LINGER LONGER
End a festive holiday gathering with an after-dinner nightcap
In a season made for gathering around the table, the role of the afterdinner drink is twofold: to aid digestion and to keep you lingering — so you can finish one conversation and, with the tip of a bottle, pull the thread of another.
Just as an aperitif is meant to open both meal and appetite, a digestif provides a final, often bitter-leaning cap. A common practice in Europe, the after-dinner drink is malleable in definition and practice, taking on whatever form is wanted or needed. One could even pour it after lunch.
“It’s an opportunity to revive you from a meal,” said Claire Sprouse, a consultant and co-owner of Buddy, a wine bar in San Francisco.
She thinks of the afterdinner cocktail as the domain of the mediumABV cocktail.
“You want something with a bit of a kick to pick you up depending on where your night’s going,” she said, “even if it’s a nice walk home.”
The options are plentiful. Bitter-leaning amaro, full of restorative herbs, is a wonted — and excellent — choice. Brandy, cognac or Calvados, poured neat or on a rock, are classic, and excel at the part. When searching for a touch of acidity, Sprouse often reaches for fortified wines like sherry, Madeira, vermouth or port. On a too-full stomach, herbal liqueurs such as Chartreuse, Benedictine or even Underberg may be the cure for what ails.
The list only expands from there. According to Sprouse, modern afterdinner drinks do not need to stay within any traditional model: “There’s classic definitions of aperitifs and digestifs, but those beverages have been around for over 100 years. We don’t have to pretend like it’s the 1800s; we can redefine how we enjoy drinks.”
Sprouse suggests an aperitif also could work after a meal. “Most people tend to start their meals with something like Champagne, but I think Champagne is a fun way to finish a meal as well.”
Add sparkle of another sort with a splash of dry tonic or soda water. Sprouse likes the combination of Calvados or Pommeau and tonic.
A lightly fizzy, cognac and vermouth-based drink, the Nuitcap employs a final bubbling ounce of soda water just before serving. If you are with a mixeddrinks crowd but do not want to overindulge, stir a final round of Bijou cocktails and serve in half-size sipping portions. Or, if the intention is to make life — and cleanup — a little easier, set a bottle or three on the recently cleared table, along with a bowl of ice and a jumble of glasses, and join in on the pouring, passing and lingering.
However you proceed, the psychological effect of a nightcap is as important as the physiological.
“We’ve all spent so much time away from each other that I think, once you get in the room with people, you’re looking to elongate that experience,” Sprouse said, adding, “Why not do that over a beverage?”