Satisfy Your Appetite and Calm Your Stomach With Drinks Before and After Meals
A lot of people worry about what to drink with food, but I firmly believe that one has to pay so much attention to what one drinks before and after. Perfect aperitifs and digestifs ( respectfully meaning “to discover” and “digest”) will help you ensure that your dining experience starts and ends on the highest notes.
Think of the aperitif as a stage director. Americans tend to put a lot of emphasis on “getting started” and “quick service”, but there is a lot to be said for the European custom of slowing down, drinking a good adult drink, and enjoying company in front of seducers. A good aperitif not only relaxes the mood, but can also stimulate the appetite and prepare the palate for what comes next. (For example, if you know you are going to eat seafood, start with something crispy and citrusy.)
Digestives should, in theory, aid digestion, and while I have not found any medical literature to support this claim, I have found Fernet to help calm a nervous tummy. Medicinal or not, digestifs are a great way to extend the evening and can even serve as a dessert on their own.
Start me
Nowadays it is very fashionable in restaurants not to book tables, but I have not yet been annoyed by this practice in an establishment with a good bar. A light, moderately drunk, refreshing drink before sitting down sets a festive tone and brings conversation to life.
There are two main factors to keep in mind, according to Vinepair: sweetness and strength. Drinking too sweet can make you feel like you first ate dessert, and the ability to dull your senses of alcohol can weaken your taste buds. This does not mean that martinis are excluded from the menu, just limit it to one. With this in mind, you can choose the perfect glass of wine or cocktail to start your meal.
Get Wine’d Up
Bubbles are never a bad choice for an aperitif, but they’re not your only pre-dinner wine option. Acidity is your friend here because it literally makes you salivate, but anything light and crisp will do. Here are some good options:
A sparkling wine. The bubbles wake up your mouth and don’t drown out your palate like a large, bright red glass. Champagne, Prosecco, Cava are all good choices, just lean towards brut (not sweet) to keep it refreshing.
Fortified : Fortified wine is simply wine to which stronger ingredients (usually brandy) are added, and this broad category includes all sorts of delicacies such as sherry, port, and even vermouth. You wouldn’t know this if you lived in the States, but it is perfectly acceptable to drink vermouth on its own, although I would not recommend doing this with Cinzano or Martini & Rossi. Not every vermouth is suitable for do-it-yourself processing, but Punt e Mes does a great job with ice or a little soda, thanks to the extra bitter ingredients. (“Punt e Mes” translates to “one and a half point” and refers to “one point of sweetness and half a point of bitterness.)
While not vermouth, Lillet Blanc is another fortified option that can be enjoyed without too much hassle. It’s pleasantly fruity, but no syrup, making it a great choice for those who aren’t a fan of all that bitterness.
Amontillado – style sherry is another delicious fortified wine you might want to explore. Sherry has a bad reputation for being sweet and cloying, but sommelier and chef Hope Clark says it is “dry with notes of toasted white nuts and light fruits.” However, since sherry does not move very quickly in most establishments, most of the bottles may have been opened for a while, giving it a “polished and unusual” flavor, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
Rose: America is just starting to take rose seriously, but a good Italian or French rosé is beautifully balanced and refreshing and is a great way to start a dinner.
Sour Beer: Okay, I know it’s not wine, and I can feel some of you squeezing pearls, but listen to me: a good tart lambic or gueuze checks all the flags: they are quite sour, usually dry and relatively weak. alcohol. (Avoid Lindeman’s Framboise , a syrupy, aggressive purple framboise ; in fact, it is more of a fruity beer than a lambic.)
Cocktail hour
Classic cocktails are a good start, especially if they’re gin-based and you can’t go wrong with a good martini or gin and tonic. However, I would advise you to consider a spritzer. Sophisticated bitter liqueurs with a little carbonation attract attention without being overly heady. Here are some of my favorites:
Campari and soda: The bitter herbal liqueur is the star of the Negroni , but it’s quite delicious if the soda is enough to thin its consistency from syrupy to flowing. Although it is usually served with a slice of orange, the best I’ve ever tasted is a long strip of lemon zest. If you don’t get the unique taste of Campari right away, try adding a little sweet, like Saint Germain, to balance it out.
Cynar and Soda : Yes, it’s an artichoke on a bottle, but fear not, Cynar doesn’t taste the globular thistle. Instead, it has an earthy, non-vegetable flavor and is slightly bitter. It is slightly more woody than Campari, but it can also be used to make a variation of the Negroni if you need to mix it.
Aperol Spritz : If you’re not quite ready for Campari or Cynar bitterness yet, Aperol is the sweeter, more jealous, more affordable option, and Aperol Spritz (3 parts Prosecco + 2 parts Aperol + 1 part baking soda) is definitely. drinking.
The best of both worlds
If you can’t choose between wine and liqueur, buy both in the form of a champagne cocktail. These kids feel very special and are a great start to an unforgettable evening.
