indicating deficiency of cerebral power or endurance.
“And while the eggs by two are beating,
The wine and water may be heating;
But when it comes to boiling heat,
The yolks and whites together beat
With half a pint of water more,
Mixing them well, then gently pour
Into the skillet with the wine,
And stir it briskly all the time.”
Poet again hard pressed.
“Then pour it off into a pitcher,
Grate nutmeg in to make it richer,
Then drink it hot, for he’s a fool
Who lets such precious liquor cool.”
Of _nectar_ we have no information worth the reader’s acceptance. It
appears to be applied indifferently to any dulcet drink.
_Negus_ may be made of any sweet wine, but is commonly composed of Port.
“It is,” says Jerry Thomas, “a most refreshing and elegant beverage,
particularly for those who do not take punch or grog after supper.”
_Egg-nogg_, of which other _noggs_ seem to be the lineal descendants,
though a beverage of American origin, has “a popularity that is
cosmopolitan. In the South of the United States it is almost
indispensable at Christmas time, and at the North it is a favourite at
all seasons.” In Scotland the beverage is called “_auld man’s milk_.”
The presence of the egg constitutes the _differentia_ in this drink.
Every well-ordered bar has a tin egg-nogg “_shaker_,” which is a great
aid in mixing. The historian will be glad to learn that it was General
Harrison’s favourite beverage, and the consumptive and debilitated person
that it is full of nourishment.
[Illustration: “A CROWN BOWL OF PUNCH.”]
_Punch_[98] is remarkable for its variety. It is considered necessary by
the adept to rub the sugar on the rind of the citron or lemon, to extract
properly what the experienced drinker calls “the ambrosial essence.” The
extraction of the ambrosial essence, and the making the mixture sweet
and strong, using tea instead of water, and thoroughly amalgamating all
the compounds, so that the taste of neither the bitter, the sweet, the
spirit, nor the element shall be perceptible one over the other, is the
grand secret of making _punch_. And to this, as to other learning, there
is no royal road. It must, alas! be laboriously acquired by practice.
Many are the mysteries of its concoction. For instance, it is essential
in making _hot punch_ that you put in the spirits before the water; in
_cold punch_ the other way. The precise portions of spirit and water, or
even of the acidity and sweetness, can have no general rule. To attempt
offering one would only mislead. A certain inspiration must animate the
artist. It has been asserted that no two persons make this drink alike.
This remark is admirable, and might probably be applied not only to
punch, but to every drink that has yet been composed.
It has been said that of _punches_ there are at least threescore.
Here follow a few of the many varieties: _Brandy_, _Sherry_, _Gin_,
_Whiskey_, _Port_, _Sauterne_, _Claret_, _Missisippi_, _Vanilla_, _Pine
Apple_, _Orgeat_, _Curaçoa_, _Roman_, _Glasgow_, _Milk_, and _Regent’s_,
brewed by George IV.; _St. Charles’_, _Louisiana_, _Sugar House_, _La
Patria_, _Spread Eagle_, _Imperial_, _Rochester_, and _Rocky Mountain_;
_Non-Such_, _Philadelphia_, _Fish-House_, _Canadian_, _Tip-Top_, _Bimbo_,
_Nuremburgh_, _Ruby_, _Royal_, _Century Club_, _Duke of Norfolk_, _Uncle
Toby_, and _Gothic_.
People have immortalised themselves by the invention of _punches_ to
which a grateful country has attached their names. Of these famous ones
are General Ford, for many years commanding engineer at Dover; Dr.
Shelton Mackenzie, of Glasgow; D’Orsay; and M. Grassot, the eminent
French comedian of the Palais Royal, who communicated his receipt to Mr.
Howard Paul, the equally eminent entertainer, when performing in Paris.
Last, though not least, the military have thus distinguished themselves
by the _National Guard_, the _7th Regiment_ Punch, the _69th Regiment_
Punch, the _32nd Regiment_ or _Victoria_ Punch, and the _Light Guard_
Punch.
The _sangaree_, originally a West Indian drink, is as unsatisfactory in
its explanation as in its etymology. It seems, indeed, to be little more
than spirit and water, with sugar and nutmeg to taste. It very nearly
approaches, if it is not identical with, _toddy_.[99]
_Shrubs_[100] are unsatisfactory, like _sangarees_. They seem to have no
distinctive or differentiating feature. The most common kinds are _Rum_,
_Brandy_, _Cherry_, and _Currant_.
_Slings_ are very closely related to _toddies_. Their difference is,
indeed, infinitesimal, so far as we are able to learn.[101]
Of the _smash_, even Jerry Thomas speaks slightingly. He says, “This
beverage is simply a _julep_ on a small plan.” It, however, can boast
of three species—_gin_, _brandy_, and _whiskey_, and for all a small
bar-glass must be used. It is usual, though not apparently essential,
to lay two small pieces of orange on the top, and to ornament with the
berries of the season.
