Deliciously bitter alpine spirits deliver a bracing taste of the mountains. Now, American distillers are bottling the flavors of their own wild peaks, from the Appalachians to the Cascades.
Photo: Jessica Sample/Gallery Stock (Photo: Drue Wagner)
Published July 15, 2026 10:57AM
After a day on the trail, cocktail hour could be a simple slug of whiskey. But why not drink in more of the natural beauty that was, after all, the point of getting there? With a new wave of alpine spirits, American distillers are making that proposition pretty irresistible.
Back in 2005, the Austrian stone pine liqueur Zirbenz was the first bottle brought stateside by Haus Alpenz, the importer many in the beverage business credit with securing a foothold in the United States for these complex, herbal, bracingly bitter drinks. “It literally has the aromatics of what surrounds you when you’re up in the mountains,” says Haus Alpenz founder Eric Seed. “It immediately takes you to that place outdoors.” By 2011, when Sother Teague and Ravi DeRossi opened Amor y Amargo in New York City’s East Village—the country’s first bar dedicated to bitters, alpine and otherwise—the bottles on offer were still European. “Now, pretty much any distillery that you can think of here in America is adding an aperitif or digestif or amaro to their portfolio,” Teague says.
The 9 Best American Alpine Spirits for Summer Spritzes
Faccia Brutto
Eda Rhyne
At Eda Rhyne in Asheville, Rett Murphy and Chris Bower tap into Western North Carolina’s incredible biodiversity as well as rich regional traditions in folk medicine and moonshining. “With our Appalachian Fernet, we were trying to make it taste like a dark Appalachian cove with hemlock trees and moss dripping and slippery rocks and decaying leaves and, like, little flowers popping up,” Murphy explains. “The Amaro Flora we were trying to make taste like an Appalachian meadow. Sunshine and grass and insects buzzing around and wildflowers.”
Leopold Bros.
At Leopold Bros in Denver, master distiller Todd Leopold applies the training he got in Europe to herbs and flowers found right there in the Rockies, in an alpine herbal liqueur with plenty of warming spice and a concentrated cola tang; its name, Three Pins, nods to old-school three-pin Telemark ski bindings.
Breckenridge Distillery
Farther west at Breckenridge Distillery, master distiller Hans Stafsholt uses gentian and locally harvested genepi to make Breckenridge Bitter true to its name. “It’s bitter all the way through,” he says. “Then you get the sage. The milk thistle brings a really smooth mouthfeel. And the fresh citrus and cherry bring sweetness and light.”
BROVO Spirits
Over the years, Mhairi Voelsgen, founder and CEO of BROVO Spirits in Woodinville, Washington, has collaborated with bartenders to create alpine spirits that respond to their specific needs. “We see amaro as an exploration of terroir and palate,” Voelsgen says. “How does a city drink? What are the flavors in the area?” One of BROVO’s earliest bottlings was the Douglas Fir Liqueur; two of the latest, developed in tandem with Chicago bar pros Micah Melton and Chad Hauge, return to the alpine idiom and the botanical palette of the Cascades. The woodsy Uncharted Rhapsody is a dead ringer for green Chartreuse in ABV, Brix, and acid, and the floral Gen P approximates a European Genepy or yellow Chartreuse, making them easy swaps for mixing—though the different flavors powerfully evoke the place where they’re made.
“We harvest spring buds of Douglas fir, usually on Mount Baker, no more than one-third of any one tree,” Voelsgen says. These liqueurs also lean on hops, of which Washington State is the world’s largest producer.
Talking Cedar
The newest bottle comes from Talking Cedar in Rochester, Washington, owned by the Chehalis tribe. Before they could distill the plants that sustained them long before Europeans arrived on this continent, the Chehalis had to fight to overturn a racist law, on the books since the Andrew Jackson administration, that banned the production of liquor on tribal lands. Released this spring, Talking Cedar Amaro is earthy, citrusy, and herbal, with a delightful dry finish. “Garry oak and cedar forest habitats shaped the history and cuisine of the Chehalis people, so to be able to use these ingredients in our Amaro is pretty important for us,” says Matt Hofmann, Talking Cedar’s general manager, well-known to whiskey lovers as the former master distiller of Seattle’s Westland Distillery.
When it comes to mixing, Hofmann naturally leans in a whiskey direction, using Talking Cedar Amaro in place of Campari in a Boulevardier. But we love these American alpine spirits best of all in the simplest, most campsite-friendly drinks. All the botanical complexity you could possibly want is right there in the bottles.
This article is from the Summer 2026 issue of Outside magazine. To receive the print magazine, become an Outside+ member here.
