the.com/digestif
a tiny bitter bribe to your stomach for forgetting how much you just ate
means A small alcoholic drink, often bitter or herbal, taken after a big meal to help (or at least feel like it helps) digestion.
from Straight from French digestif, "aiding digestion," from the Latin verb digerere, "to separate, dissolve, arrange" — the same root that gives us digest. The French gave us both the elegant word and the elegant habit of bookending dinner with an aperitif before and a digestif after.
- timing
- served after the meal, unlike its aperitif cousin
- the bitterness
- herbs and bitters supposedly coax digestion along
- usual suspects
- amaro, grappa, cognac, fernet, port
- fernet fact
- Argentina drinks most of the world's Fernet-Branca
- questionable science
- the digestive benefit is mostly delicious folklore
fernet branca — italian herbal digestif made since 1845, traditionally consumed in argentina after meals
chartreuse — french liqueur made by carthusian monks since 1737, served as digestif in green and yellow varieties
amaro averna — sicilian herbal digestif produced since 1868, commonly served in italy after dinner