1900 Cocktail BOOTHBY'S American Bartender ( 2nd edition )

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Colored ratifias are made of cherries or almost any other fruit seasoned with cinnamon, mace or other spices according to taste. Absinthe is an alcoholate composed of anise, coriander and fennel, flavored with wormwood and colored with indigo and sulphate of copper. The favorite drink in Nubia is made from fermented dlnirra bread. It is called ombulbul, because it makes the drinker sing like the nightingale. Pulque is a Mexican drink made by fermenting the juice of the agave. Its distinctive peculiarity is its smell which resembles that of putrid meat. Maraschino is distilled from cherries, the fruit and seeds being crushed together. The most delicate variety is made from a black Dalmation cherry, bitter and unpalatable. Queen Victoria has raised three great brewers to the peerage. Allsop is now Lord Hindlip, Bass the pale ale man is Baron Burton, and Guinness of Dublin Stout fame has changed his plebian surname for the melodious title of Lord Ardilaun. The Babylonians had a wine called cuttach, which they said obstructs the heart, blinds the eyes and emaciates the body." They also had a proverb: "It is better to eat stinking fish than to drink cuttach." Pliny mentions wines made of honey and six year old rain water ; of honey and sea salt; of honey and vinegar; of honey and quinces; of honey and veijuice; of honey and myrtle seed; of palms, dates, figs, wormwood and snails. The average amount ofalcohol in beer is 4 per cent.; in cider, 8.6 per cent.; Moselle has 9.6 per cent.; Champagne, 12 percent.; Sherry, 19 per cent.; Mara- chino, 34 per cent.; Whiskey,54 per cent.; Port 16 to 22 per cent. Although all ordinary whiskies are made from grain, good whiskies have been made from molasses, beet root, potatoes and many other substances. The word punch is from the Sanscrit Pancha or the Persian Punj which denotes the usual number ofingredients of which it is composed, viz: five. Germans and Saxons used to drink their wine and beer from horns unpro vided with handles or feet so that the horn had to be emptied by each drinker. "Pledging a health"is a Saxon momento. The drinking horn had to be raised in both hands and the drinker's pledge stood beside him with sword drawn in order that no one should stab him while drinking. When drinking healths as many cups were drunk as there were letters in the name ofthe person complimented. French statistics show that France exports four times as much wine as the vineyards ofthe country produce. ~ American statistics show that more California wines and brandies are- shipped to French ports than to all other shipping points combliied.