French 75 : Warning: With 2 ounces of gin and 5 ounces of champagne, this small amount is not exactly a weak alcohol, but it can be drunk to the highest degree. I know this is against the “aim for low alcohol” rule, but it doesn’t hurt, and I guarantee you will be in a great mood for the rest of your meal.
Elizabeth Taylor : This is probably the most beautiful cocktail I’ve ever seen, and beautiful things lift my spirits. Named after the actress with the famous violet eyes, this purple drink gets its name from an ounce of crème de violet topped with four ounces of sparkling wine and garnished with cherries ( Luxardo or gtfo imo).
Kir Royale : Similar to Elizabeth Taylor, this champagne cocktail takes on a cheerful fruity note of blackcurrant liqueur.
Warning: these are not the most common cocktails, so read the scene. If your bartender hasn’t heard of the French 75 and doesn’t want to know what it is, it may be safer to order a ” shot of crème de violets with champagne.” You would order Elizabeth Taylor, but without the obscure name.
After dinner drinks
You may have finished eating, but that doesn’t mean you need to stop drinking. An afternoon drink can serve many purposes. It can be paired with dessert, it can be a dessert, or it can soothe a troubled tummy and let you enjoy the dessert.
Sweet end
Sugary drinks will not help with digestion, so you can skip them if you are so full that you might burst, but if you prefer to drink sugar, these drinks are for you.
Dessert Liqueurs: You’re probably familiar with classics like Kahlua , Bailey’s, and perhaps the rope decorating Frangelico , but there are a ton of liqueurs that I love (fondly) to call “adult chocolate milk.” They all go great with coffee, but if you need something stronger, mix them with equal parts vodka, whiskey or rum, maybe a little cream if you can handle dairy products. For something really special, pour one (or all) of them into ice cream or add a shot of espresso in there and make it drunken affogato . (I once drank half a bottle of chocolate liqueur with chili instead of gelato in 24 hours because I was nineteen and I was afraid TSA would take it away from me if I put it in my suitcase. It was an amazing experience, but for a very unpleasant bus ride through Florence.)
Dessert Wine: Chef Clarke describes Sauternes as the “Holy Grail of French dessert wines,” and we have to thank the fungus for that. In dry conditions, Botrytis cinerea , or “noble rot” if you want to express yourself in poetry, evokes a partial zest of the grapes, giving the wine a concentrated characteristic flavor. Sauternes is sweet, yes, but it has a pleasant acidity that maintains its balance, and you’ll often find notes of honey and stone fruit .
Should Sauternes prove difficult to find, Monbasillac is a great fallback. It’s “relatively cheap and easy to find,” according to Chef Clark, and it’s a great “balanced, pairing with any wine” that “would be good with a chocolate mint mousse or cookie, and even for most people who think that disgusting pecan tarts are a satisfying dessert. ” (I must emphasize that while I disagree with Chef Clark’s assessment of the pecan pies as “disgusting,” her suggestions for adult drinks are correct.)
Self-treatment
If you’ve overdone apps and the web, consider skipping sweets and eating something herbal. The actual medicinal properties of digestifs remain unproven, but it cannot be denied that I can digest a flavorful portion of fernet more easily than Irish coffee after a heavy meal. Chef Clark is a fan of zucca (technically an aperitif, but its rhubarb and cardamom flavor works just as well after meals), meletti, and averna , all of which can be served with ice, tonic, juice, etc. soda, in hot chocolate or coffee, or even “a small glass of dark beer with sweet or nutty liqueur or extract added.” (Hmm, yes to the last sentence.)
Some other great herbal options include:
Chartreuse : Made by monks, this French liqueur is sweet, spicy and tangy thanks to 130 super-secret herbs, plants and flowers with which it is aged. Since these monks are quite silent, no one knows for sure what 130 plant parts chartreuse is made of, but we do know that it is complex, tasty andgreen . (There is also a softer, sweeter, yellow chartreuse, but that’s only 80 proofs.)
Ferne Branca: This is an intensely bitter Italian amaro with a rather strong licorice aroma, but it is not a single note at all, thanks to 27 (secret) ingredients. It doesn’t need to be mixed a lot because of its complex flavor, but if you want to sweeten a little, try adding a little ginger beer or classic Coca Cola.
Anderberg: You may have seen small paper-wrapped bottles in your favorite liquor store or bottles that are meant to be consumed entirely on their own. We don’t know exactly what it contains, but we do know that it contains gentian root, the main bitterness ingredient known for its digestive properties. He has legions ofdie-hard fans who claim that material starts up in less than a minute. Oh, and they also have somereally cute commercials .
Finally, don’t feel obligated to follow any rules. If you want to start the evening with the Grasshopper, then order the Damn Grasshopper. If you want Bloody Mary to be the last sip of the evening, don’t let anyone stop you. In the words of one of my favorite bartenders (Marco from Bern’s Steakhouse ), the bartenders are here “to make drinks, not make judgments.”