1872 Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks (Mixellany)

52 Alcohol. custom of putting slices of pine-apple in the puncheon originated the term " Pine-apple Rum." It is the favourite liquor in the West Indies and North America, and the regulation spirit of the British Navy. Arrack is the name given to all the spirits made in the East. That distilled from a juice which flows from the cocoanut-tree, and called toddy, is the best; the arrack made from rice and other substances is very inferior. Arrack is a clear spirit, and, when well aged, is peculiarly good; it can be further improved, and made like a liqueur, by adding some slices of pine-apple. That which comes from Java is the best: the Chinese also produce an arrack, which, when old, fully equals any other. Tungusian arrack is a spirituous liquor made by the Tartars of Tungusia, of sour mares' milk, fermented, and distilled twice or thrice, between two earthen vessels closely stopped; the liquor escaping through in a small wooden pipe. Gentian Spirit is much used by the Swiss mountaineers; it is a bitter spirit, made from gen- tian root. Of the other varieties of alcoholic liquors, very few are known beyond the spots where they are distilled. There are various alcoholic productions which,