II.
Liqueur Maker’s Guide. GERMAN LIQUEURS: Eau d’Amour—Eau Divine. DANTZIG LIQUEURS: Eau Miraculeuse—Eau Aerienne. FRENCH LIQUEURS: Vespetro—Scubac—Absinthe—Maraschino, etc. Du Verger—Vermuth, etc.
To a humble and unpretending volume, little known by the world, to the _Cordial and Liqueur Makers’ Guide, and Publicans’ Instructor_, we are indebted for a large part of the information in the present chapter. This excellent and possibly unique volume of modern date contains some two hundred receipts for the manufacture of the most favourite drinks in their greatest perfection; in addition to a variety of miscellaneous matter of much practical utility to the publicans’ profession, though of no immediate interest probably to the readers of the present book. For instance, we are taught therein the mysteries of _Spirit Beading_, or, in exoteric language, the putting a head on weak spirits, and the _fining_ of sherry, port, gin, ale, and porter. Most of the receipts, we are assured, have never before appeared in print. They are the result of an experience of some thirty years. A warning is given in the preface about the common and extensive adulteration of liqueurs with essential oils, turpentine, and spirits of wine.
In the first chapter of the _Cordial and Liqueur Makers’ Guide_, we find receipts for those familiar beverages which are most common in our respectable public firms—public house is what Bentham would call an emotional term—such as _Peppermint_, _Cloves_, _Rum Shrub_, _Aniseed_, _Caraway_, _Noyeau_, _Raspberry_, _Gingerette_, _Orange Bitters_, _Wormwood Bitters_, _Lemonade_, _Capillaire_, _Cherry Brandy_, _Cinnamon_, _Lovage_, and _Usquebaugh_—of these the receipt for _Lovage_ may be taken as a sole representative.
This aromatic drink, which is comparatively rare, is perhaps not generally known to be prepared from a plant indigenous to Liguria, a country of Cisalpine Gaul—from which country its name is through sundry philological decadences derived.[78] After reading this, the student of human nature and mercantile morality will be fully prepared to learn that the plant indigenous to Liguria enters in no way into its composition.
Mix, says the receipt, five drams of oil of nutmegs, five drams of oil of cassia, and three drams of oil of caraway in a quart of strong spirits of wine. Shake it well, and put it into a ten gallon cask with two gallons more of spirits of wine. Dissolve twenty pounds of lump sugar in hot water, add this to the spirit with a quarter of a pint of colouring, and fill up the cask with water. Fine it down with two ounces of alum dissolved in boiling water, and put into the goods[79] hot; afterwards add one ounce of salts of tartar, and stir the whole well together.
The receipts which follow of German, Dantzig, and French liqueurs postulate a preliminary grinding of all dry substances, such as cloves or cinnamon; the cutting into the smallest pieces of leaves, flowers, peels; and the reducing to a paste, by means of a marble mortar, of almonds and fruit kernels with a small quantity of spirits to prevent them _oiling_.[79] These ingredients should be allowed to soak in the spirit for a month with diurnal shakings in a warm place. Then the spirit must be poured off and the water added after the quantity in the receipt. After standing a few days, pour off, press out all the liquid, mix with the spirit, add sugar and colouring matter, and filter through a flannel bag. In the matter of gold and silver leaf, an attempt to break it when dry would reduce one half to dust, and so spoil the appearance of the liqueur. It must be spread on a plate which has a little thin syrup on it. The leaf must also be covered with the syrup, and then torn by means of two forks into small pieces about the size of a canary seed. The leaf should not be added until the liqueur is in the bottle. The reader will observe the common use of capillaire.[80]
GERMAN LIQUEURS.
_Eau de Sultane Zoraide._
Lemon peel, 8 ounces; orange peel, 8 ounces; figs, 8 ounces; dates, 4 ounces; jessamine flowers, 4 ounces; cinnamon, 3 ounces; spirits of wine, 60 o.p., 19 quarts; orange-flower water, 2 quarts; pure water, 12 quarts; capillaire, 8 quarts. _Colour,[81] rose._
_Eau Nuptiale._
Parsley seed, 6 ounces; carrot seed, 5 ounces; aniseed, orris root, 2 ounces each; mace, 1½ ounces; spirit, 60 o.p., 19 quarts; rose water, 7 pints; water, 11 quarts; capillaire, 9 quarts. _Colour, yellow._
_Eau d’ Amour._
Bitter almonds, lemon peel, 12 ounces each; cinnamon, 6 ounces; mace, 1 ounce; cloves, 1½ ounces; lavender flowers, 8 ounces; spirits of wine, 60 o.p., 19 quarts; Muscat wine, 8 quarts; oil of amber, 36 drops; water 7 quarts; capillaire, 7 quarts. _Colour, rose._
_Eau de Yalpa._
Marjoram, cinnamon, 3 ounces each; fennel seed, thyme, sweet basil, bitter almonds, figs, balm, 2 ounces each; carrot seed, sage, 1 ounce each; cardamom, cloves, ½ ounce each; spirits of wine, 60 o.p., 19 quarts; essence of vanilla, 50 drops; essence of amber, 50 drams; water, 14 quarts; capillaire 8 quarts. _Colour, scarlet._
_Eau Divine._
Lemon peel, 1½ pounds; coriander, 4 ounces; mace, cardamom, 1 ounce each; spirits of wine, 60 o.p., 19 quarts; oil of bergamot, 1½ drams; oil of Neroly,[82] 2 drams; water, 14 quarts; capillaire, 8 quarts.
_Eau de Pucelle._
Juniper berries, 1½ pounds; fennel seed, 4 ounces; angelica seed, cinnamon, 3 ounces each; cloves, 1 ounce; spirits of wine, 60 o.p., 19 quarts; water, 13 quarts; capillaire, 10 quarts. _Colour, yellow._
Other German liqueurs, according to our authority, are _Eau de Zelia_, _de Rebecca_, _de Fantaisie_, _the ruby Eau des Epicuriens_, _the Elixir Monfron_, _the Eau Divine_, _the Eau d’Orient de Napoleon_, _de Didon_, _du Dauphin_, _de Santé_, _Royale_, _Américaine_, _de Paix_, _de J. Saint-Aure_, _de Mille-Fleurs_, _d’Argent_, _de Montpellier_, _d’Ardelle_, _de Turin_, _de Tubinge_, _du Sorcier-Comte_, _de Vertu_, _de Chypre_, _de Jacques_, _Romantique_, _Crème Voizot_, _Aqua Bianca_, and many others.
DANTZIG LIQUEURS.
_Eau Miraculeuse._
Orange peel, lemon peel, 1 pound each; cinnamon, ginger, 6 ounces each; rosemary leaves, 2 ounces; galanga,[83] mace, cloves, 1 ounce each; orris root, 1½ ounces; spirits of wine, 60 o.p., 19 quarts; capillaire, 8 quarts; water, 14 quarts. _Colour, red._
_Eau Aerienne._[84]
Figs, 12 ounces; cumin, 5 ounces; leaves of rosemary, fennel seed, 4 ounces each; cinnamon, 5 ounces; sage, sassafras, 2 ounces each; lavender flowers, camomile flowers, orris root, 4 ounces each; spirits of wine, 60 o.p., 19 quarts; capillaire, 8 quarts; water, 14 quarts.
Other Dantzig liqueurs mentioned are the _Eau de vie de Dantzig_, _Eau Forcifère_, _Christophelet_, _Eau Carminative_, _de Musettier_, _de Girofle_, _Persicot_, _Amer d’Angleterre_, and _Eau des Favorites_, the ruby gold sprinkled _Eau de Lisette_, the yellow _Krambambuli_,[85] the _Eau de Baal_, and the _Liqueur des Évèques_.
FRENCH LIQUEURS.
_Vespetro._[86]
Angelica seed, 3 ounces; coriander seed, 2 ounces; fennel seed, aniseed, ½ ounce each; lemons sliced, oranges sliced, 6 ounces each; spirits of wine, 60 o.p., 12 quarts; water, 9½ pints; capillaire, 3 pints.
_Eau de Scubac._[87]
Lemon peel, 6 ounces; coriander, 4 ounces; aniseed, juniper berries, cinnamon, 2 ounces each; angelica root, 1½ ounces; saffron, 1 ounce; spirits of wine, 60 o.p., 10 quarts; orange-flower water, 2 quarts; capillaire, 4 quarts; water, 8 quarts.
