1869 Cooling Cups and Dainty drinks by William Terrington

BITTER DRINKS.

Irrespective of the use of hitter extracts specially- resorted to for medical purposes, beverages are made in which the bitter principle of gentian, dandelion, hops, wormwood, quassia, orange-peel, calumba, cascarilla, and a few others, is greatly used. The custom of infusing bitter plants in vinous drinks is very ancient. Bitter drinks invariably present the bitter principle of some herb, such as worm- wood, &c., which, when mixed with sundry other aromatics and spirits, and then distilled, makes the Absinthe de Suisse so popular in France and Switzerland ; indeed, the Swiss seem particu- larly fond of bitters, for the very bitterest of bitters is one of their favourite liquors — viz., the spirit distilled from gentian root. The Americans have a few bitter liquors, of which Boker’s and Angostura are decidedly the best. In England, the bitters of a 2