Spirits

The Meletti company of Ascoli Piceno, founded by Silvio Meletti, owner of the historic “Caffè” which carries the family name, situated strategically in Ascoli Piceno’s Piazza del Popolo, launched in 1870, the still celebrated “Anisetta Meletti”. He created a meticulous production process allowing him to obtain a unique product of its kind, after a long series of studies and researches in the distillation field. This liqueur was born with a delicate flavor coming from the anise quality , carefully cultivated in certain lands, around Ascoli Piceno.

Anisetta Meletti was born in Ascoli Piceno back in 1870 by Silvio Meletti, who developed a production process in the field of distillation and researches about the raw materials to obtain an excellent product about drinks.

Silvio Meletti had the idea of offering his town a product of an ever higher quality to hold up the comparison with the extremely expensive foreign anisettes. He went hard at the study of Italian and French treatises about the distillation and the production of strong drinks until he was able to design a bain-marie still with a very slow evaporation in order to obtain an alcoholate as aromatic as possible starting from his ideas and designs.
Anisetta Meletti has got a very delicate taste and a special aroma that come from the quality of the aniseed (Pimpinella Anisum) carefully cultivated in certain areas of clay soil around Ascoli Piceno, favoured by the excellent conditions of the soil and the climate.
Nowadays, more than 140 years since it was first produced, Anisetta Meletti is still produced with the systems developed and established by its founder. The most important point of the production is the alcohol distillation with aniseeds. The alcohol absorbs the aromatic part of the aniseed thanks to suitable stills.
The result is a liquor with a high alcoholic content known as “aniciato”, which is the raw material for following processing. It is a sweet strong drink and a glass of it is a sign of good taste. It is served with coffee, ice and water too and it is very good to make cakes and cocktails.

First awarded in 1950 as “the best italian dry anise”, Varnelli is a unique flavor among the Mediterranean aniseed drinks: dry, not sweet, it hooks you at the first taste.