_Elixir de Garus._[88]
Myrrh, aloes, 2 drams each; cloves, nutmegs, 3 drams each; saffron, 1 ounce; cinnamon, 5 drams; spirits of wine, p., 5 quarts; sugar, 6 pounds.
_Amiable[89] Vainqueur._
Spirits of wine, p., 25 quarts; essential oil of citron, 1 ounce; of neroli, of angelica, ½ ounce each; tincture of vanilla, 1 dram; sugar 12 pounds; water, 4 quarts.
_Guignolet[90] d’Angers._
Spirits of wine, p., 12 quarts; cherries with the stones, raspberries, gooseberries, red currants, 1 pound each; oil of cinnamon, of cloves, 10 drops each; sugar, 7 pounds; water, 2 quarts.
_Huile des Jeunes Mariés._
Aniseed, fennel seed, 2 ounces each; angelica seed, cumin seed, caraway seed, 1 ounce each; coriander, 3 ounces; spirits of wine, p., 4 quarts; distilled water, 3 quarts; sugar, 10 pounds. _Colour, yellow._
Other French liqueurs worthy of notice are _Eau Archiepiscopale_, _des Financiers_, _de Noyeau_, _de Phalsbourg_, _de Jasmin_, _des chevaliers de Saint Louis_, _des Pacificateurs de la Grèce_, _Souvenir d’un Brave_, _Goûte Nationale_, _Coquette Flatteuse_, _Ratafias_ of different kinds, such as _Absinthe_, _Angelique_, _Celery_, _Quatre Graines_,[91] _Cerises_, _Noyeau_ and _Carve_,[92] _Amour sans Fin_, _Gaîté Française_, _Plaisir des Dames_, _Citronelle_, _Elixir Columbat_, _Eau des Chevaliers de la Legion d’Honneur_, _Eau des Amis_, _Crème de Macaron_, and _Eau de Pologne_, the crimson _Alkermes_, the emerald _Huile des Venus_, the _Elixir des Anges_, the pale straw-coloured _Eau de vie d’Andaye_,[93] the crimson _Nectar des Dieux_, and _Missilimakinac_.
The most important, or rather the most popular in this country, of the very numerous alcoholic preparations which are flavoured, or perfumed, or sweetened, or more commonly treated in all these three ways to be agreeable to the taste are, placing them as they suggest themselves:—
_Kümmel_, or _Kimmel_, as it is sometimes incorrectly written, from the German name of the herb _cumin_, is made with sweetened spirit, generally brandy, flavoured with coriander and caraway seeds. It is chiefly produced at Riga, and is much esteemed in Java and the Eastern Archipelago generally.
_Maraschino_ is distilled from bruised cherries. The fruit and seed are crushed together. It is commonly prepared in Italy and Dalmatia from a delicately flavoured variety called _Marazques_ or _Marascas_, a small, black, wild cherry, so named, it is said, from its bitterness. Zara, in Dalmatia, is the principal place of production of _Maraschino_.
_Cassis_[94] (or _Cacis_) is a sort of ratafia made with the fruit of the cassis, the vulgar French name of a species of gooseberry with black berries.
_Noyau_, or _Crème de Noyau_, derived from the French word for a kernel, is commonly prepared from white brandy, bitter almonds or amygdalin, sugar candy, mace, and nutmeg. Its distinctive flavour comes from the amygdalin, or the kernels of peaches, plums, cherries, apricots, and other fruit. In Dominica the bark of the noyau tree (_Cerasus occidentalis_) is used, and in France the leaves of a small convolvulus-like tropical plant called _Ipomœa dissectis_. It is coloured white and pink.
_Ratafias_ are called by du Verger _liqueurs de conversation_, and _eau clairettes_ and _hypoteques_, an old term of which Menage expresses himself unable to find the derivation as applied to a liqueur. The Master Distiller considers them preferable to spirituous liqueurs. Procope, the ancient Master of Paris, includes under this term liqueurs, or syrups, as we should say, of cherries, strawberries, gooseberries, apricots, peaches, and other fruits. He it was who first proposed the pressure of the fruits, without infusing them entire. Some years afterwards, Breard, one of the chiefs of the fruitery of Louis XIV., gave these liqueurs the name of _Hypoteques_ to distinguish them. The products both of Procope and Breard were of the highest excellence. “‘I,’ says du Verger, ‘have always considered Procope’s Ratafias as finer and more delicate, those of Breard softer and more flowing; but,’ he adds, ‘as tastes differ, both their Ratafias have their approvers and their critics. It is difficult to equal them in cold countries, either in taste or in smell.’” They are called _Liqueurs of conversation_, because, according to this authority, in talking after meals, you may drink of them three or four times as much as of other liqueurs without fear of any inconvenience. Nay, they nourish and fortify the stomach, and in addition to being pleasant to the palate, are good friends of the liver.
The first _Ratafia_ was called _Eau de Cerises_, or cherry water. The kernels should be added to the juice of the fruit with cinnamon and mace in small quantities. This renders the composition beneficent, strengthens the brain, and banishes the vapours.
The _Eau clairette de framboises_ is also composed of cherries, though a few strawberries are added to give the dominant flavour. It should, therefore, says the Master Distiller, be rather called _Eau clairette framboisée_.
_L’eau clairette de groseilles_ has a specific virtue against biliousness.
_L’eau clairette de grenade_ is the most agreeable of _Ratafias_, but has an astringent property.
_L’eau clairette de coings_ is still more estimable than the preceding, and imparts a new activity to the limbs.
_Eau clairette de Chamberri_ should be made of the ripest black grapes, a small quantity of spirit of wine, a little sugar, and other ingredients. In addition to giving an appetite, it rejoices the heart. The longer it is kept, as in the case with all _Ratafias_, the better.
The white _Ratafias_, or _Hypoteques_, should be mixed with cinnamon, mace, cloves, and coriander. Under these circumstances they render the blood balsamic. The best fruits for white _Ratafias_ are oranges, peaches, and apricots.
_Curaçoa_ derives its name from the group of small islands in the West Indies, situated near the north shore of Venezuela, in the Caribbean Sea. The liqueur is made in these islands by the Dutch. It is also made at Amsterdam from orange peel imported from the Curaçoas. The bitter orange used is the _Citrus bigaradia_.
It is commonly obtained by digesting orange peel in sweetened spirits, and flavouring with cinnamon, cloves, or mace. The spirits employed are usually reduced to nearly 56 under proof, and each gallon contains about 3½ pounds of sugar. _Curaçoa_ varies in colour. The darker is produced by powdered Brazil wood, mellowed by caramel.
_Parfait Amour_ is a liqueur composed of several ingredients, such as citron, clove, muscat, and others.
_Kirsch_, _Kirschwasser_, or _Kirschenwasser_, or cherry water, is the genuine drink of the Black Forest. The head-quarters of this liqueur, as Griesbach and Petersthal in the Reuch valley, are rich in cherry trees of the Machaleb variety. H. W. Wolff, in his _Rambles_, rises into an almost poetic description of its virtues. “It is,” he says, referring to the Black Foresters, “their general stimulant and comforter, their consoler in grief, their promoter of conviviality, their safety valve in trouble or excitement.” After this, little can be added without the danger, or rather the certainty, of _bathos_. When genuine—for alas, it shares the common fate of drinks, adulteration—it is said to be ardent and slightly poisonous. In other words, it contains “that excellent stomachic, hydrocyanic acid.” Of late the Black Foresters have rivalled the Servians in a spirit distilled from wild plums. Stolberg thinks _Kirschenwasser_ in no way inferior to the spirit made from corn at Dantzic,[95] and others hold it equal to the Dalmatian _Maraschino_. The liqueur is also made in Germany, France, and elsewhere.
_Pomeranzen_, or _Pomeranzen-Wasser_, somewhat resembling our orangeade, is principally drunk in Northern Germany.
_Raspail_ was originally, as many other liqueurs, medicinal, and was so called from the name of its inventor. Mariani has made an _Elixir à la coca du Pérou_. This, like _Raspail_, is an agreeable tonic.
_Vermuth_[96] is composed of white wine, angelica, absinthe, and other aromatic herbs.
Many sweet wines approach very nearly liqueurs. Of these are in Austria some sweet wines of Transylvania and Dalmatia. In Spain, the _Tinto d’Alicante_, and the white _Muscats_ of Malaga. In France, _Hermitage_, _Grenache_, _Colmar_, and the _Muscats_ of Rivesaltes and of Roquevaire. In Cyprus, _La Commanderie_. In Italy, the _Muscats_ of Vesuvius, Orvieto and Montefiascone, the holy wine of Castiglione, the white wines of Albano, and the aromatic wine of Chiavenna. In Greece, the _Malmseys_ of Santorin and the Ionian Isles. In Russia, the wines of _Koos_ and _Sudach_ in the Crimea; and in Mexico, those of _Passo del Nocte_, _Paras_, _San Luiz de la Paz_, and _Zelaya_.
