1863 Cups and their customs

CUPS AND THEIR CUSTOMS.

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Hypocras, however, is mentioned as early as the ]4th century. From this period we select our champion of compound drinks in no less a personage than the noblest courtier of Queen Bess ; for, among other legacies of price, Sir Walter Raleigh has handed down to us a recipe for ^^ Cordial Water/^ which, in its simplicity and good- ness, stands alone among the compounds of the age. " Take,^^ says he, ^^ a gallon of strawberries and put them into a pint of aqua vitse ; let them stand four days, then strain them gently off, and sweeten the liquor as it This beverage, though somewhat too potent for modern palates, may, by proper dilution, be rendered no unworthy cup even in the present age. From the same noble hand we get a recipe for " Sack Posset,^^ which full well shows us propriety of taste in its compounder. " Boil a quart of cream, with quantum sufficit of sugar, mace, and nutmeg ; take half a pint of sack, and the same quantity of ale, and boil them well together, adding sugar ; these, being boiled separately, are now to be added. Heat a pewter dish very hot, and cover your basin with it, and let it stand by the fire for two or three hours .^^ With regard to wines, we find in the beginning of the 16th century the demand for Malmsey was small ; and in 1531 we hear ^^Sack^^ first spoken of, that being the name applied to the vintages of Candia, Cyprus, and Spain. Shakspeare pronounced Malmsey to be ^^ ful- som,^^ and bestowed all his praises on ^^ fertil sherries j^^ and when Shakspeare makes use of the word Sack, he evidently means by it a superior class of wine. Thus, pleaseth thee.^^