Any child growing up with Abruzzese parents in Australia in the 1970s would be familiar with this green bottle. Anytime a relative would visit Abruzzo they would return with Centerba as a gift, a connection to the homeland that came packaged in an exotic bottle wrapped in raffia.  

What is Centerba?

Centerba is a well known liquor obtained by the infusion of 100 aromatic herbs and medicinal plants.  Containing 70% alcohol, it is definitely not for the faint hearted. It is traditionally used as a digestive after meals and used to “correggere” coffee (‘to correct’ the coffee which means spiking it with a liquor).

Photo credit: A7N8X, Wikimedia Commons

Origins of Centerba

In the early 1800s a pharmacist named Beniamino Toro, originally from Cansano, moved to Tocco da Casauria in Abruzzo (which was then part of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies). In 1817 he worked out a way to distill the herbs. The recipe is said to have been handed down by Benedictine monks from the nearby Abbey of San Clemente, who collected the herbs on the slopes of the Majella and Morrone mountains that surround Tocco da Casauria and used it for medicianl purposes. ¹

King Vittorio Emanuele II drinks Centerba on visit to Tocco

In 1860, during the Risorgimento (Reunification) of Italy, it is documented that King Vittorio Emanuele II had Centerba on his way to the famous meeting at Teano with Giuseppe Garibaldi. On 19 October, the King made a quick stop at Tocco, where a refreshment area had been set aside “with sweets and rosoli and an overflow of round confetti from Sulmona and distinctive bottles full of centerba” (“con dolci e rosoli e profusione di confetti tondi di Sulmona e di caratteristiche bottiglie impagliate di centerba’’). Without dismounting from his horse, the King accepted the confetti and centerba and then set off for Popoli. ²

Centerba becomes known nationally

There is evidence that as early as 1838, Centerba was nationally recognised as a liquor and winning awards. In the 1838 awards granted in the public exhibition of arts and manufacturing, Centerba won a silver medal. ³ It was also awarded medals in Naples in 1839 and 1846, London in 1862 and Dublin in 1865. ⁴

Centerba used in times of pandemics

Although famous as an alcoholic beverage, Centerba was also used for medicinal purposes. In 1836, during an outbreak of cholera in Naples, it was used as a remedy for nausea. Every day, carts would leave Tocco for Naples, loaded up with Centerba to fight the cholera outbreak. In the 1837 book The last ninety days of 1836, or, Cholera in Naples, Centertba is mentioned as a drink to ward off cholera “he pours him a large glass of strong centerba.” ⁵ Other documents also mention Centerba used during the time of the cholera pandemic. ⁶

Nearly one hundred years later, Centerba is fighting another pandemic with Toro producing a disinfectant spray in the fight against COVID using Centerba as the main ingredient. ⁷

From humble beginnings, picked by Benedictine monks on the slopes of the Majella and Morrone mountains, these one hundred herbs and an exotic green bottle, have gone on to become an award winning liquor and a weapon in fighting pandemics.

1. About us – Liquori Toro
2. Eugeni Franco and Gliatta Giuseppe, Luci ed Ombre del viaggio di Vittorio Emanuel II verso l’unità d’Italia (Teramo: Zikkurat, 2011), p 35
3. Elenco di saggi de prodotti della industria napolitana presentati nella solenne mostra del di 30 maggio (Dalla tipografia Elantina,1842), 12
4. Paolo Mantegazza, Quadri della natura umana feste ed ebbrezze (G. Bernardoni, 1871), 79
5. Bidera,Giovanni Emanuele: Gli ultimi novanta giorni del 1836, ossia, Il colera in Napoli p 102.
6. Raffaele Torchia, Proposizioni di medicina pratica sul colera morbo desunte dall’osservazione della malattia nella sua seconda invasione in Napoli nel 1837 (), 18 and Christian Pfeufer, Metodo igienico da serbarsi durante l’epidemia del colera memoria scritta sull’epidemia del 1849 (G. Nobile, 1854), 8
7. Dall’Abruzzo ecco lo spray anti coronavirus alla Centerba… Usato anche ai tempi del colera (abruzzolive.tv)