A few months ago we took a family holiday to the beguiling land of the Basques; or more specifically, Biarritz and its environs. Like everywhere else on earth, the Basques have their own digestivos and my favorite of them all is Izarra. We encountered this drink in nearly every restaurant where we ate, and in one case after a long lunch in the back of a cafe in Bayonne (home of the Izarra factory), where four of our group remained behind to watch France play in the World Cup (and polish off the bottle in the meantime).
Izarra is distilled from from a concoction of 48 herbs. The recipe was purchased by the botanist Joseph Grattau in the late 19th Century and remains the same to this day. It tastes quite sweet at first, with peppermint flavors standing out the most, and since I was drinking it on the rocks, the finish was a bit diluted.
Il Digestivo 