When you first sit down for a meal in a French restaurant, the server will ask if you’d like to start with an apéritif. This is a refreshing alcoholic drink, other than wine, that stimulates the appetite. Apéritifs were historically composed of a base of certain plants meant to help digestion, like aniseed. A digestif is for the end of the meal and apparently also helps with digestion. These are all possibly excuses to eat more- but I’m not arguing with that!
…Frigolet Liqueur Distillery
In addition to the many mysterious aperitifs we have in Provence such as Rinquinquin, Pastis and Vin de Noix (walnut wine), we also have a mysterious elixer or digestif. Frigolet is the Provençal answer to the more famous Chartreuse, a liqueur invented by Carthusian monks three hundred years ago. Frigolet is a secret recipe, as is Chartreuse which is only known by two monks at any time. Despite the secret recipe, we learned a lot about this delicious elixir when we visited the Frigolet liqueur distillery.