In the _Widdowes Treasure_, London, 1595, are receipts for _Sirrop of Roses_ or _Violets_, and two receipts for _Rosa Solis_, and in the _Good Housewife’s Jewele_, London, 1596, are receipts for distilling of _Rosemary water_, _Imperiall water_, _Sinamon water_, and the _Water of Life_.
[Illustration]
AMERICAN DRINKS.
Cobblers—Cocktails—Flips, etc.—Punch—Varieties—A Bar Tender—Anstey’s _Pleader’s Guide_—A Yard of Flannel—Bottled Velvet—Rumfustian, etc.
The great authority, probably the greatest authority, on this interesting subject is a gentleman who, with the true modesty of genius, allows himself to be known only by the pseudonym of _Jerry Thomas_. Formerly a bar-tender at the Metropolitan Hotel, New York, and the Planter’s House, St. Louis, he is said to have travelled over Europe and America in “search of all that is recondite in this branch of the spirit art.” His very name, says one of his admirers, is synonymous in the lexicon of mixed drinks with all that is rare and original.
Among the chief American drinks are, being alphabetically arranged, _cobblers_, _cocktails_, _cups_, _flips_, _juleps_, _mulls_, _nectars_, _neguses_, _noggs_, _punches_—of which there are at least three score—_sangarees_, _shrubs_, _slings_, _smashes_, and _toddies_.[97]
The _cobbler_ is an American invention, though now common in other countries. It requires small skill in its composition, but should be arranged to please the eye. Of this drink the straw is the leading characteristic.
The _cocktail_ is a comparatively modern discovery. In this drink _Bogart’s Bitters_ occupies invariably a prominent place. The _Crusta_ is an improvement on the _cocktail_, and is said to have been invented by Santina, a celebrated Spanish caterer. Its _differentia_ is a small quantity of lemon juice and a little lump of ice. The paring of a lemon must also line the glass, from which feature it probably derives its name.
_Flip_ has been immortalised by Dibdin as the favourite beverage of sailors, though it has been asserted that they seldom drink it; a somewhat hazardous statement, unless limited to the times in which there is none to be had. The essential feature in _a flip_ is repeated pouring between two vessels, supposed to produce smoothness in the drink. The Slang Dictionary holds _flip_ to be synonymous with _Flannel_, the old term for gin and beer drunk hot with nutmeg, sugar, etc., a play on the old name _lamb’s wool_. The anecdote of Goldsmith drinking _flannel_ in a night-house with George Parker, Ned Shuter, and the demure, grave-looking gentleman, is well known.
[Illustration: MINT JULEP.]
The _julep_ is especially popular in the Southern States, and is said to have been introduced into England by Captain Marryatt. That romance-writing seaman in his work on _America_, says: “I must descant a little upon the _mint julep_, as it is, with the thermometer at 100°, one of the most delightful and insinuating potations that ever was invented, and may be drunk with equal satisfaction when the thermometer is as low as 70°. There are many varieties, such as those composed of _Claret_, _Madeira_, etc., but the ingredients of the real _mint julep_ are as follows. I learned how to make them, and succeeded pretty well.” Then follows the receipt:—
“Put into a tumbler about a dozen sprigs of the tender shoots of mint, upon them put a spoonful of white sugar, and equal proportions of peach and common brandy so as to fill it up one-third, or perhaps a little less. Then take rasped or pounded ice and fill up the tumbler. Epicures rub the lips of the tumbler with a piece of fresh pine apple, and the tumbler itself is very often incrusted outside with stalactites of ice. As the ice melts, you drink.”
“I once,” says the marine author of this receipt, of which the reader has _ipsissima verba_, “I once overheard two ladies talking in the next room to me, and one of them said, ‘Well, if I have a weakness for any one thing, it is for a _mint julep_!’”
This weakness of the American lady was, in the opinion of the Metropolitan Hotel barman in New York, very amiable, and proved, not only her good taste, but her good sense.
In _mulls_, which may be made of any kind of wine, the essential feature is the boiling. Sugar and spice, of which the nursery song tells us little girls are manufactured, are also invariably used in _mulls_. We give a rhymed receipt for mulled wine, not for the sake of the poetry, which is indifferent, but for that of the cookery, which is not bad.
“First, my dear madam, you must take Nine eggs, which carefully you’ll break, Into a bowl you’ll drop the white, The yolks into another by it.”
Here the poet was evidently hard pressed for a rhyme.
“Let Betsy beat the whites with switch, Till they appear quite frothed and rich; Another hand the yolks must beat With sugar, which will make them sweet.”
An ordinary effect of sugar. Poet probably hard pressed as before.
“Three or four spoonfuls maybe’ll do, Though some perhaps would take but two. Into a skillet next you’ll pour A bottle of good wine, or more; Put half a pint of water, too, Or it may prove too strong for you.”
This is personal, nay more, it might to some good people be offensive, as indicating deficiency of cerebral power or endurance.
“And while the eggs by two are beating, The wine and water may be heating; But when it comes to boiling heat, The yolks and whites together beat With half a pint of water more, Mixing them well, then gently pour Into the skillet with the wine, And stir it briskly all the time.”
Poet again hard pressed.
“Then pour it off into a pitcher, Grate nutmeg in to make it richer, Then drink it hot, for he’s a fool Who lets such precious liquor cool.”
Of _nectar_ we have no information worth the reader’s acceptance. It appears to be applied indifferently to any dulcet drink.
_Negus_ may be made of any sweet wine, but is commonly composed of Port. “It is,” says Jerry Thomas, “a most refreshing and elegant beverage,
## particularly for those who do not take punch or grog after supper.”
_Egg-nogg_, of which other _noggs_ seem to be the lineal descendants, though a beverage of American origin, has “a popularity that is cosmopolitan. In the South of the United States it is almost indispensable at Christmas time, and at the North it is a favourite at all seasons.” In Scotland the beverage is called “_auld man’s milk_.” The presence of the egg constitutes the _differentia_ in this drink. Every well-ordered bar has a tin egg-nogg “_shaker_,” which is a great aid in mixing. The historian will be glad to learn that it was General Harrison’s favourite beverage, and the consumptive and debilitated person that it is full of nourishment.
[Illustration: “A CROWN BOWL OF PUNCH.”]
_Punch_[98] is remarkable for its variety. It is considered necessary by the adept to rub the sugar on the rind of the citron or lemon, to extract properly what the experienced drinker calls “the ambrosial essence.” The extraction of the ambrosial essence, and the making the mixture sweet and strong, using tea instead of water, and thoroughly amalgamating all the compounds, so that the taste of neither the bitter, the sweet, the spirit, nor the element shall be perceptible one over the other, is the grand secret of making _punch_. And to this, as to other learning, there is no royal road. It must, alas! be laboriously acquired by practice. Many are the mysteries of its concoction. For instance, it is essential in making _hot punch_ that you put in the spirits before the water; in _cold punch_ the other way. The precise portions of spirit and water, or even of the acidity and sweetness, can have no general rule. To attempt offering one would only mislead. A certain inspiration must animate the artist. It has been asserted that no two persons make this drink alike. This remark is admirable, and might probably be applied not only to punch, but to every drink that has yet been composed.
It has been said that of _punches_ there are at least threescore. Here follow a few of the many varieties: _Brandy_, _Sherry_, _Gin_, _Whiskey_, _Port_, _Sauterne_, _Claret_, _Missisippi_, _Vanilla_, _Pine Apple_, _Orgeat_, _Curaçoa_, _Roman_, _Glasgow_, _Milk_, and _Regent’s_, brewed by George IV.; _St. Charles’_, _Louisiana_, _Sugar House_, _La Patria_, _Spread Eagle_, _Imperial_, _Rochester_, and _Rocky Mountain_; _Non-Such_, _Philadelphia_, _Fish-House_, _Canadian_, _Tip-Top_, _Bimbo_, _Nuremburgh_, _Ruby_, _Royal_, _Century Club_, _Duke of Norfolk_, _Uncle Toby_, and _Gothic_.
