Caperitif was a white wine-based aperitif that used to be made in South Africa.
It was flavoured with herbs and quinine [1] to give it a somewhat bitter taste. 20% alcohol
In many cocktail recipes, it was used rather as a white vermouth would have been used.
Substitutes
French vermouth, Lilet Blanc, Dubonnet blanc
Literature & Lore
There seems to have been confusion about how the product’s name was spelled, even when the product was available.
Here are three different spellings:
1. Caperitif Spelling
The Savoy Cocktail Book, by Harry Craddock, published 1930.
Another cocktail book, Approved Cocktails Authorized by the United Kingdom Bartender’s Guild, 1937 contains two contains two different spellings for the product within a few pages of each other.
2. Caperatif Spelling
3. Capertif Spelling
The book 1700 Cocktails for the Man Behind the Bar (1934. London: William Heinemann, sponsored by Plymouth Gin) contains close to 70 recipes which use the “Caperatif” spelling.
The book “Café Royal Cocktail Book” by William J Tarling, 1937, goes back and forth between spellings of Caperitif and Caperatif.
Sources
[1] Caperitif entry in The CocktailDb. Retrieved August 2010 from http://www.cocktaildb.com/ingr_detail?id=431