1908 The World's Drinks and How to Mix Them by Hon Wm Boothby

127

WIT'rY, WISE AND OTHERWISE.

Champagne owes its quality to the soil, a mixture of ehalk, siliea, light clay and oxide of iron, and to great eare and delicate manipulation in mann– faeture. Alcohol has never been redneed to the solid state, but beeomes viseid at very low temperature. Pure spirit of wine or hydra ted aleohol was first obtained by Abueasis, a Moor, in 1130 A. D. Aleohol distilled from wine was fu-st mentioned as Aqua Vitre (water of li fe ) by Villeneuve, who died in 1313. In the wine districts of Franee, Spain, and Italy grapes are still trodden with the bare feet, under the idea that the wine is better. The word "Suissesse" is a Freneh word meaning a female Swiss. Cura«oa takes its name from the island of that name in the West Indies, where the Duteh fu-st made it. It is produced by digesting orange peel in sweetened spirits and flavoring with cinnamon, eloves, or maee. Noyan is made from white brandy, bitter almonds, sugar ear.dy, maee and nutmeg, and is flavored with the kernels of peaehes. Colored ratjfias are made of cherries, or almost any other fruit, seasoned with cinnamon, maee, or other spiees aeeoi·ding to taste. Absinthe is an aleoholate composed of anise, coriander, and fennel, flavored with wormwood and eolored with indigo and sulphate of eopper. 'fhe favorite drink in Nubia is made from fermented dburra bread. It is ealled Bulbul, beeause it makes the drinker sing like the nightingale. Pulque is a Mexiean drink made by fermenting the juiee of the agave. Its distinctive peculiarity is its smell, wbieh resembles that of putrid meat. Maraschino is distilled from cherries, the fruit and pits being erushecl together. The most delicate variety is made from a blaek Dalmatian eherry, bitter and unpalatable. Queen Victoria 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 ehanged his plebian surname for the melodious title of L ord Ardilaun. The Babylonians had a wine ealled euttaeb, whieh they said "obstructs the heart, blinds th e eyes and emaciates the body." They also had a proverb: "It fa better to eat ·stinking fish than to drink euttaeb." Pliny mentions wines made of honey and six-year-old rain water; of honey a nd sea salt; of honey and vinegar; of honey and quinees; of honey and verjuiee; of honey and myrtle seed; of palms, dates, figs, wormwood, and snails. 'l'he average amount of aleohol in beer is 4 per eent; in eider, 8.6 per eent; Mosell e has 9.6 per eent; champagne, 12 per eent; sherry, 19 per ee11t; maraschino, 34 per eent; whiskey, 54 per eent; . port, 16 to 22 per eent. Although all ordinary whiskies are made from grain, good whiskies ha,·c been made from 111olasses, beet root, potatoes, and ma ny other substances.