1906 A Bachelor's Cupboard

A BACHELOR'S CUPBOARD What to Pay for Wines Of all liqueurs, brandy or eau de vie is the founda- tion, various ingredients coloring and flavoring it to suit the taste. Some of the additions have the merit of being great aids to the digestion, as w^ll as being pleasant to the palate. Especially is this true of creme de menthe, which is King of the Mint family. Dr. S , a young Professor of Pathology in the Harvard Medical School, has a particular fondness for this cor- dial, which several years of university life in Europe has only served to strengthen. One day, dropping into Martin's in New York for dinner, he ordered the usual liqueur after his coffee. The doctor is an absent- minded man, and was deep in a reverie when the waiter interrupted: *' Plain or f rappee, sir? " " Let me think," mused the doctor, resting his chin in his hand and gazing reflectively into space. *' Frappee means with ice, sir," volunteered the waiter kindly, thinking this silence only the result of unfamiliarity with the French language. He had it frappeed. Benedictine is equally good for digestion, and Mar- aschino is not to be despised. Do you know, by the way, that the latter is made from cherries and their pits? The secrets of the cloisters of the Trappist, Benedictine, and Carthusian monasteries would make interesting reading on the question of liqueurs, the monks possessing secrets that have been handed down for centuries.

153