How to Mix Sambuca With Water

Anise-flavoured liqueurs are popular throughout the Mediterranean region. The French have many varieties of pastis or anisette, the Turks drink arrack, the Greeks have their cherished ouzo and Italians celebrate with sambuca. Although an ingredient in many cocktails, sambuca is normally consumed neat -- often flamed or with a few coffee beans added. Like other anise-flavoured liqueurs, it can also be diluted with water for a less-intense flavour.

Pour the sambuca into a small tumbler.

Dilute with an equal quantity of water. Add more water as desired. Like ouzo or Pernod, sambuca will become milky when diluted.

Anise-flavoured liqueurs are popular throughout the Mediterranean region.
Like ouzo or Pernod, sambuca will become milky when diluted.

Serve before meals as an aperitif, or after meals as a digestive.

1 "On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen"; Harold S. McGee; 2004
2 The Epicenter: Anise Liqueurs - Sambuca, Ouzo, Absinthe, Arak, Raki & Pastis

Fred Decker is a trained chef and certified food-safety trainer. Decker wrote for the Saint John, New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal, and has been published in Canada's Hospitality and Foodservice magazine. He's held positions selling computers, insurance and mutual funds, and was educated at Memorial University of Newfoundland and the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.