In the beginning, it was the Benedictine abbeys to first create infusions using roots and plants in alcohol, bitters to be administered as medicine to stimulate appetite, for example, or to facilitate digestion. There was the famous elixir, the drug par excellence, and then the many liqueurs to fight smallpox, malaria and other infections.

Therefore these were not beverages to be enjoyed for pleasure, but out of necessity: only during the Renaissance did herbalists and apothecaries began to enhance the taste of such drinks, following the arrival of spices from India and South America. At first they were elite products destined for the court of Catherine de Medici, then from the mid-19th century bitters and liqueurs became the symbolic drinks of aristocratic parlours.