The bombardino is the hot drink of the Italian ski slopes: warm egg liqueur, a spirit and a cap of whipped cream. It takes five minutes to make, and the few things that can go wrong all come down to temperature. Egg liqueur contains yolk, which sets above a certain point, while the brandy loses alcohol if you heat it with the rest.
Here you will find the amounts for one, four and eight glasses, the method, and the ABV worked out for every version. Almost every recipe out there says “about 30%”. That number fits only one version, the strongest, and without the cream.
What is a bombardino and where does it come from?
The bombardino is a hot drink made with egg liqueur and brandy, served with whipped cream. It was born in 1972 in Livigno, in the province of Sondrio in the Italian Alps, at the Mottolino mountain hut, and from there it spread to ski resorts across the Alps, with versions using rum, whisky and coffee.
Its invention is credited to Aldo Del Bò, originally from Genoa, who ran the Mottolino ski lifts at the time. The story that goes with the drink says the first person to try it felt the heat rising and exclaimed “it’s a bombarda!”, a bomb, and that is where the name comes from. Erich Ciapponi, who worked with him, told the local press that the original version was made with VOV and whisky in equal parts, with cream on top, served in a clear glass.
Over time the whisky gave way to brandy, which is softer, and the proportion shifted toward the egg liqueur: today the most common form is three parts liqueur to one part brandy. Livigno is in the upper Valtellina valley, and the bombardino is a bar and mountain hut drink, made on the spot and drunk right away.
What are the amounts for a bombardino?
For one glass you need 90 ml (3 fl oz) of egg liqueur, 30 ml (1 fl oz) of brandy and 50 g of heavy cream to whip. That is the three-to-one proportion used by the most common recipes, and it makes a glass of about 170 ml at 16% ABV.
| Ingredient | 1 glass | 4 glasses | 8 glasses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Egg liqueur (VOV) | 90 ml (3 fl oz) | 360 ml (12 fl oz) | 720 ml (24 fl oz) |
| Brandy | 30 ml (1 fl oz) | 120 ml (4 fl oz) | 240 ml (8 fl oz) |
| Heavy cream, to whip | 50 g (about 1/4 cup) | 200 g (about 1 cup) | 400 g (about 2 cups) |
| Unsweetened cocoa (optional) | a pinch | a teaspoon | two teaspoons |
VOV is the classic Italian egg liqueur, labeled at 17.8% ABV. Outside Italy any egg liqueur works, as long as you check its strength on the label: the ABVs in this article assume about 17 to 18%, and a stronger or weaker liqueur shifts them. Homemade egg liqueur made with the liquori.it recipe comes out at 17.4% and is already pasteurized; the difference in the finished glass is two tenths of a point. Do not sweeten the cream: egg liqueur already brings more than 300 grams of sugar per liter.
Any ordinary brandy will do. The calculations in this article use 38%; most American brandies are 80 proof (40%), which adds about half a point to the glass.
How do you make a bombardino?
Whip the cream first, then warm the egg liqueur over very low heat or in a water bath, stirring, until it is hot but no hotter than 70 °C (158 °F). Off the heat, add the brandy, pour it into the glass and top it with the cream right away.
- Whip the cream straight from the fridge, unsweetened, until stiff. Keep it in the fridge until you serve.
- Warm the egg liqueur in a small saucepan over very low heat, or in a water bath, stirring all the time. It should get hot to the touch and barely steam, without boiling. With a kitchen thermometer, stop between 60 and 70 °C (140 and 158 °F).
- Add the brandy off the heat, stirring to blend it in. Heated together with the liqueur, the brandy would lose part of its alcohol to evaporation.
- Pour into the glass, a heatproof one, filling it two thirds of the way. A glass warmed first with hot water keeps the drink hot longer.
- Top with the cream, cold, with a piping bag or a spoon, and finish with a pinch of unsweetened cocoa if you like. Serve at once, while the contrast between hot and cold is still there.
The thermometer is the only tool that is not in every kitchen, and it is the same one you need to pasteurize homemade egg liqueur.
How strong is a bombardino, really?
The classic bombardino, with three parts egg liqueur to one part 38% brandy, is about 22.5% ABV in the liquid and about 16% with the cream. One glass contains 21 grams of pure alcohol, which is 1.5 US standard drinks.
The math is the same as for any mix: add up the milliliters of pure alcohol each ingredient brings and divide by the total volume. With 90 ml of egg liqueur at 17.4% and 30 ml of brandy at 38% you get 27 ml of pure alcohol in 120 ml, which is 22.5%. The cream, counted as 50 ml of liquid, takes the volume to 170 ml and the ABV to 15.9%.
| Version | Without cream | With 50 g of cream | Pure alcohol | US standard drinks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Classic: 90 ml homemade egg liqueur + 30 ml brandy | 22.5% | 15.9% | 21.4 g | 1.5 |
| Classic with VOV: 90 ml + 30 ml brandy | 22.9% | 16.1% | 21.6 g | 1.5 |
| Two to one: 80 ml VOV + 40 ml brandy | 24.5% | 17.3% | 23.2 g | 1.7 |
| Livigno original: 60 ml VOV + 60 ml 40% whisky | 28.9% | 20.4% | 27.4 g | 2.0 |
| Pirata or scozzese: 90 ml VOV + 30 ml 40% rum or whisky | 23.3% | 16.5% | 22.1 g | 1.6 |
| Calimero: 90 ml VOV + 30 ml espresso | 13.4% | 9.4% | 12.6 g | 0.9 |
The “about 30%” you read everywhere is the original recipe, half VOV and half whisky, drunk without cream. The version served today has a little over half that. The grams of alcohol stay the same with or without cream, which only makes the glass bigger. The figures are slightly on the high side, because a little alcohol from the egg liqueur evaporates as it warms.
