sambuca is a traditional Italian liqueur made with aniseed, star anise, fennel seeds, elderflower, and other herbs and spices macerated in alcohol. It is one of several aniseed-based spirits popular around the Mediterranean, and in Italy in particular, home to many variations on the concept, including anisetta, anice secco, anesone triduo, and mistrà. Commercial production of sambuca dates to 1851, when Luigi Manzi (1809–1873) from the Neapolitan isle of Ischia started producing the liqueur around the port of Civitavecchia near Rome. The name Sambuca may derive from sambuchelli, young boys that used to sell water mixed with green aniseed on Ischia. This concoction is still popular in Palermo, where is called zammù, a term derived from the Arab zammut, a drink that arrived in Italy from the Middle East. However, the Oxford English Dictionary maintains that the term is derived instead from the Latin word sambucus, meaning “elderberry” and which is the genus name of the common elder.
While Sambuca Manzi is still produced, Angelo Molinari started a commercial distribution of his popular sambuca in 1945. Today, other small producers such as Colazingari and Sarandrea make different styles of sambuca. Sarandrea claims to be the only producer who still use elderflower in the recipe.
Sambuca became popular in Italy during the 1950s after the launch of Molinari’s version. In Rome it’s still typical to eschew sugar in one’s espresso in favor of a splash of the anise-flavored liqueur. Around Rome, Sambuca is sipped straight from the freezer, while around the world is usually served “con la mosca” (with the fly): one or three coffee beans inside the cup resembling, with a bit of imagination, a cluster of little houseflies.
See also anise spirits; mistrà; and ouzo.
Molinari website. https://www.molinari.it (accessed April 1, 2021).
“Sambuca Manzi, fu un personaggio mitico di Ischia a inventare il célèbre liquore,” L’Isclano, April 9, 2014. https://www.isclano.com/it/luigi-manzi-da-ischia-inventore-della-sambuca/ (accessed April 1, 2021).
Sarandrea website. https://sarandrea.it (accessed April 1, 2021).
By: Antonio Parlapiano