stambecco Maraschino Cherry Amaro, Italy, 70 cl (1 bottle)

Like I said in the title - there's a lot going on here but IMHO at least, it all comes together to produce an interesting and I would say, adult, drink that grows on you. The principal taste is of cherries but it's a long way removed from just being a cherry brandy type drink due to the herby, slightly orangey edge. The bottle is very attractive and easy to open due to the large rubbery stopper and if you fancy a bit of mixological magic behind your home bar this bottle has a part to play lookswise AND tastewise. NOTE: For reasons best known to themselves, Amazon bounce the price of this up and down like a yo-yo. Cheapest I've noticed in recent months was £13-odd while the most expensive was nigh on £28. For that reason alone, while I would like to put this on my regular Subscribe and Save, frequently checking what price it's at every week or so is definitely the cheapest way to go.

Beautiful bottle and label - quite pale in colour but so distinctively cherry, sweet and smooth. Looking forward to trying it in a few cocktails, but actually quite nice neat.

Brought a bottle of this for Christmas, was very smooth and lovely to drink, may need a 2nd bottle soon, good value for money, great flavour, mixes well, drink with or without ice.

If you like a sweeter liqueur type drink this is it, very much like Amaretto but slightly more bitter, but very similar, and I love Amaretto and I loved this !

Beautiful bottle and works well in a Manhattan, but for some reason, it caused the mother of all hangovers. Assume that it’s just me

This is definitely an amaro, very balanced between bitterness and sweetness. The closest comparisons I can make are to Amaro Nonino and Amaro Montenegro. But then it also has notes of Maraschino liqueur and Amaretto. If you can imagine an Amaro which balances all the above, initially sweet but agreeably bitter in the finish, that's Stambecco. As a lover of all amari I took a punt on this, not really knowing what to expect from reviews ranging from 'too sweet' to 'too bitter', but I'm happy to report it's neither, it's a unique, perfectly balanced amaro that you could probably sub in for any of the above in cocktails with delicious results. Which I'm now off to experiment with :)

I love cherry-flavoured food and drink. This is very sweet and very sticky (the stickiness is why I dropped a star), but I do like it. It's especially nice when you add a tot of it to a mug of black coffee. It's a good substitute for Amaretto or Frangelico as an after-dinner liqueur, and would also work poured over ice cream or used in baking. Would make an excellent cocktail as well. It's an intense, maraschino cherry flavour, almost bubble gum like. Yum!

Easy drinking, nice bottle and surprisingly cheap.It's crystalised sugar around the lid — not glass, should be quite hard to confuse the two.