Christmas party season is the chance to revel in style, right down to the drink you serve your guests.
For the sixth year running, Italian liqueur Disaronno has teamed up with a top designer to create a limited-edition bottle full of style and taste. Following the success of its link-ups with the likes of Moschino, Versace and Etro, this year the distinctive square bottle is decked out by Trussardi, featurng the typical Trussardi texture and greyhound logo in snazzy coats of fuchsia, green and blue.
It is a unique, modern design for this historic liqueur, whose origins supposedly stretch back to the 16th century. According to legend, Disaronno was created in 1525 for Leonardo da Vinci’s pupil Bernardino Luini while he was painting the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Miracles in Saronno in Lombardy. Luini was taken by the beauty of a local innkeeper and used her face as the model for the Virgin Mary in his frescoes. In return, she thanked him with a flask of liqueur – the first amaretto.
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Many years later, the innkeeper’s recipe was re-discovered by a member of the Reina family, who still own Disaronno, and they began selling the distinctive amber liquid in their apothecary. The recipe remains a closely guarded secret.
Despite the long heritage, Augusto Reina, the current head of the family and chief executive of Ilva Saronno, said this year’s fashion label is in keeping with Disaronno’s forward-looking ethos: “We are proud to make a particularly classy, elegant statement with a graphic design that reflects in full our perfectly modern essence.”
Elegance was certainly on show when Portfolio attended the bottle’s chic launch party at Café Trussardi in Milan, overlooking the iconic La Scala opera house. Fashionable Italians lapped up the Disaronno cocktails on offer while the colourful bottle blended in comfortably with the label’s new collection.
“Tradition, innovation and Italian elegance are just some of the many values that bring Trussardi and Disaronno together,” Tomas Trussardi, chief executive of the label, told us. “We saw Disaronno as the perfect partner since the beginning as it is another worldwide symbol of Italian lifestyle. The result of this partnership is the perfect mix of elegance, tradition and contemporaneity.”
If you want to add a fashionable touch to your celebrations, try out our Disaronno cocktails below – our favourite, the Disaronno Sparkling; or Tomas’s drink of choice, the Disaronno Wears Trussardi cocktail: “The perfect blend of sweet and sour.”
Disaronno Wears Trussardi
Ingredients:
Disaronno 4.5cl/1.5 oz
Fresh made Sweet & Sour mix and passion fruit 3cl/1 oz
Lime juice 3cl/1 oz
Lime cordial 0.5cl/0.1oz
Bitter 1 dash
Egg white 1cl/0.3oz
Method:
Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a flute.
Garnish with grapefruit zest and a small edible flower. Dust with grated tonka bean.
Disaronno Sparkling
Ingredients:
1 part Disaronno
3 parts prosecco
Method:
Pour ingredients in a flute and garnish with a spring of redcurrant.
Along with the classic bottle, the Disaronno Wears Trussardi Limited Edition comes in two sets of mini bottles, in packages of three. They’re the perfect gift for the fashionista in your life or for an investment – empty bottles are already appearing on eBay for sale.
