As you all know we have a Cordials license, something which is fairly unique to Massachusetts. The first licenses of our type were issued in the early to mid 90’s, and legend has it that they were initially granted by then-Mayor Menino to appease the restaurateurs of the North End who were getting tired of getting busted by the liquor commission for offering their guests the traditional Sambuca or amaro at the end of their meal. An addition to the wine and malt license was then made available, encompassing what was perceived to be low octane, less dangerous spirits.
Cordials or liqueurs are the historical descendants of herbal medicines prepared by ancient civilizations around the globe. They are a subset of the distillate family generally characterized by intense aromatics, strong flavors, and a relatively high residual sugar content or sweetness. There are records of herbal infusions used as medicine as far back as 600 BC in China and at least as far as the ancient Greeks in Europe. Cordials as we know them were made in Italy as early as the 13th century and were often prepared and sold by monastic orders (e.g. Chartreuse and Benedictine) as health tonics to local citizens and travelers.
Liqueurs and cordials are made worldwide and are served in many ways: by themselves, poured over ice, with coffee or other soft drinks, or mixed with spirits, cream, or other mixers to create cocktails. The tricky part of our license is that there is a large grey area surrounding what precisely constitutes a cordial and that the range of styles is huge. A good way to begin to navigate what constitutes a cordial is to try to sort them into classes.
The most obvious category is the single-flavor based cordials: this is what most Americans think of when they hear the word. These particular beverages are essentially drinkable spirits meant to evoke a single flavor, and tend to be on the sweet side. The dominant traditional styles are either nut based (think Amaretto, Frangelico), fruit based (Triple Sec, Poire Williams), or floral (Creme de Violet, St. Elder). There are also many dessert style cordials that are prominent elsewhere but don’t appear on our back bar (Irish Creme, Creme de Menthe, Godiva White Chocolate, etc.)
The majority of the cordials that we work with come out of the European tradition, similar to the way we take the inspiration for our cuisine from Italy. They are a little more challenging to the palate, typically an infusion of roots, herbs, flowers, barks, or all of the above. The instinct is to lump them all together in the category of “herbal liqueurs,” but that’s not particularly descriptive given the wide range of textures, flavors, and abv’s exhibited. Chartreuse, Braulio, and Meletti could all be herbal liqueurs, but they’re not the same at all. Let’s break it on down.
In the European tradition, cordials were consumed either at the start or the end of a meal, and the time at which they were consumed dictated a lot of their style. Drinks served before a meal are apéritifs or aperitivi, and those served afterward are digestifs or digestivi.
An apéritif is meant to stimulate the appetite, and therefore it's usually dry and low in alcohol. Dry vermouth, aromatized wines, and dry sherry are common aperitifs in Europe. A cocktail can count as an apéritif, too, if it fits the parameters of the category.
Examples on our list include:
Aperol Spritz (cocktail)
Lillet Blanc (aromatized wine)
PImm’s #1 (cordial)
Fino sherry
St. George’s Absynthe
Other famous aperitifs:
Dolin Dry and Dolin Blanc (dry and white vermouths from France)
Corpse Reviver #2 (cocktail)
Prosecco
On the other side of the coin, a digestif is meant to stimulate digestion. They are usually heavier, bitter, and have perceived medicinal qualities.
Digestifs on our list:
Chartreuse, green and yellow
Benedictine
Sambuca
Becherovka
Other common digestifs:
B&B (Brandy and Benedictine)
Limoncello
Toronto (cocktail)
Whiskey
From here there tends to be a lot of overlap. Dry vermouth can be an aperitif, while sweet vermouth can be either an aperitif or a digestif depending on the season. So what is vermouth? It is a fortified, aromatized wine. Or, in layman's’ terms, wine that is spiked with neutral flavored spirit (usually grape-based brandy) and has sugar and herbs added to it for flavoring. Most vermouths clock in at around 18%, putting them firmly in reach of our cordial license. They are delicious on their own, served chilled, or on the rocks with a twist. They also make fantastic components in cocktails because of the body and aromatics they add to a cocktail. Vermouth, unlike other cordials, is still wine-based, which means that it will oxidize, albeit substantially slower than a bottle of wine. Keep vermouth in the fridge, and it should maintain its designed flavor for 4-6 weeks. We carry Cinzano Rosso, Carpano Antica, and Punt e Mes.
The next two categories are in some ways subcategories of the digestifs and whether their constituents belong to one category or the other is hotly debated. Amari and Bitters are predominantly drank at the end of the meal. Amari are Italian cordials of varying degrees of bitterness developed to prevent “agada,” a broad sort of term for anything negatively affecting the digestive process. It seems like every town in Italy has its own native secret recipe, closely guarded, that the locals swear is THE perfect health tonic. Famous amari include Fernet Branca, Averna, Nonino, Braulio, and Montenegro. As to whether anything that comes from outside of Italy can be an amaro...well, don’t ask the Italians but most authorities say yes. Some people include the Chartreuses, Becherovka, and Underberg, some don’t.
Amaro does translate to “bitter” from Italian. So why the second category? I find “bitters” as an independent category to be useful primarily when thinking about cocktails. Something is a bitter to me when it’s primary use is in cocktails and it’s incredibly unlikely that someone will drink it by itself. Campari, Gran Classico, and Kummel are prime examples on our back bar: while Campari is branding itself as an amaro these days to get in on the trend, I’ve met precious few cocktail nerds who want to sip on it neat like a whiskey. Kummel is straight out of the question in that regard as well. Like all cocktail nerdery, this is all incredibly fluid and makes for a spirited debate (puns intended). These are just the ways I tend to break it all down in my brain to make sense of everything as I try to navigate a guest through the spirits that we do have.
