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At the end of the meal, we eat the afikoman. “Afikoman” was a Greek word referring to the sweet dessert at the end of a meal. During Temple times, the meal would conclude instead with the meat of the Paschal offering. Even though it was not sweet, people loved the mitzva so much they referred to it as the afikoman. After eating the Paschal offering, people would not eat anything else, so the taste from the mitzva would remain in their mouths for the rest of the night.
Following the destruction of the Temple, and to commemorate the Paschal offering, the Sages instituted concluding the meal with matza. This is what we call the afikoman today. It should be eaten when people are already full, but not so full they cannot enjoy eating it.
Each person should eat a third of a machine shmura matza to fulfill the obligation of afikoman. The matza broken and hidden earlier (section 9) should be used for this. However, since it will generally not provide enough matza for all the participants, the Seder leader takes additional shmura matza and gives each person a third of a matza. If the hidden matza has not been found, any shmura matza may be used instead.
After we end the meal with the eating of the afikoman, there are still two more cups of wine to drink. People may not drink any additional wine or alcoholic beverage, as that might look like more than four cups are required. However, we can drink water freely. Those who want to drink coffee may do so if the purpose is to keep themselves awake to continue talking about the laws of Passover and the story of the Exodus.
