purl is an English drink of the seventeenth century made by infusing ale or, for Purl Royal, wine with wormwood and often other botanicals. See Wormwood and botanical. A form of simple digestive, it was often taken in the morning to combat hangovers. In the nineteenth century, the name was applied to warm ale stiffened with gin.
See also aperitif and digestive.
By: Dave Wondrich