People have immortalised themselves by the invention of _punches_ to which a grateful country has attached their names. Of these famous ones are General Ford, for many years commanding engineer at Dover; Dr. Shelton Mackenzie, of Glasgow; D’Orsay; and M. Grassot, the eminent French comedian of the Palais Royal, who communicated his receipt to Mr. Howard Paul, the equally eminent entertainer, when performing in Paris.
Last, though not least, the military have thus distinguished themselves by the _National Guard_, the _7th Regiment_ Punch, the _69th Regiment_ Punch, the _32nd Regiment_ or _Victoria_ Punch, and the _Light Guard_ Punch.
The _sangaree_, originally a West Indian drink, is as unsatisfactory in its explanation as in its etymology. It seems, indeed, to be little more than spirit and water, with sugar and nutmeg to taste. It very nearly approaches, if it is not identical with, _toddy_.[99]
_Shrubs_[100] are unsatisfactory, like _sangarees_. They seem to have no distinctive or differentiating feature. The most common kinds are _Rum_, _Brandy_, _Cherry_, and _Currant_.
_Slings_ are very closely related to _toddies_. Their difference is, indeed, infinitesimal, so far as we are able to learn.[101]
Of the _smash_, even Jerry Thomas speaks slightingly. He says, “This beverage is simply a _julep_ on a small plan.” It, however, can boast of three species—_gin_, _brandy_, and _whiskey_, and for all a small bar-glass must be used. It is usual, though not apparently essential, to lay two small pieces of orange on the top, and to ornament with the berries of the season.
_Toddy_ is the Hindustani _tári tádi_, or juice of the palmyra and cocoa-nut. _Tar_ is the Hindustani word for a palm. It is the name given by Europeans to the sweet liquors produced by puncturing the spathes or stems of certain palms. In the West Indies _toddy_ is obtained from the trunk of the _Attalea cohune_, a native of the Isthmus of Panama. In South-Eastern Asia the palms from which it is collected are the _gomuti_, _cocoa-nut_, _palmyra_, _date_, and the _kittul_ (_Caryota urens_). When newly drawn the liquor is clear, and in taste resembles malt. In a very short time it becomes turbid, whitish, and sub-acid, quickly running into the various stages of fermentation, and acquiring an intoxicating quality.
In our use of the word, _toddy_ seems to mean nothing more than spirit and water sweetened, with the occasional addition of lemon peel. _Whiskey toddy_ is the common and favourite species, though there are also _apple_, _gin_, and _brandy toddies_. _Toddy_ differs from grog in being always made with boiling water, but this distinction is not universally maintained, nor, indeed, used by the best authors. _Whiskey_ is probably the “vulgar” kind alluded to by Anstey in his _Pleader’s Guide_, Lect. 7.
“First count’s for that with divers jugs, To wit, twelve pots, twelve cups, twelve mugs, Of certain vulgar drink called _toddy_, Said Gull did sluice said Gudgeon’s body.”
The names of American drinks form an amusing study. Passing over the well known sleepers, sifters, flosters, knickerbockers, ching-chings, Alabama fog-cutters and thunderbolt cocktails, the lightning smashes and eye-openers of Connecticut, the corpse revivers, the Mother Shiptons and the Maiden’s Prayers, we propose to give a list of some of the most remarkable titles, with receipts added, to satisfy the appetite of any who care to compound them.
_A Yard of Flannel._
_A yard of flannel_, otherwise called _egg flip_.—Boil a quart of ale in a tinned saucepan. Beat up yolks of four with the whites of two eggs. Add four tablespoonfuls of brown sugar and a _soupçon_ of nutmeg. Pour on this by degrees the hot ale, taking care to prevent mixture from curdling. Pour back and forward repeatedly, raising the hand as high as possible. This produces the frothing and smoothness essential to the goodness of the drink. It is called _a yard of flannel_ from its fleecy appearance.
_White Tiger’s Milk_
(à la Thomas Dunn English, Esq.).
Half a gill apple jack, ½ gill peach brandy, ½ teaspoonful aromatic tincture,[102] white of an egg well beaten. Sweeten with white sugar to taste. Pour the mixture into 1 quart of milk, stir well, and sprinkle with nutmeg. This receipt will make a quart of the compound.
_Bottled Velvet_
(à la Sir John Bayley).
A bottle of Moselle, ½ a pint of sherry, small quantity of lemon peel, 2 tablespoonfuls of sugar. Well mix, add a sprig of verbena, strain, and ice.
_Stone Fence._
One wine glass of whiskey (Bourbon), 2 small lumps of ice. Use large bar-glass, and fill up with sweet cider.
_Sleeper._
To a gill of old rum add 1 ounce of sugar, 2 yolks of eggs, and the juice of half a lemon. Boil ½ a pint of water with 6 cloves, 6 coriander seeds, and a bit of cinnamon. Whisk all together, and strain into a tumbler.
_Rumfustian._
Whisk yolks of a dozen eggs, and put into a quart of beer and a pint of gin. Put a bottle of sherry into a saucepan, with a stick of cinnamon, a grated nutmeg, a dozen lumps of sugar, and the thin rind of a lemon. When the wine boils, pour it on gin and beer, and drink hot.
_Bimbo Punch._
Steep in 1 quart cognac brandy 6 lemons, cut in thin slices, for six hours. Then remove lemon without squeezing. Dissolve 1 pound loaf sugar in 1 quart boiling water, and add this hot solution to the cognac. Let it cool.
_Bishop._
Stick an orange full of cloves, and roast it. When brown, cut it in quarters, and pour over it 1 quart of hot port. Add sugar to taste, and let mixture simmer for half an hour.
_Archbishop._
The same as _Bishop_, with substitution of best claret for port.
_Cardinal._
The same as _Archbishop_, with substitution of champagne for claret.
_Pope._
The same as _Cardinal_, with substitution of Burgundy for champagne.
_Locomotive._
Put 2 yolks of eggs into a goblet with 1 oz. of honey, a little essence of cloves, and a liqueur glass of Curaçoa; add 1 pint of high Burgundy made hot, whisk together, and serve hot in glasses.
_Pousse l’Amour._
Fill a small wineglass half full of maraschino, then put in yolk of 1 egg; in this pour vanilla cordial, and dash the surface with cognac.
_Blue Blazer_
(use two large silver-plated mugs with handles).
One wine glass Scotch whiskey, 1 ditto boiling water. Mix whiskey and water in one mug; ignite, and, while blazing, pour from one mug to the other. Sweeten to taste, and serve in a bar tumbler, with a piece of lemon peel. _Blue Blazer_ is really nothing more than ordinary whiskey and water.
_Black Stripe._
Into a small bar-glass pour 1 wine glass of Santa Cruz rum and 1 tablespoonful of molasses; cool with shaved ice, or fill up with boiling water, according to season. Grate nutmeg on top. This is ordinary rum and water.
The following appeared in _Moonshine_, and may fitly conclude our chapter on American drinks, for which the verdant English youth has paid to the cunning dispenser so many nimble ninepences:—
“Thou art thirsty, Amaryllis; say to what dost thou incline? Wilt thou toy with amber bubbles at the _Fons Burtonis_ brink? Shall I crown the crystal goblet with the flashing _Rhenish_ wine? Or it may be thou would’st wish for an _American long drink_? Shall I brew a _Flash of Lightning_ or a _Bourbon Whiskey-skin_? Or a _Saratoga Brace-up_? Sweetest, you have but to say. Nay, perhaps a _Bottle Cocktail_ would your kind approval win? Or a _Santa Cruz Rum Daisy_ will be something in your way? I can recommend a _Morning-Glory Cocktail_ to your taste And a _Corker_ or a _Nerver_ there are few who will despise; _Tom and Jerry_ offers pleasures it were folly rank to waste; In a _Nectar_ for the dog-days sweet Elysian rapture lies. Be not silent, Amaryllis, name your poison, whatsoe’er You’ve a mind for, be it _Thunder_, _Locomotive_, or _Egg Nogg_. I have all ingredients handy, and I reckon I’m all there When the question’s on the _tapis_ as to what shall be the grog.”
[Illustration: AN AMERICAN BAR-TENDER.]
[Illustration]
BEERS.
Definition—Different Modes of Manufacture—Antiquity—Osiris, the Inventor—Adam’s Ale—Egyptian—Scandinavian—Adulterations. AFRICA: Pitto, Ballo, Bouza. AMERICA: Persimon, Chica, Vinho de Batatas. BAVARIA: Schenk and Lager. BELGIUM: Lambic, Faro. BORNEO: Ava or Cava. CHINA: Samtchoo.