A US standard drink contains 14 grams of pure alcohol, the amount in a 12 oz beer at 5% or a 5 oz glass of wine at 12%. A classic bombardino counts as 1.5.
How many calories are in a bombardino?
A classic bombardino made with homemade egg liqueur has about 476 kcal: 149 from the alcohol, 119 from the sugar, 192 from fat, almost all of it from the cream, and 15 from protein. Without cream it drops to about 307 kcal.
The calculation uses standard factors: 7 kcal per gram of alcohol, 4 per gram of sugar and of protein, 9 per gram of fat. For the egg liqueur we used the figures of the liquori.it recipe (312 g of sugar, 43 g of fat and 30 g of protein per liter); for the cream, the values of the Italian food composition tables (CREA) for whipping cream, that is 35 g of fat, 3.4 g of sugars and 2.3 g of protein per 100 g.
The 50 g of cream alone are worth about 169 kcal, more than a third of the glass. For commercial VOV the full calculation cannot be done, because sugar and fat depend on the producer’s recipe and have to be read on the label.
Why does a bombardino go lumpy?
A bombardino goes lumpy when the egg liqueur gets too hot or heats too fast: the yolk starts to set just above 65 °C (149 °F), and the higher the temperature, the more lumps. To avoid them, warm it over very low heat or in a water bath, stirring, and never let it boil.
The most common mistakes are three. The first is high heat: the bottom of the pan goes past the threshold even while the rest of the liquid is only warm, and that is where the lumps form. The second is boiling, which sets the yolk and drives off the alcohol. The third is heating the brandy with the liqueur: the drink loses strength and aroma, because alcohol evaporates at a lower temperature than water.
If lumps have already formed, a pass through a fine strainer rescues the texture, but not the cooked egg taste. Better to start over with a fresh batch and a lower flame.
Pirata, scozzese and calimero: what is the difference?
The pirata (pirate) swaps the brandy for rum, the scozzese (Scotsman) for whisky, as in the original recipe. The calimero has no spirit at all: it is warm egg liqueur and espresso under the cream, and it is the lightest version, at about 9% ABV.
Pirata and scozzese have the same strength, since rum and whisky usually sit around 40%, and differ only in aroma: rum pushes sweet, caramel notes, whisky brings wood and, if peated, smoke. The calimero is made like the bombardino, replacing the 30 ml of brandy with a freshly made espresso. There is also a version with both coffee and brandy, which adds the calimero’s coffee to the strength of the classic.
Can you ski after a bombardino in Italy?
Italian law forbids skiing while drunk. Article 31 of Legislative Decree 40 of 2021 lets the police carry out checks on the slopes, and article 33 sets a fine of 250 to 1,000 euros, with the lift pass withdrawn in serious or repeated cases.
The rules have applied since January 1, 2022. Checks can be done with portable devices, and for full testing the decree refers to the procedures of the Italian highway code. There is no allowed number of glasses: what counts is the state of the skier, and on snow, reflexes and balance matter as much as at the wheel.
One bombardino is 1.5 US standard drinks. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans set moderate drinking at up to two drinks a day for men and one for women: a single glass at lunchtime takes a man most of the way to his limit and puts a woman over hers.
Frequently asked questions
How strong is a bombardino? The classic bombardino, with three parts egg liqueur to one part brandy, is about 22.5% ABV without cream and about 16% with it. Only the original recipe, half VOV and half whisky, drunk without cream, comes close to 30%.
What is the difference between a bombardino and a calimero? A bombardino is made with warm egg liqueur and brandy, a calimero with warm egg liqueur and espresso, with no spirit. Both are served with whipped cream on top, and the calimero is about 9% ABV instead of 16%.
Can you make a bombardino without VOV? Yes, with any egg liqueur, homemade included. The liquori.it recipe comes out at 17.4%, almost the same as VOV, and is already pasteurized, so you use it in the same amounts.
How many calories are in a bombardino? About 476 kcal for a classic glass made with homemade egg liqueur, 169 of them from the cream alone. Without cream it is about 307 kcal.
Can you ski after a bombardino? In Italy, skiing while drunk is forbidden by Legislative Decree 40 of 2021, with fines of 250 to 1,000 euros and the lift pass withdrawn in serious cases. A bombardino is 1.5 US standard drinks, so it is best saved for the end of the day.
The bombardino is a real alcoholic drink, even if the sweetness and the cream make it feel light. Save it for the end of the day, when the skis are off and nobody has to drive. Warm it over a low flame, and always add the brandy away from the heat. This content is for readers 21 and over.