Frangelico
Frangelico is an Italian hazelnut liqueur from Piedmont, at 20% ABV, made from a hazelnut distillate with cocoa, coffee and vanilla behind it. Hazelnut is a tree nut, so keep it from anyone allergic to nuts. Our recipes use it once, at 5ml in the IBA Tiki, where it adds roundness more than a hazelnut taste.
Quick Facts
Upright in a cool, dark place, sealed. At 20% it keeps well for years, though the nut character softens slowly once opened and a bottle several years old is noticeably rounder and less aromatic than a fresh one.
Contains: tree nuts. Made from hazelnuts. Recipes change: check the bottle.
About Frangelico
Flavour Profile
Primary Flavours
Tasting Notes
Toasted hazelnut over vanilla and cocoa, sweet and rounded, finishing with a faint coffee bitterness that keeps it from being merely sugary.
Hazelnut, with cocoa, coffee and vanilla
Frangelico is made in Canale, in Piedmont, the hazelnut country of north-west Italy. The base is a hazelnut distillate, sweetened and bottled at 20% ABV, with cocoa, coffee and vanilla worked in behind the nut. It is sweet and round, and in a drink it tends to add body before it adds a flavour you can name.
Made from hazelnuts, it contains a tree nut: ask before you pour it for a guest.
Hazelnut and almond are different bottles
It is often filed beside amaretto as a nut liqueur, and the two do different work.
Frangelico against amaretto
Tastes of
- Frangelico
- Toasted hazelnut, cocoa, coffee, vanilla
- Amaretto
- Marzipan, bitter almond
Made from
- Frangelico
- Hazelnut distillate
- Amaretto
- Usually apricot kernels; some brands use almonds
Strength
- Frangelico
- 20%
- Amaretto
- 21 to 28%
Tree nuts
- Frangelico
- Yes, hazelnut
- Amaretto
- Depends on the brand
In our IBA Tiki
- Frangelico
- 5ml
- Amaretto
- 15ml
| Frangelico | Amaretto | |
|---|---|---|
| Tastes of | Toasted hazelnut, cocoa, coffee, vanilla | Marzipan, bitter almond |
| Made from | Hazelnut distillate | Usually apricot kernels; some brands use almonds |
| Strength | 20% | 21 to 28% |
| Tree nuts | Yes, hazelnut | Depends on the brand |
| In our IBA Tiki | 5ml | 15ml |
Five millilitres in the IBA Tiki
The IBA Tiki uses 5ml of Frangelico among two rums, amaretto, maraschino, passion fruit, pineapple and lime. At that measure it bridges the almond and the fruit rather than tasting of hazelnut. Any more and the drink leans towards pudding.
A 1978 brand with an older story
Frangelico was launched in 1978. The name and the friar-shaped bottle come from a story the brand tells of Fra Angelico, a hermit monk said to have made liqueurs in the Piedmont hills. It was first bottled at 28%, and Gruppo Campari has owned it since 2010.
Using Frangelico
Usage
5ml, a bar spoon, in the IBA Tiki, beside 15ml of amaretto, two rums, passion fruit and pineapple. Away from cocktails, people pour it over ice, stir it into coffee or spoon it over ice cream. In a mixed drink, keep it small: past a bar spoon it starts to read as dessert.
Pro Tip
Add the Frangelico to the shaker before the juices, with a 5ml spoon held over the tin. With so small a pour, a drip lost on the jigger is a real fraction of it.
Top Tips
- Hazelnuts are its base, so a guest with a nut allergy should not have it.
- Use a 5ml spoon. The smallest line on most jiggers is too big for the pour a drink wants.
- Do not use amaretto as a swap. Almond and hazelnut are different flavours, and amaretto is stronger.
- Cap it firmly after each pour; once open, the nut aroma fades by degrees.
History & Context
Frangelico was launched in 1978 and is made in Canale, in Piedmont. The brand names it after a hermit monk, Fra Angelico, said to have made liqueurs in the hills there, and the bottle is shaped like a friar with a cord at the waist. Gruppo Campari has owned it since 2010; it was first bottled at 28% and is now 20%.