Suze FRANCE
It has a delicate golden color and a bitter taste. Fortress from 20 to 45%. The composition of the recipe is not known to us. Oriental spices are felt: vanilla, citrus fruits (orange and lemon), yellow gentian – it gives bitterness to the bitter. Gentian has long been used against plague and tuberculosis, it is effective in the treatment of liver diseases. It was the healing properties of gentian that were emphasized by the producers of the Suz bitter, advertising it as “Suz is a friend of the stomach.”
Bitter “Suz” has been a partner of many prestigious cycling races, where it was served as a “healthy aperitif”, useful for athletes as well.
History of creation. The author of the drink is the Parisian distiller Fernand Muro. They say that he named it after his sister-in-law Susanna. Allegedly, Fernand valued the opinion of a relative, and she, in turn, was delighted with his drink.
But there is another version of the name “Suz”, it is very popular in Switzerland. According to the Swiss version, the drink was created by a local resident Hans Kappler, and named it after the Suze River, which flows in the canton of Bern. According to this version, Kappler lived in this canton, experimented with medicinal herbs. And as a result he created a bitter with the name “Gold of the Alps”. But since Kappler was in dire need of money, he sold his recipe to the enterprising Frenchman Fernand Muro.
Be that as it may, “Suz” received recognition. It happened in the year when the fate of the future main symbol of Paris, the Eiffel Tower, was being decided. It was built in 1889 as a temporary structure, the original majestic arch, through which visitors to the World Exhibition of 1889, dedicated to the centenary of the French Revolution, were supposed to enter. The tower represented the engineering and technical achievements of France. When the exhibition ended, the question arose before the Parisians – to leave the tower or demolish it? For the demolition were the writers Guy de Maupassant and Alexandre Dumas son, the composer Charles Gounod and thousands and thousands of Parisians, who believed that the tower disfigured the face of the city.
But the tower was nevertheless saved, and the then unknown “Suz” at the exhibition of 1889 (!?) received its first award. Today, two restaurants operate on the tiers of the tower – 55 Tour Eiffel (at a height of 58 meters) and le Jules verne. There is also Champagne Bar. Surely there is a Suz bitter in the assortment. Need to check!..
“Suz” is used both as an aperitif and as a digestif. The cocktail is served with gin and vermouth. You can drink with ice, adding tonic or juices – grapefruit, orange, blackcurrant. Olives are also served with bitters. It is believed that they help to reveal the taste of “Suz”.
In France, Suze competed with absinthe. And in the end he pressed him on the alcohol market in France. Among connoisseurs of Suz bitters is the artist Pablo Picasso. But he also loved absinthe. This dualism he continued easily. Absinthe was immortalized in the famous work “Absinthe Drinker”, and “Suz” in a still life-collage…
