I've made a complete 180 on Campari. I haaaaaaated it and regretted buying the bottle the first time I tried a cocktail with it. Couldn't believe how it ruined the entire drink. Since I had the bottle, I tried again, with a different drink. Even worse.
Was close to chucking the bottle out, gave it one last try with a modified Jungle Bird:
- 45ml dark (!) rum
- 15ml Campari
- 15ml simple syrup
- 30ml lemon juice
- 60ml pineapple juice
Shake with relatively little ice. Strain into low-ball glass lightly packed with crushed ice. Let dilute for a minute.
Surprisingly, despite being able to taste the Campari, this one was actually really great. Made it again a couple of days later, and again. Since then, it's my favorite cocktail, period.
After a while, went back and tasted Campari pure and to my mild surprise, also liked it. Went back to the awful drinks (first one was a Negroni) and also really liked them now.
So... yeah. I don't know why, but somehow, I went from hating it to absolutely loving it.
Interesting about the stevia! May I ask what it tastes like to you? A couple of years I bought a liquid stevia sweetener on a whim (the "regular" one might have been sold out), and was surprised that it tasted... Idk. Sweet, but way warmer than regular sweetener. Hard to describe. Used up the bottle, then bought my regular sweetener again and somehow, it tasted awfully bitter to me now. Somehow, I can't go back now and really like stevia.