Delicious Sparkling Temperance Drinks

San Benedetto Chinotto

Italy

San Benedetto Chinotto

250 mL bottle

History

Chinotto is a small citrus fruit grown near the Mediterranean which has a bitter flavor. While the name refers to a possible origin in China, it is likely that the bitter flavor developed from a mutation in Italy. Traditionally the fruits are preserved with sugar as a candied fruit or the peels used as a flavoring in bitter liquers such as Campari. In 1949, businessman Pietro Nieri created a soda flavored with the fruit known as Chinotto Neri, or Chin8. Sanpellegrino launched its Chinotto a year later. In 1954, Chinotto Recoaro was created, which grew to become the most popular in the 1950s and 60s with the slogan "the other way to drink dark," implying a local alternative to that other dark soda, the foreign Coca-Cola then sweeping across post-war Europe.

In recent years Chinotto has become more popular as a unique local flavor championed by the Italian Slow Food Movement. Cultivation of chinotto trees declined along with consumption of candied fruit in the early twentieth century, but the drink's revival has spurred efforts to replant the trees as well.

Review

Lightly fruity & citrusy. Refreshingly bitter edge that cleanses the tongue as an aftertaste. Its all artificially flavored and not the most fresh fruit tasting but the sweet & bitter combination is refreshing and reviving.

fizz 2

refreshment 4

score 4

sweetness 2

flavor 4

Ingredients

Water, sugar, carbon dioxide, acidity regulators: citric acid and phosphoric acid, sodium chloride, colour: sulphite ammonia, caramel IV (E150d), flavours, antioxidant: ascorbic acid.

Made by

Aqua Minerale San Benedetto S.p.A.
Viale Kennedy 65
Scorzè VE 30037
Italy

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