centerba

Centerba comes from the Abruzzo region of central Italy and means exactly what its syllables suggest: cento erbe, one hundred herbs. The distillery in Tocco da Casauria, in the Pescara province, has produced it since the mid-19th century. The liqueur runs at 70 to 72 percent alcohol by volume, placing it in the same register as overproof rum and demanding that drinkers treat it accordingly.

The compression of cento and erba into a single word is a common formation in Italian dialect and commercial naming. Cento derives from Latin centum (hundred), which shares an ancestor with Greek hekaton and Sanskrit śatam, all from the Proto-Indo-European root meaning hundred. Erba comes from Latin herba (herb, grass), which gave French herbe, Spanish hierba, and English herb.

The actual herb count in centerba is a trade secret, as it is with most herbal liqueurs. Documented ingredients include green mint, thyme, and a range of mountain herbs native to the Gran Sasso massif above Tocco da Casauria. The area's altitude concentrates aromatic compounds in plants, a condition that highland distilling traditions have exploited since at least the 15th century. The result is a spirit that smells of green mint before it reveals anything else.

The Toro distillery, which produces the canonical version, markets centerba primarily to Italians and to the Abruzzesi diaspora. It is drunk chiefly as a digestivo, sometimes with water that turns the clear green liquid white in a louche similar to absinthe or pastis. Outside Abruzzo it remains obscure, which is partly why its reputation for strength has not been diluted by casual export culture.