1939 The Gentleman's Companion volume II Beeing an Exotic Drinking Book

THE EXOTIC DRINKING BOOK

very cold, frappeed briefly with not-too-fine ice. Pax vobiscum, my good fellow. We met this aid to mankind in 1932. Cognac, 1 jigger Black coffee, 1 pony Heavy cream, 2 jiggers Port, 1 pony Egg, I Sugar, barspoon Clove and nutmeg, dash each, on top It should be served in some tall, stemmed glass. NOTES on DRINKS with a TEQUILA BASE, & NATIVE to MEx1co Tequila, along with Pulque and Mescal, make up the three na– tional beverages. Pulque is the universal drink, mainly for the average person of average position. It is the fermented sap of the Maguey plant-which we call a century plant-and made by chopping out the central bud, or flower stalk so that the sap can collect in the scooped out heart of the plant itself. ... Pulque is about as strong as beer, tastes like a combination of sour cider and whatever fermented fruit juice happens to be around, and smells-as has been told-faintly like a mildewed donkey. Needless to_say it is not universally consumed by others than the hardy race in the land of its conception. Mescal is the distilled fermented juice of the Agave or Maguey plant. The plant is dug up, leaves amputated and roasted. The juice is then extracted in a press, fermented and distilled. It is the same colour as our corn likker, has the same kick, plus an odd flavour which can– not be described. Tequila is the finest of these three, being the distilled fermented juice of the Zotol Maguey plant, which grows almost entirely in the State of Jalisco. Properly aged it is a spirit of definite merit. It is very potent, colourless also, and has a strange exotic flavour which-like Holland gin-is 'an acquired taste. The upstanding Mexican takes his tequila like our prohibition "Swiss Itch": First a s~~k of a quartered lemon, then the ip~nch of salt, then the tossed off pgger or pony of spirit. This process not only being a definite menace to the gullet and possible fire risk through

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