A well-stocked bar of liqueurs, with its shimmering greens, red, and blues, is like a precious stained-glass window. Apéritifs are also known as cordials; although the former were once made from fruit and the latter from herbs, the terms are now interchangeable. Dating back to the bubbling brews of the Middle Ages, liqueurs are infusions, percolations, and distillations of fruits, herbs, and spices. Infusion is rather like making tea, where fruits are steeped in alcohol, almost always brandy, until the flavors are harmoniously united. Percolation, which is another name for “bubbling,” pumps the spirits up over the herbs. Distillation by heat extracts flavors. Some liqueurs are made by all three processes. Among the most common liqueurs are amaretto, anisette, chartreuse, crème de cacao, crème de menthe, curaçao, kirsch, Sambuca, and triple sec.
Apéritifs are mixtures of wine spirits and as many as forty different kinds of exotic spices, roots, herbs, and flowers. The very word, albeit French, is derived from the Latin aperio, meaning “to open up, to lay bare.” Recipes dating back to ancient Rome and Greece used parsley, asparagus, or almost anything they could find to mellow strong wines. The American plains dwellers mixed water with buffalo gall and, of course, whiskey. It should also be noted that, strictly speaking, vermouth, which is a fortified wine, is an apéritif.
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