The dictionary definition, or rather description, of Beer is “an alcoholic liquor made from any farinaceous grain, but generally from barley.” This barley clause is, of course, not true in all countries, nor is beer always made from a farinaceous grain. For the rest, the description is all that could be desired. After the barley is malted and grained, its fermentable substance is extracted by hot water. To this extract or infusion hops, or some other plant of an agreeable bitterness, are added, and it is afterwards boiled for some time, both to concentrate it and to obtain all the useful matters from the hops. The liquor is subsequently allowed to ferment in vats. The time allowed for fermentation depends upon the quality and kind of beer. After it has become clear it is stored for drink.
This ordinary popular description of beer will be probably sufficient to satisfy the general reader. But we must add to it a second explanation of beer, which is applied to a fermented extract, not from any farinaceous grain, but from the roots and other parts of various plants, as ginger, spruce-sap, beet, molasses, and many more. The scientific inquirer may learn the mysteries of malting and brewing, which are very nearly distinct trades, in the many treatises on beer-making which have adorned the literature of this and other countries. In these he may read as much as he wills of the _steeping_ of the barley, its extension, its absorption of water, and the time occupied in this process; of the _couching_ and _sweating_, as it is called, a result of the partial germination of the grain; of the _flooring_, or spreading out like hay over a field; of the _kiln-drying_, or the introduction of the half-germinated grain into a kiln with a perforated floor, with the necessary and variable amount of heat beneath it. And if all this is not enough, he may continue to read at full length of _cornings_ or _cummings_, of _pale_ and _amber-coloured malt_, of _grinding the malt_, of _washing the malt thus ground_, of _boiling the worts with hops_, of _cooling the worts_, of _fermenting the worts_, and, finally, of _clearing and storing_.
Beer is probably a word of German, as ale, signifying the same thing, is of Scandinavian origin. But the source of the German word is a moot question of comparative philology. Those interested in this matter may find abundant information in a note inserted by M. A. Schleicher in the _Zeitschrift_ of Kuhn. We are led thereby to a Gothic form, _pius_, which in its turn conducts us to the Lithuanian _pyvas_. _Pyvas_ or _pivas_—since etymology is a science _dans laquelle les consonants font peu de chose, et les voyelles rien de tout_—may be easily attached to the secondary root _piv_ found in the Sanskrit _pivâmi._ In Indo-European tongues, and in accordance with the dictum of Voltaire, p, b, v, are interchangeable as labials. And so we come to the conclusion that _pivas_, or its descendant _beer_, means nothing else but _drink_; or, in other words, that this particular form of drink is _the_ drink _par excellence_. And so we might rest content, were it not for the uneasy scruples of a certain M. Pictet, who has introduced a Slavic origin. But of etymology this taste will suffice.
Twenty centuries before the Christian era, Osiris, according to some authors, invented beer,[103] and according to others it has been at all times a drink of the Hebrews. We have, indeed, heard of Adam’s ale, but that term has been generally applied to a species of drink which would hardly come under our present category. It is perhaps more probable that the beverage of Osiris and the early Hebrews was a simple infusion of barley without more. Pliny, however, Theophrastus, and Tacitus, speak of beer as known from very early times to the people of the North, who were prevented by their situation from the cultivation of wine.[104]
The ancient beer of Egypt is compared by Diodorus Siculus to wine on account of its strength and flavour. This Egyptian beer is indeed spoken of by Herodotus as _barley wine_, a title which still survives in some of the windows of our public-houses. At present beer is the habitual drink of the English, German, Dutch, and Scandinavian races. A drink, better called _barley water_ than _beer_, appears to have been the favourite beverage of the Danes and Anglo-Saxons, our ancestors in the remote past. Before Christianity had enlightened and corrected their views about the delights of a future state, these benighted folk supposed that the chief felicity enjoyed by the good—in those days synonymous with the brave—after their death and transplantation into Odin’s paradise, would be to drink in large goblets large quantities of ale. Perpetual intoxication thus entered largely into their conception of celestial joy.
Beer as we understand it—modified, that is, by the introduction of the hop—was probably little known in England before the beginning of the sixteenth century. The varieties of beer at the present time are numerous. Some of them will be considered later on in detail. There are, however, only three principal types of fabrication,—the Belgian, Bavarian, and English. The beers of England, as of France, and for the most part of Germany, become sour by the contact of air. This defect is absent from Bavarian beers.
So favourite a drink has, of course, been largely adulterated. Taste, colour, and smell are frequently due to unscrupulous falsifications. Bitterness is produced by strychnine, aloes, nux vomica, gentian, quassia, centaury, pyrethrum, absinthe, and many other ingredients. Colour is obtained by liquorice, chicory, and caramel; and flavour by other additions, which perhaps it is better not to particularize. Water, of course, is added to beer, as to most drinks, to enlarge the quantity and therefore the price. Potatoes are frequently a substitute for grain. Potash is introduced to give the much-desired “_head_,” chalk to diminish acidity, and chloride of sodium, or common salt, for the sake of what is called a _piquant_ flavour. It were well if these little eccentricities of the beer vendors had here their confine; but the sacred hunger for gold has added, alas! to these, virulent and narcotic poisons,[105] such as belladonna and opium, henbane and picric or carbazotic acid. In the city of London this kind of adulteration was formerly, it was fondly imagined, to some extent prevented by some ancient guardians, known as _ale-conners_, who had the right of entering all public-houses and tasting their ales.
Only the most important beers of different countries are given in the following list, arranged alphabetically for convenience of reference:—
AFRICA.
Captain Clapperton _(Expedition to Africa_, i., 133, 187) found at Wow-wow, the metropolis of Borghoo, a kind of ale bearing the name of _pitto_, obtained from the same grain as that used for the same purpose in Dahomey, and by a process nearly similar to the brewing of beer in England from malt, only that no hops were added, a defect which prevented it keeping for any length of time. The people of the countries from the Gambia to the Senegal use a kind of beer called _ballo_. At a village called _Wezo_ there is a beer called _otèe_, a sort of ale made from millet, of a very enlivening nature. Another sort of beer, called _gear_, is found at Ragada. At _Whidah_ an excellent beer is made from two sorts of maize. The Jews at Taffilet use beer of their own brewing. Isaacs (_Travels in Africa_, ii., 319) says that the Zoola nation, between Delagoa Bay and the Bay of Natal, has a description of beer, with which the natives are wont to get drunk. This beer is made from a seed called _loopoco_, something in size and colour like rape. It has powerful fermenting properties, and forms a beverage of a light brown hue, potent and stimulating. In Sofala a beer is made from rice and millet; also in Abyssinia is to be found a drink of many names—_tallah_, or _selleh_, or _donqua_, or _sona_—commonly brewed from wheat, millet or barley, mixed with a bitter herb called _geso_. According to Bruce, Abyssinian beer of an inferior kind is made from _tocusso_. This is really a variety of _bouza_, which is also made from _teff_, the _poa abyssinica_ of botanists.
AMERICA.
_Persimon_ beer, from the fruit of the date plum (_Diospyros Virginiana_), is drunk in North America. In South America, long before the Spanish conquest, the Indians prepared and drank a beer obtained from Indian corn, called _chica_ or maize beer. The process followed in making _chica_ is very similar to that of beer brewing in Britain. The maize is moistened with water, allowed partially to germinate and dried in the sun. The maize malt so prepared is bruised, treated with warm water, and allowed to ferment. The liquor is yellow, and has an acid taste something like cider. It is in common demand on the west coast. In the valleys of the Sierra the maize malt is subjected to human mastication, not invariably by the young and beautiful girls, but by old ladies and gentlemen who still retain, by the indulgence of nature, the requisite dental arrangement. The saliva mixed with the chewed morsel is supposed to produce a more excellent _chica_. Indeed, the result is so choice that this kind is commonly called Peruvian nectar. _Chica_ can also be made from barley, rice, peas, grapes, pine-apples, and manioc. The Brazilians have a beer called _Vinho de Batatas_, from the Batata[106] root. _Sora_, a Peruvian beer, was formerly forbidden by the Incas because of its extremely intoxicating nature.
AUSTRIA.
The most famous beer is perhaps the Pilsener, or white beer, from Pilsen in Bohemia, the favourite drink in Vienna. Gratzer is brewed from wheat malt.
BAVARIA.
