Digestive Bitters

Digestive bitters are typically consumed either neat or with ice at the end of a meal in many European and South American countries. Many, including popular Italian-style amaros and German-style Krauter liquors, are often used in cocktails as well.

CAMPARI: A highly popular Italian patent aperitif. Usually served on the rocks with soda, Campari is very dry with a strong quinine taste.

FERNET-BRANCA: An extremely bitter Italian herbal aperitif or digestif made from cinchona bark, gentium, rhubarb, calamus, angelica, myrrh, chamomile and peppermint. It is often employed as a stomach settler and/or hangover remedy. It's classified as bitters.

AMER PICON: A bitter French cordial, bitter, orange-flavored, made from quinine, spices, cinchona bark, oranges, and gentian. This can no longer be purchased. See homemade recipe for Amer Picon.

BUCKS: Drink made with an ounce or so of liquor and lemon juice plus ginger ale, and topped with a twist of lemon.

FALERNUM: A sweet syrup of Caribbean origin made from ginger, almonds, limes, and other various fruits and herbs. Falernum, like grenadine, contains little or no alcohol, and is used to flavor or sweeten mixed drinks.

GRAIN-NEUTRAL SPIRITS: Otherwise known as grain alcohol, alcohol distilled from grain at 190 proof. Colorless and tasteless, it is used in making blended whiskeys and, as well as gin, gin, vodka, homemade liqueurs and other liquors.

GRENADINE: A sweet syrup flavoring for drinks made from pomegranate juice, containing little or no alcohol.

JAEGERMEISTER: This complex, aromatic concoction containing some 56 herbs, roots and fruits has been popular in Germany since its introduction in 1878. It may be used as cocktail bitters but is more frequently consumed as an aperitif or after dinner drink.

LILLET: An increasingly popular French aperitif, light and dry, that comes in two versions, white and red.

NOILLY PRAT: An excellent and well known brand of French dry vermouth that is perfectly suited to the making of dry martinis.

ORANGE FLOWER WATER: A light, non-alcoholic preparation based on the oil of orange blossoms, used as a flavoring in drinks.

ORGEAT: A syrup with a pronounced almond flavor.

PERRIER: A highly effervescent bottled water that the French use in highballs instead of club soda. It has a sharp edge that works well as a counterpoint to the stickiness of fruit juices. Highly popular on this side of the Atlantic, Perrier can be taken alone or with lime juice.

PIMM'S CUP: A Pimm's No. 1 is a liqueur-style prepackaged preparation with a gin base. Pimm's No. 2 has a whiskey base, while No. 3 is a rum base and No. 4 a brandy base.

Some notable examples of digestive bitters available today include: