Call it what you want – aperitivo, cinq à sept or plain old happy hour – Canadians finally have their pre-dinner drinking ritual down. Stimulating aperitifs have awoken our palates and, as a result, supper has never been more spirited.
Having adopted the European approach of whetting one’s appetite with a cocktail, it’s somewhat surprising that, until recently, we were still relatively unambitious about what to pair with a meal’s third act. Our imaginations were limited to spiked coffees, brandy or, for the more highbrow (and connoisseurs of Bond villains), a snifter of cognac. That’s all changing now, however; the rise of the digestif cocktail is here.
“When I go out to dinner, I want to start light,” says Shaun Layton, bar manager at Vancouver’s L’Abattoir. “If you drink an aromatic, spirit-forward drink before dinner, your palate’s just exhausted. It’s better to save that for a nightcap, something you can still taste after four courses of French food.”
Layton, who defines digestif cocktails rather liberally as anything dark, heavy, potent and palate-killing, laments the lack of digestif carts in Canada, which, he points out, are more common in London and other European cities. In North America, diners are often rushed to make room for the next seating, leaving little time to unwind with another drink. L’Abattoir, Layton points out, isn’t in the “turn and burn” camp, so offers both digestif cocktails and a wide range of straight digestifs, including Bigallet China-China (pronounced keena-keena) and Amaro Nonino.
All of these previously obscure French and Italian products have been enthusiastically adopted by bartenders in the craft-cocktail scene, who are now incorporating the spirits into mixed drinks. Earlier this year, the widely anticipated limited release of aged green Chartreuse, an herbal concoction made, in part, by monks in France, hit Canadian shelves and was snapped up in a matter of days; the fall release of aged yellow Chartreuse is already marked in some enthusiasts’ calendars (see page 18 for our Essentials report on the spirit). A handful of hipster bars in San Francisco and Chicago even have digestivi on tap, capitalizing on their popularity among restaurant-industry folks who roll in after their shifts to unwind. As a viral video satirizing the craft-cocktail racket joked, that crowd is “really into amaro right now.”
“I almost always have a shot of Fernet-Branca after a big dinner,” says Michael Mooney of Geraldine in Toronto, who prefers to define the genre of postprandial cocktails as limited to liqueurs with herbaceous and bitter properties. “I find anything with herbs makes me feel better. There’s a reason these things have been used for hundreds of years.”
Although some would point out that alcohol is not exactly a stomach’s best friend, Mooney believes the herbal qualities of amaro and cordials like Benedictine help stimulate the digestive tract. “If you’re going to have an after-dinner drink, choose wisely,” he counsels.
“All of these drinks,” he adds, “evolved from their use in pharmacies and it’s still the same premise, which is using alcohol to extract medicinal herbs. That’s the same thing modern medicine does except in the form of a tablet.”
Even if most modern doctors rarely prescribe them, digestifs taste great. Layton also thinks a nightcap adds a touch of sophistication to dessert and, for people bent on cutting back on sugar, can sub in for sweets itself.
Maybe you do have time for one more after all?
Digestif cocktail recipes from some of Canada’s top mixologists
This story originally appeared in the October 2014 issue of Globe Style Advisor. To download the magazine's free iPad app, visit tgam.ca/styleadvisor.