The peculiar flavour of the Bavarian ale is perhaps a result of the very free use of pitch or resinous matters to protect the wood of the fermenting tun, but it seems more probable that it is due to the commixture of pine tops. _Schenk_ beer is draught beer, in contradistinction to _Lager_, or store beer. The one is drunk in summer, the other in winter. _Bock beer_[107] and _Salvator_, dark heavy kinds of stout, are both well known. _Kaiserslautern_ is the name of a famous brewage in Rhenish Bavaria.
BELGIUM.
White beers, the result of a mixture of oats and wheat, called _Walgbaert_ and _Happe_, were made in Brussels in the fifteenth century. _Roetbier_ and _Zwartbier_ were, as their names tell us, red and black beers. _Cuyte_ was at one time a favourite and aristocratic drink. It has since fallen from its high estate. There are some forty kinds of beer, at least, now manufactured in Brussels. The white beer of Louvain in South Brabant is the most esteemed; but an Englishman has described it as having the flavour of pitch, soapsuds and vinegar. The winter brew is termed _Faro_, the summer _Lambic_. The _Faro_ is by some said to be prepared from the strong _Lambic_ and a small beer called _Mars_. All Belgium beers, according to the opinion of some experts, have a certain stamp of vinosity. In addition to the _Lambic_ and _Faro_, which are distinguished in this particular, may be mentioned the _Uitzet_ of Flanders, the _Arge_, of Antwerp, and _Fortes-Saisons_ of the Walloons. The white sparkling beers of Louvain are the best of summer beers, they are succeeded by those of _Hougaerde_ and _Diest_. The brown beers of _Malines_ and the _Saison_ of _Liege_ possess good reports. Latterly the _Grisettes_ of _Gembloux_, the beer of _Dinant_, the _blonde_ of _Buiche_, and the ale of _Oppuers_ have been creditably mentioned.
BORNEO.
The aborigines[108] of Borneo, if we are to believe Commodore Roggewein,[109] are the “basest, most cruel and perfidious people in the world.” They are “honest, industrious, strongly affectionate and self-denying,” if we are to credit the account of the Italian missionary, Antonio Ventimiglia. When such diversity of opinion is manifested about the people, some discordance might naturally be supposed to exhibit itself in the matter of their potations. But this is not thus. The great drink of the Beajus is allowed on all hands to be the _ava_ or _cava_, prepared from the _piper methysticum_, or intoxicating pepper plant. This is a shrub with thick roots, long heart-shaped leaves, and a clump or spike of berries. The root is chewed only—it is satisfactory to learn—by young girls with good teeth and dainty mouths.[110] Water or cocoa-nut milk is poured on the masticated pulp, fermentation ensues, and the _Beajus_ drink and become drunken. The mass of chewed matter is kneaded with considerable dexterity by practised professionals. “Every tongue is mute,” says Mariner—one of the crew of a vessel seized by the natives in the commencement of this century,—“while this operation is going on; every eye is upon them, watching every motion of their arms as they describe the various curvilinear turns essential to success.” _Ava_ is also drunk in Otaheite, in the Feejee islands, and those of the Marquesas and of the South Seas.
CHINA.
_Tar-asun_, extracted from barley or wheat, is the beer of China. It is sweet, and commonly drunk warm, before distillation. The mixed liquor from which it is prepared is called _tchoo_, or wine; after that, _sam_ or _san_ is prefixed, to show its hot nature. _Samtchoo_—the word is spelt in many ways—may, says Barrow (_Travels_, p. 304), be considered the basis of the best _arrack_, itself a mere rectification of the above spirit with the addition of molasses and the juice of the cocoa-nut tree. _Bell’s Travels_, ii., 9.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
ENGLAND.
Love of the English for Beer—A National Drink—Private Brewing—A French View of English Society—Sir John Barleycorn—The “Black Jack” and “Leather Bottel”—“Toby Philpot”—Burton-on-Trent—Bottled Beer—Brewers—The Village Ale-house—Various Beers.
“Back and syde goo bare, goo bare, Both hande and foote goo colde; But, Bellie, God send the good ale inowghe Whether hyt be newe or old.”
“Brynge us home good ale, syr, brynge us home good ale, And for our der lady’s love, brynge us som good ale. Brynge us home no beff, syr, for that is full of bonys, But brynge us home goode ale y-nough, for that my love alone ys; Brynge us home no wetyn brede, for yᵗ be ful of branne, Nothyr of no ry brede, for yᵗ is of yᵉ same; Brynge us home no porke, syr, for yᵗ is verie fatt, Nothyr no barly brede, for neythir love I that; Brynge us home no muton, for that is tough and lene, Neyther no trypys, for thei be seldyn clene; Brynge us home no veel, syr, that do I not desyr, But brynge us home good ale y-nough to drynke by yᵉ fyer; Brynge us home no syder, nor no palde[111] wyne, For, and yᵘ do, thow shalt have Criste’s curse and mine.”
The foregoing verses epitomise the praise of good beer. The first is from one of the earliest known drinking songs in the English language—the last is an old Wassail song—the Wassail bowl, which was of hot spiced ale, with roasted apples bobbing therein,—a kindly way of welcome on New Year’s Eve, of Saxon derivation as its name “Wes-hal,” _be of health_, or _your health_, testifies.
That the Anglo-Saxon took kindly to his beer, we have already seen; and that that feeling exists at the present day is undoubted, for what says the refrain of a comparatively modern drinking song?
“I loves a drop of good beer—I does— I’se partickler fond of my beer—I is— And ⸺ their eyes, If ever they tries To rob a poor man of his beer.”
Its popularity has never waned—and it has reached to such a height that the brewing trade seems to be instituted for the propagation of Peers of the realm—a fact which Dr. Johnson even could not have foreseen, although, at the sale of Thrale’s brewery, he did say that they had not met together to sell boilers and vats, but “the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dream of avarice.”
It was the national drink—for tea and coffee were not introduced into England until the middle of the seventeenth century—and it is only of very modern times that the “free breakfast table” fad of statesmanship has made those beverages so popular, by bringing them within the means of the very poorest. Beer was, perforce, drank morning, noon and night by those, and they were the vast majority, who could not afford wine—and, as a rule, after the Norman Conquest, when the Anglo-Saxons copied the soberer customs of their conquerors, the English were not drunkards as a nation; in fact, although almost all their jests hinge on drinking, there is in most of them an underlying moral, which in print are as telling as in this illustration, which, in deference to nasty Mrs. Grundy, has been slightly toned down. Here is very cleverly satirised for reprobation the phases of men under the influence of drink. How it transforms them into beasts, some like lions, others like asses and calves, sensual as hogs, greedy as goats, stupid as gulls.
[Illustration]
Every man brewed his own beer up to the seventeenth century, when we find Pepys speaking of Cobb’s strong ales at Margate; and in the reign of Queen Elizabeth the public brewing had begun at Burton, for an inquiry was made by Walsingham to Sir Ralph Sadler, the governor of Tutbury Castle, as to “What place neere Tutbury, beere may be provided for her Majesty’s use?” and the answer was that it might be obtained at Burton, three miles off. Good Queen Bess would, indeed, have fared badly without her beer, for her breakfast beverages were always beer and wine.
Yet every one was fairly sober. They were weaned on alcoholic liquors, and, consequently, enjoyed them as foods, as they undoubtedly are, if properly used. It is very well to “see our sen as others see us,” but it is almost impossible to agree with Estienne Perlin, who published his _Description des Royaulmes d’Angleterre et d’Escosse_, at Paris in 1558, in which he says that the English “sont fort grands yvrongnes.” His description is, we feel, as untrustworthy as his English. “Car si un Anglois vous veult traicter, vous dira en son langage, _vis dring a quarta rim vim gasquim, vim hespaignol, vim malvoysi_, c’est a dire veulx tu venir boire une quarte de vin du gascoigne, une autre d’espaigne, & une autre de malvoisie, en beuvant & en mengeant vous diront plus de cent fois _drind iou_, c’est a dire je m’en vois boyre a toy, & vous leur responderes en leur langage _iplaigiu_, qui est a dire, je vous plege. Si vous les remarcies vous leurs dires en leurs langages, _god tanque artelay_, c’est a dire, je vous remercie de bon cœur. Eulx estans yvres, vous jureront le sang et le mort que vous beures tout ce que vous tenes dedans vostre tace, & vous diront ainsi, _bigod sol drind iou agoud oin_.” It is much to be feared that the worthy Frenchman, if his description is to be at all relied on, mixed with rather a fast lot.
