Nettle & Dandelion Bitters.

Before the plates reach the table, there is a small, old habit worth keeping: ten drops of something bitter on the tongue, a sharp pucker, and then a taste that settles into something almost pleasant.

This is stinging nettle and dandelion root, the two great weeds of hedgerow and lawn, steeped together into a murky, mineral, bracing extract. What the gardener spends a summer pulling out, the herbalist spends a summer gathering in. Ours are wild-foraged from hedgerow and verge rather than cultivated, gathered when both are at their most bitter.

Bitter herbs like these have long been taken before meals in European folk practice, a custom older than the word aperitif. In folk tradition the pair was also a spring ritual, taken as the long, dark winter lifted.

Details

• Herbs: stinging nettle and dandelion root
• Strength: 1:5 extract at 40% proof
• Bottle: small glass dropper bottle

How to use

Take ten drops on the tongue, or in a splash of water, shortly before eating. The bitterness is the point, so taste it rather than disguise it. This is a traditional bitters that makes no medical claim, and it is no substitute for medical advice.

Keep it by the table, and let the old habit become yours.