In my book Doctors and Distillers, I wrote a lot about the medicinal history of bittering agents used in many aperitifs, herbal liqueurs, and amaros.
Suze is a gentian liqueur, and gentian is one of the most (if not the most) important bittering agents. The others are cinchona, wormwood, and to a lesser extent, rhubarb root.
At a Tales of the Cocktail event I picked up the brand book Suze: Proud of Our Roots from its US importer Bonnete. I love brand books because that’s where sometimes you find production information and old advertising, and these often stuff no longer disclosed by brands.
In this brand book they had a small section of Scientific and Medical Claims. These were mostly claims used in the early years of the 1900s.
I rounded up some of those claims: most of them are just its power as a digestif:
“gentian root is used to stimulate the appetite, to revive strength in anaemia, chlorosis, scrofulous diseases, intermittent fevers, rheumatism, gout…”
[chlorosis = anemia
scrofulous diseases = tuberculosis-type conditions
intermittent fevers = repeating rounds of fever, such as you get with the flu or malaria]
“the healthiest of aperitifs”
“without being a medicine, Suze is a really beneficial tonic”
“mountain dwellers have considered gentian to be a universal panacea since ancient times”
“to be healthy and live a long life, it is essential to take a glass of gentian before every meal”
“a guarantee of good health and long life”
“Suze stimulates digestion and has the best effect on all general functions”
“Suze desesrves the triple epithet of tonic, aperitif, and digestive”
“Suze, the stomach’s friend”
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