Ale was looked upon as a kindly creature, and our ancestors of the seventeenth century had several ballads in praise of the “little Barleycorn” and the indictment, as well as the “Bloody Murther,” of Sir John Barleycorn. From this latter the peasant poet, Burns, plagiarised right royally. There was also a very curious Chap book published in the early part of the eighteenth century, entitled,
“The whole TRIAL and INDICTMENT of _Sir_ JOHN BARLEY-CORN—_Kⁿᵗ_.
A Person of Noble Birth and Extraction, and well known by Rich and Poor throughout the Kingdom of _Great Britain_: Being accused of several Misdemeanours, by him committed against His Majesty’s Liege People; by killing some, wounding others, and bringing Thousands to Beggary, and ruins many a poor Family.
Here you have the Substance of the Evidence given in against him on his Trial, with the Names of the Judges, Jury, and Witnesses. Also the Comical Defence Sir _John_ makes for himself, and the Character given him by some of his Neighbours, namely, _Hewson_ the Cobbler, an honest friend of Sir John’s, who is entomb’d as a _Memorandum_, at the _Two Brewers_ in _East Smithfield_.
_Taken in Short Hand by_ Thomas Tosspott, _Foreman of the Jury_.”
[Illustration]
One of the witnesses, hight Mistress _Full-Pot_, the hostess, called in his defence, thus winds up her evidence,—
“Nay, I beseech you, give me leave to speak to you; if you put him to Death, all _England_ is undone, for there is not such another in the Land that can do as he can do, and hath done; for he can make a Cripple to go, he can make a Coward to fight with a valiant Soldier, nay, he can make a good Soldier feel neither Hunger or Cold. Besides, for Valour in himself, there are few that can encounter with him, for he can pull down the strongest Man in the World, and lay him fast asleep.”
Of course, the jury found a verdict of _Not Guilty_.
Beer has a large literature of its own, principally metrical, but this has pretty well been collected in two books—_The Curiosities of Ale and Beer_, by John Bickerdyke; and _In Praise of Ale_, by W. T. Marchant—either of which would be a valuable addition to any one’s library. Yet in neither of them is met with Ned Ward’s “_Dialogue between Claret and Darby Ale_,” published 1691, in which each of the drinks speak for themselves; and, of course, the arguments of ale are all potent over his antagonist. Space will only allow of a very short extract.
“_Darby._—I’m glad to know you, High and Mighty _Sir_; Think you your pompous empty Name could stir My Choler? No, your Title makes me fear As much as if you’d been _Six Shilling Beer_.
_Claret._—Thou _Son of Earth_, thou dull insipid thing, To level me, who am of Liquors _King_, With lean _Small Beer_, but that thou art not worth My Anger, else I’de frown thee into Earth.
_Darby._—I neither fear your Frown, nor court your Smile; But, if I’m not mistaken all this while, By other names than Claret you are known—
_Claret._—You do not hear me, Sir, the Fact disown, Some call me _Barcelona_, some _Navar_, Some _Syracuse_, but at the Vintner’s Bar _My_ name’s _Red Port_. But call me what they will, _Claret_ I am, and will be Claret still,” etc., etc.
[Illustration]
Not content with praising the liquor ale, our ancestors fell to eulogising the vessels used for its consumption, and the “Black Jack” and “Leather Bottel” both came in for their meed of praise. Sketches of a fine example of each are here given, taken from the national collection in the British Museum.
The Black Jack is a jug or pitcher, made of leather, which was sometimes ornamented with a silver rim and a silver plate with the owner’s name or coat of arms engraved thereon. Here is a short lyric, “In praise of the Black Jack.”[112]
“Be your liquor small, or as thick as mudd, The cheating bottle cryes, good, good, good, Whereat the master begins to storme, Cause he said more than he could performe. _And I wish that his heires may never want Sack,_ _That first devis’d the bonny black Jack._
No Tankerd, Flaggon, Bottle nor Jugg Are half so good, or so well can hold Tugg, For when they are broke, or full of cracks, Then they must fly to the brave black Jacks. _And I wish_, etc.
When the Bottle and Jack stands together, O fie on’t, The Bottle looks just like a dwarfe to a Gyant; Then had we not reason Jacks to chuse For this’l make Boots, when the Bottle mends shoes. _And I wish_, etc.
And as for the bottle you never can fill it Without a Tunnell, but you must spill it, ’Tis as hard to get in, as it is to get out, ’Tis not so with a Jack, for it runs like a Spout _And I wish_, etc.
And when we have drank out all our store, The Jack goes for Barme to brew us some more; And when our Stomacks with hunger have bled, Then it marches for more to make us some bread. _And I wish_, etc.
I now will cease to speak of the Jack, But hope his assistance I never shall lack, And I hope that now every honest man, Instead of Jack will y’clip him John. _And I wish_, etc.”
But the composer of “A Song in praise of the Leather Bottel” could rise to the magnitude of his subject in a far superior manner than the preceding poet, the refrain of his song being of a higher type.
“And I wish in Heaven his Soul may dwell, That first devised the Leather Bottel.”
[Illustration]
The uses of the Bottel were so manifest, and its material so superior to any other, that it occupied a higher position. It was better than wood, for it would not run, and was unbreakable. When a man and his wife fell out, as will occasionally happen even in the best matrimonial existence, the bottel could be thrown at each other, without great injury either to human, or the bottel. It held no temptation to steal, as if it were of silver; nor could it be broken, as if it were of glass—because, as the song justly says,—
“Then what do you say to these Glasses fine? Yes, they shall have no Praise of mine; For when a Company there are sat, For to be merry, as we are met; Then, if you chance to touch the Brim, Down falls your Liquor, and all therein; If your Table Cloath be never so fine, There lies your Beer, your Ale or Wine; It may be for a small Abuse, A young Man may his Service lose; But had it been in a Leather Bottel, And the Stopple in, then all had been well.”
The rhymester recapitulates the gratitude of all classes for this extremely handy and unbreakable convenience, and winds up thus, somewhat sadly—
“Then when the Bottel doth grow old, And will good Liquor no longer hold, Out of its side you may take a Clout, Will mend your Shooes when they’r worn out; Else take it, and hang it upon a Pin, It will serve to put many Trifles in, As Hinges, Awls, and Candle-ends, For young Beginners must have such things. _Then I wish_, etc.”
The next most popular English drinking vessel was the _greybeard_, or as it was sometimes, but seldom, called the _Bellarmine_, from the Cardinal of that name so famous for his controversial works. These jugs were imported largely from the Low Countries, where the Cardinal’s name was a reproach. These greybeards are of very common occurrence, being frequently found in excavating on the sites of old houses.
Two centuries after the greybeard, came the brown Staffordshire _Toby Philpot_, an enormously stout old gentleman, whose arms and hands encircle his enormous paunch, and his three-cornered hat forms a most convenient lip, whence the ale can be poured. It owes its origin to a once very popular drinking song, entitled “The Brown Jug,” which is an imitation from the Latin of Hieronymus Amaltheus, by Francis Fawkes, M.A., published in 1761, which is the date of the accompanying illustration.
[Illustration]
“Dear Tom, this brown jug, which now foams with mild ale, Out of which I now drink to sweet Nan of the Vale, Was once Toby Philpot, a thirsty old soul, As e’er cracked a bottle, or fathom’d a bowl; In bousing about, ’twas his pride to excel, And amongst jolly topers he bore off the bell.
It chanced as in dog-days he sat at his ease, In his flower-woven arbour, as gay as you please, With his friend and a pipe, puffing sorrow away, And with honest Old Stingo sat soaking his clay, His breath-doors of life on a sudden were shut, And he died full big as a Dorchester Butt.
His body, when long in the ground it had lain, And time into clay had dissolved it again, A potter found out, in its covert so snug, And with part of Fat Toby he form’d this brown jug; Now sacred to friendship, to mirth, and mild ale— So here’s to my lovely sweet Nan of the Vale.”
Burton-on-Trent may be termed the Metropolis of English Beer, and there, veritably, “Beer is King.” This pre-eminence is attributed to the quality of the water, which seems peculiarly fitted for brewing purposes, and the fact that the large brewers there located use none but the finest malt and hops procurable. There is an old saying, that wherever an Englishman has trodden, and where has he not? there may be found an empty beer bottle. And, truly, he does carry the taste for his natural beverage wherever he goes, and the export trade is enormous, every ship wanting freight, filling up with bottled beer, as a safe thing. Fuller, in his _Worthies of England_ (ed. 1662, p. 115), gives his account of the origin of bottled beer. Speaking of Alexander Nowell, who was made Dean of St. Paul’s as soon as Queen Elizabeth came to the throne, he mentions his fondness for fishing, and says, “Without offence it may be remembred, that leaving a _Bottle_ of _Ale_ (when fishing) in the _Grasse_; he found it some dayes after, no _Bottle_, but a _Gun_, such the sound at the opening therof. And this is believed (Casualty is _Mother_ of more _Inventions_ than _Industry_) the original of _bottled-ale_ in _England_.”
