Peppermint Digestive Tincture

True peppermint, Mentha × piperita, grown in Mitcham, England, the strain long prized above all others for the purity and strength of its menthol. The tincture is extracted at a 1:4 ratio in 50 percent alcohol, carrying the leaf's oil at real strength rather than a diluted echo of it. It hits the tongue startlingly cold, then turns warm on the way down, the way real peppermint oil always does. Peppermint has been grown for medicine since the physic gardens of medieval monasteries, where herbalist monks kept it among the plants worth a garden bed of its own. It is traditionally valued to soothe an unsettled stomach and ease the heavy, overfull feeling that follows a large meal, a use handed down largely unchanged from those monastery beds to the present bottle. A dropper stirred into warm water after eating, whenever comfort after a meal is wanted rather than needed urgently. Cold at first taste, then a slow, spreading warmth as it settles. Peppermint supports ordinary digestive comfort; it is not a treatment for a diagnosed digestive condition, and persistent stomach trouble is worth a doctor's attention rather than a dropper. Extracted at 1:4 in 50 percent ABV, 50 ml per bottle. A dropper in warm water after eating, when comfort is wanted.