The history of the before-and-after drink

By Ashley Trego

Wine is the drink most often paired with a meal. Wine helps food to strut its stuff – and vice versa – but there are other, often overlooked, cocktails of equal importance and just as much lovability. That’s right – I’m talking about the before and the after cocktails, also known as apéritifs and digestifs.

To get those digestive juices a’flowin before a meal, you have le apéritif. You might think that the Europeans thought up this very clever concept, because they’ve certainly kept it going strong. But it was the ancient Egyptians, in fact, who first started the tradition of a pre-meal cocktail.

An Italian man named Antonio Benedetto Carpano helped to cultivate the trend in Italy with the invention of Vermouth, a fortified wine and one of the original European apéritifs. Sometime later in 1846, a French chemist named Joseph Dubonnet introduced another wine-based spirit to French Foreign Legionnaires living in North Africa who were encouraged to drink the spirit, which contained quinine – now an ingredient of tonic water – as it was thought to combat malaria. The rest is, as they say, history.

This time of year my favorite apéritif is an Aperol Spritz. Aperol, an Italian bitter orange liqueur, is mixed with Prosecco or any other sparkling wine and served as a beautiful and delicious start to many a meal.

The proper way to finish a meal, in an ever so elegant manner, is with a digestif. Popular throughout Europe, digestif’s are often made from roots and herbs and are thought to aid in the digestion of food. Some digestifs are also used for the purpose of soothing sensitive or upset stomach, and I can attest, from personal experience, that Fernet Branca, in particular, works like a charm.

Other digestifs include Averna, Jegermeister, Grappa, Armagnac, and of course eau de vie: “water of life.” Some are made from roots, some from grain and some from fruit. An eau de vie, for example, is a delicate fruit brandy the likes of which Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein may have sipped over argument or conversation, so long ago, during their time in gay Paris.

Depending on individual taste you may have to experiment a little more within this category as some digestifs can be fairly intensely flavored and we all have different tastes and tolerances.

The beauty of before and after cocktails, however, is that once you find the right one for you, your dining experiences will be ever changed and ever better in ways you may have never imagined. Happy sipping!

Ashley Trego is a Western Slope based chef, event planner, wine industry professional and freelance food and wine writer. She works with the Black Bridge Winery, 5680 Vineyards, Alfred Eames Cellars, Lilliputian Winery and Garfield Estates Winery. Ashley can be reached at ashtrego@hotmail.com.