The London brewer had to be content, before Sir Hugh Myddleton brought the New River to the Metropolis, with the water obtained from the Thames, for Artesian wells were not, and other well water must, from the crowded state of the City, have been highly charged with organic matter. But their trade was so important that they were incorporated into a Gild, and the Brewers’ Company is now in existence, having their Hall in Addle Street, Wood Street. The City still maintains the importance of beer as a beverage by keeping an Ale Conner, whose duty is to taste ales, and see that the price charged is not excessive. Their oath of office may be found in the _Liber Albus_, published at the instance of the Government.
[Illustration: VILLAGE INN.]
[Illustration: VILLAGE INN.]
The names of our great English brewers are too well known among the English people to need recapitulation—and space is too scarce to describe their premises. The London draymen have always been noted as a race of tall stalwart men, and brewers generally have taken a pride in getting the largest and strongest horses for their work. These two draymen are of the time of George I., and the weight they are carrying contrasts favourably with the satire of a huge dray horse dragging a four and a half gallon cask. On one notable occasion brewers’ draymen have gone beyond their last. When General Haynau visited Barclay’s Brewery, they rose in indignation against him and chased him from the place, because it was alleged that the General had caused a lady to be flogged!
[Illustration]
The Village Ale-house is, or was, the village club, and certainly is a welcome place of rest for the wayfarer. They are always clean, and frequently quaint, although now-a-days it would be hard to find, as Rowlandson did, a turnspit dog on duty.
[Illustration]
The names of ales are legion; but some are worthy of a passing notice on account of their strength, such as some of the College Ales, those brewed at the birth of an heir—to be drank at his coming of age, Ten Guinea Ale, etc., and there are any quantity of pseudo beers—_i.e._ those not made from malt and hops, China Ale, Radish Ale, ale made from beet or mangel wurzel, and heather beer, which latter is of so great antiquity that its method of manufacture is said to have been lost with the extirpation of the Picts, although some say it was brewed by the Danes. It is probable that the flowers and tops of the heath were used as a substitute for hops, as, previous to the introduction of the latter plant, broom, wormwood and other bitter herbs were used.
J. A.
[Illustration: _After Rowlandson._]
FRANCE: Cerevisia; Double Bière; Adulteration. GERMANY: Mum; Beer Factories; Faust. INDIA: Pachwai, Piworree. JAPAN: Saki; Kæmpfer. RUSSIA: Kvas; Vodki; Pivo. SWEDEN: Spruce. TARTARY: Baksoum.
FRANCE.
In France beer was originally known as _cervoise_ from the Low Latin _cerevisia_. There are two sorts, white and red; the latter has more hops. When much grain enters into the composition it is called _double bière_. Its qualities vary here as elsewhere, according to the grain employed in its manufacture, the malt, and the fermentation. It has been commonly adulterated with _ledum palustre_ or wild rosemary, a strong narcotic. Allusions to beer are comparatively infrequent in French works. The details of its manufacture, which present no remarkable points of variation, may be found in any French work on brewing.
[Illustration: _After A. L. Mayer._]
GERMANY.
Of the many beers of this country, perhaps the most deserving of notice here is the _Mum_ of Brunswick, well known and appreciated for its excellence. The process observed in its manufacture has been, it is said, always kept a mystery,[113] and to prevent discovery, the men who brewed it were hired for life. The origin of the word _Mum_ is obscure. The German _Mumme_, a strong ale producing silence[114] from intoxication; the Danish word for a mask, because it exhibits the parties drinking it with a new face; and _Christian Mummer_ of Brunswick, the supposed inventor of the drink, have been by turns suggested. The varied kinds of _Schenk_, or winter beer, and _Lager_, or summer beer, are fairly well known. The Leipzig Goose and the Berlin white beer are refreshing drinks in summer. An excellent description of _Bierbrauerei_ apparatus is given in Brockhaus’ _Conversations Lexikon_, Band iii. The most important beer factories are in Munich,[115] Erlangen, Zirndorf, Nürnberg, and Vienna.
German beer is far less potent than that of England, but want of strength is made up by the quantity taken. From the time of Goethe, and long before, Germans were great consumers of beer, and the scene in his “Faust,” of students in Auerbach’s Cellar, was typical of his time. Now-a-days there is no degeneracy in the German beer drinker, and a Viennese “Saufender Renommist” will drink his thirty half-pints of _Märzen_ at a sitting. German beers are now readily attainable at any German restaurant in London.
INDIA.
The Hill-tribes of India commonly consume _Pachwai_, prepared from rice and other grain in Bengal. In Nepaul a beer named _Phaur_, made from rice or wheat, is brewed much in the same manner as English ale, which it is said strongly to resemble. It is in considerable repute and, according to Hamilton,[116] wheat and barley are in Nepaul reared for the express purpose of making the beer and other drinks similar to it. In the West Indies the negroes make a fermented drink resembling beer from _cassava_, which in Barbadoes is termed _piworree_,[117] and in other places _ouycou_.
This plant, the _manioc_ or _mandioc_ of America, grows to the size of a small tree, and produces roots like our parsnips.[118] _Ouycou_ is sometimes brewed very strong. It is considered nourishing and refreshing, as indeed most drinks which gratify the palate seem to be considered. Molasses and yams are used in its preparation. The liquor is red. _Piworree_ or _paiwari_ is also made by the Indians in Honduras, as in Brazil, from cassava. Cassava bread carbonised superficially is placed in hot water until fermentation arises. To promote this, feminine chewing is found efficacious. The taste, says Simmonds, is said to resemble that of ale, but is not “quite so agreeable—this may easily be believed.” _Cela dépend_, as in the case of the _chica_ of the sierras of South America.
JAPAN.
Kæmpfer, in his _History of Japan_, i., 121, tells us that in the manufacture of _Sacke_ or _Saki_,[119] a strong and wholesome beer produced from rice, the Japanese are not excelled by any other people. This beer, a very ancient drink, is white when fresh, but becomes brown, if it remains long in the cask. It is manufactured to the highest degree of excellence in Osacca, and thence exported to other countries. The beer’s name is said to be derived from that of this city, being the genitive case of the word, with the initial letter omitted. It is wholesome and pleasant, but should be drunk moderately warm.[120] There are many varieties of _saki_, distinguished by different names.
RUSSIA.
_Quass_, or _Kvas_, a word signifying _sour_, an ancient Scythian beverage, is the ordinary household beer of Russia. A variety of it called _Kisslyschtschy_ is variably described as exceedingly pleasant, and as an abominable small beer, something like sweet wort or treacle beer, almost as vile as the _Vodki_ or Russian gin. These matters of course depend on individual taste. The Russian _pivo_, also in common use, is said to resemble German beer, but German beers are many and diverse.
SWEDEN.
Swedish beer is made at Stockholm. _Spruce_ beer is much in use. This drink is said to have originated from a decoction of the tops of the spruce fir. In Norway and Denmark as well as in Sweden this liquor is made from boiling the leaves, rind and branches of pines. But the _Spruce_ beer of Great Britain and Ireland—either white or brown, according as sugar or molasses is employed in the making—is an essence or fluid extract procured by boiling the shoots, tops, bark and cones of the Scotch fir (_pinus sylvestris_). _Spruce beer_ is supposed to be of much medicinal value as an antiscorbutic. Samuel Morewood presents us with a gratifying reflection on this matter. While, he says, _Spruce_ is beneficial to the health of man, it has not, by its “consequence depreciated his character, or lowered him in his moral dignity.”
TARTARY.
The beer to be met with in Tartary is for the most part of an indifferent quality. That brewed from barley and millet by the Turkestans, termed _baksoum_, more resembles water boiled with rice than beer. They, however, admire it, and affirm that it is an invaluable remedy for dysentery. The reader will have already perceived that it is a cosmopolitan practice to pamper the appetite under the pretence of preserving the health. _Baksoum_ is acid in taste, of no scent, a feeble intoxicant, and cannot be kept for any length of time.
[Illustration]
_Non-Alcoholic Drinks._
[Illustration]
TEA.