Dessert Liqueur, Correct your Coffee

Traditional Italian meals end with dessert, café, e "digestivo". In my experience, Italians always finish a meal with "something for the digestion"; an after-dinner drink to aid the digestion of heavy meals. This is usually one or more shots of liqueur(s). And so it is, digestivo is a small alcoholic beverage consumed at the end of a meal, which therefore does not simply involve your typical coffee.

Sta sera, or this evening, I visited my cousins after dinner for "coffee", where a shot of limoncello soon followed. Limoncello is traditionally served chilled, as an after-dinner digestivo. It is bright yellow in colour, with almost a syrupy lemon flavour, as it is very sweet in taste, not sour. Limoncello, in fact, is a great example of a digestivo, as opposed to a casual drink, because its sweet taste makes one or two shots satisfying, whereas more may be overpowering.

A more common Italian liqueur that can fulfill the role of an Italian digestivo is sambuca, best known for its anise flavour. (It is no coincidence that you may have seen sambuca served with 3 floating coffee beans dropped in it, which actually represent health, wealth, and happiness, or together, good luck). Grappa, the grape-based Italian equivalent of Brandy, is also a common after-dinner drink. As there are numerous other Italian liqueurs, too many to mention, I recommend trying different ones each time. And you do not have to be Italian to pick up on this tradition. Bailey’s Irish Cream, for example, is likely one of the largest selling liqueurs in the world, and you can start out by adding a shot to your coffee. Dessert wine, or ice wine, is also quite universal, and both Bailey’s and dessert wine can also be poured over or mixed right into your favourite desserts. In no time you will be adding sambuca to your espresso and drinking your way through a wide variety of liqueurs.

So remember when having your next coffee, opt to try out this tradition by maybe starting out with mixed drinks, which in Italian are called "café corretto", meaning literally, corrected coffee.

Salute/Cin Cin/Cheers,

Haley