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Simply put, a digestif is an alcoholic beverage one drinks after dinner to aid digestion. Beyond that, though, some of us could use a little guidance.

Digestifs arent exactly popular in the United States, mainly because were not eating multi-course meals and we typically eat earlier than our friends in Europe. So while most of us dont need one after having a salad or a burger around 7 in the evening, a digestif is just the ticket for Thanksgivings marathon eating.

Digestifs commonly get confused with aperitifs, which are served before a meal. Theyre actually the opposite of but a perfect teammate to aperitifs, drinks meant to awaken the digestive system before a meal. Aperitifs tend to be drier and lower in alcohol, while digestifs are sweeter and higher in alcohol.

Digestifs include liqueurs of the herbal, bitter and sweet varieties, aged liquors and fortified wines. Before deciding which one sounds most appealing for closing out your meal, it helps to understand how digestifs, as a whole, actually work.

Heres how digestifs work.

Ask a pro about digestifs and the conversation will most likely center around amari, plural for amaro, the Italian word for bitter. An amaro is an herbal liqueur with a bittersweet flavor think Campari or Fernet-Branca. Much of digestifs reputation for assisting digestion comes from these herbal amaris.

Historically, a lot of the medicines you took to settle your stomach were both alcoholic and had various herbs and botanicals that gave them quite the bitter taste, spirits expert Philip Duff told HuffPost. So theres this association between amaro and literally being able to digest something better.

Herbalist Heidi Lyndaker explains that different digestifs can contain different herbs, and while digestifs are definitely not a cure for digestive issues, these herbs can aid in symptom relief for different afflictions. Digestifs, Lyndaker told HuffPost, can contain carminative herbs, which work specifically to target bloating and gas, or demulcent herbs, which can soothe inflammation and help with acid reflux.

The specific properties that work for herbs that help with digestion, they work in a number of ways, Lyndaker said. With holiday meals, we all typically walk away from the table having eaten too much and feeling this bloated effect. The carminative herbs in a lot of digestifs will help reduce some of that bloating and calm the nervous system around the stomach and help reduce some of those yucky symptoms we have. Herbs in this category include fennel, ginger and cardamom.

Herbs also create a bitter flavor that works its own biological magic, beverage director of Amor Y Amargo Sother Teague points out. The basic understanding is that we only perceive five flavors: sweet, sour, salty, umami and then of course my favorite, which is bitter, Teague explains. Of those five, only one bitter is an acquired taste. When you first taste bitter, your mind tells you that this is a potential problem for you as a person and even for your species at large. Bitter is potentially poison. Essentially, upon tasting that bitterness, our brains receive the signal that weve got to get this possible danger out. Our systems kick into gear to start clearing our stomachs.

Lawrence Brandt, emeritus chief of the division of gastroenterology at Montefiore Medical Center , stresses that there are insufficient studies to prove that the alcohol component of digestifs can help improve digestion. Its only thought that alcohol can boost the bodys digestive activity.

Food, when ingested, stimulates intestinal blood flow and also stimulates blood flow to the liver, which is responsible for a large measure of cleaning the substances that are absorbed from the intestinal tract, Brandt told HuffPost. First the blood supply to the intestine is increased, then the venous drainage from the intestine, which goes to the liver, allows the liver to detoxify the food that youve eaten and start its metabolism so it can be utilized by the body. That is all increased by alcohol. Basically, a digestif theoretically could help catalyze digestion by increasing the blood flow to the liver. But it hasnt been proven.

Speaking of alcohol, digestifs typically have a higher ABV than aperitifs. Our systems can handle absorbing that alcohol better on a full stomach than on an empty one. In addition to bitterness and booze, digestifs typically have a sweetness factor. According to Brandt, our brains process this as dessert, AKA the end of the meal.

While we lack the scientific evidence that digestifs are any kind of cure, theres nothing to lose by trying one. It might aid your digestion, and more reliably, it can taste great. If youre going to have an after-dinner drink, why not have it be medicinal? Lyndaker said.