1872 Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks (Mixellany)

BITTER DRINKS.

IERESPECTIVE of the use of bitter 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 2