Vintage Campari and Cochineal

[jinenjo]

Hi there,

I wanted to see if anyone here is knowledgeable about vintage Campari. I recently came across some bottles from the 1980s. On the label it mentions artificial coloring. This is in Italian, so it says "artificialmente" but I'm pretty sure that's what it's referring to. See the photo.

 

I'm well aware that cochineal was removed from their US production, but much later in 2006. 

Why would an old label say this?

Salud,

LB 

[JerseyRED]

Does it list the coloring agent, E122, E102, and E133? E120 is cochineal. The E stands for Europe and the coloring agent classification has been around since 1962. But I don’t know when it was a label requirement. 

 

Campari Around the World

[jinenjo]

Thanks for the reply. I've looked at the Campari Around the World page many times to figure things out. 🙂

The back label does not list any ingredients, so I don't know. Would E120 be considered an artificial ingredient anyway?

[JerseyRED]

46 minutes ago, jinenjo said:

Would E120 be considered an artificial ingredient anyway?

I was wondering that as well, since it isn’t an original part of the product. 
 

But I think I recall there was a point where Campari did temporarily go away from using cochineal and then resuming using it again. If I come up with any deets, I’ll let you know!

[Ian Tuck]

Camper did yeoman's work on contemporary Campari coloring a few years ago. Perhaps it'd be worth reaching out to him at his website or on twitter @alcademics to see if he might know?

 

Campari is Made Differently Around the World: Cochineal, Coloring, ABV, & Eggs

 

 

Edited September 9, 2020 by Ian Tuck (log)

[jinenjo]

I actually tweeted to him. He answered and said he had no idea. 🤔

[paulraphael]

On 9/9/2020 at 2:42 PM, Ian Tuck said:

Camper did yeoman's work on contemporary Campari coloring a few years ago. Perhaps it'd be worth reaching out to him at his website or on twitter @alcademics to see if he might know?

 

Campari is Made Differently Around the World: Cochineal, Coloring, ABV, & Eggs

 

 

 

Really interesting article. I'd love to know the reason for these differences. It's not like coca cola, or nutella, where they actually manufacture the product in the continents where they sell them. Campari all comes from the same factory in Italy (I assume the same factory). So why would they go through the trouble of so many different formulations? 

 

I can imagine countries having different arcane labelling rules ... which could account for the same product being marked 24% abv here and 25% there. And I can imagine certain colorants being banned some places and not others. But why some countries would get beetles and others synthetic coloring, I don't know. And why one country (Sweden?) would get 21% ABV. Last I checked the Scandinavians could hold their liquor as well as anyone. Maybe to sneak in under some liquor tax threshold?

 

I also wonder if they change the sweetness levels for different countries. Many products seem to get extra sugar for the US. This doesn't always get reflected on the labels, but is apparent.