_Toddy_ is the Hindustani _tári tádi_, or juice of the palmyra and
cocoa-nut. _Tar_ is the Hindustani word for a palm. It is the name given
by Europeans to the sweet liquors produced by puncturing the spathes or
stems of certain palms. In the West Indies _toddy_ is obtained from the
trunk of the _Attalea cohune_, a native of the Isthmus of Panama. In
South-Eastern Asia the palms from which it is collected are the _gomuti_,
_cocoa-nut_, _palmyra_, _date_, and the _kittul_ (_Caryota urens_). When
newly drawn the liquor is clear, and in taste resembles malt. In a very
short time it becomes turbid, whitish, and sub-acid, quickly running into
the various stages of fermentation, and acquiring an intoxicating quality.
In our use of the word, _toddy_ seems to mean nothing more than spirit
and water sweetened, with the occasional addition of lemon peel. _Whiskey
toddy_ is the common and favourite species, though there are also
_apple_, _gin_, and _brandy toddies_. _Toddy_ differs from grog in being
always made with boiling water, but this distinction is not universally
maintained, nor, indeed, used by the best authors. _Whiskey_ is probably
the “vulgar” kind alluded to by Anstey in his _Pleader’s Guide_, Lect. 7.
“First count’s for that with divers jugs,
To wit, twelve pots, twelve cups, twelve mugs,
Of certain vulgar drink called _toddy_,
Said Gull did sluice said Gudgeon’s body.”
The names of American drinks form an amusing study. Passing over the
well known sleepers, sifters, flosters, knickerbockers, ching-chings,
Alabama fog-cutters and thunderbolt cocktails, the lightning smashes and
eye-openers of Connecticut, the corpse revivers, the Mother Shiptons
and the Maiden’s Prayers, we propose to give a list of some of the most
remarkable titles, with receipts added, to satisfy the appetite of any
who care to compound them.
_A Yard of Flannel._
_A yard of flannel_, otherwise called _egg flip_.—Boil a quart of ale in
a tinned saucepan. Beat up yolks of four with the whites of two eggs.
Add four tablespoonfuls of brown sugar and a _soupçon_ of nutmeg. Pour
on this by degrees the hot ale, taking care to prevent mixture from
curdling. Pour back and forward repeatedly, raising the hand as high as
possible. This produces the frothing and smoothness essential to the
goodness of the drink. It is called _a yard of flannel_ from its fleecy
appearance.
_White Tiger’s Milk_
(à la Thomas Dunn English, Esq.).
Half a gill apple jack, ½ gill peach brandy, ½ teaspoonful aromatic
tincture,[102] white of an egg well beaten. Sweeten with white sugar to
taste. Pour the mixture into 1 quart of milk, stir well, and sprinkle
with nutmeg. This receipt will make a quart of the compound.
_Bottled Velvet_
(à la Sir John Bayley).
A bottle of Moselle, ½ a pint of sherry, small quantity of lemon peel, 2
tablespoonfuls of sugar. Well mix, add a sprig of verbena, strain, and
ice.
_Stone Fence._
One wine glass of whiskey (Bourbon), 2 small lumps of ice. Use large
bar-glass, and fill up with sweet cider.
_Sleeper._
To a gill of old rum add 1 ounce of sugar, 2 yolks of eggs, and the juice
of half a lemon. Boil ½ a pint of water with 6 cloves, 6 coriander seeds,
and a bit of cinnamon. Whisk all together, and strain into a tumbler.
_Rumfustian._
Whisk yolks of a dozen eggs, and put into a quart of beer and a pint of
gin. Put a bottle of sherry into a saucepan, with a stick of cinnamon, a
grated nutmeg, a dozen lumps of sugar, and the thin rind of a lemon. When
the wine boils, pour it on gin and beer, and drink hot.
_Bimbo Punch._
Steep in 1 quart cognac brandy 6 lemons, cut in thin slices, for six
hours. Then remove lemon without squeezing. Dissolve 1 pound loaf sugar
in 1 quart boiling water, and add this hot solution to the cognac. Let it
cool.
_Bishop._
Stick an orange full of cloves, and roast it. When brown, cut it in
quarters, and pour over it 1 quart of hot port. Add sugar to taste, and
let mixture simmer for half an hour.
_Archbishop._
The same as _Bishop_, with substitution of best claret for port.
_Cardinal._
The same as _Archbishop_, with substitution of champagne for claret.
_Pope._
The same as _Cardinal_, with substitution of Burgundy for champagne.
_Locomotive._
Put 2 yolks of eggs into a goblet with 1 oz. of honey, a little essence
of cloves, and a liqueur glass of Curaçoa; add 1 pint of high Burgundy
made hot, whisk together, and serve hot in glasses.
_Pousse l’Amour._
Fill a small wineglass half full of maraschino, then put in yolk of 1
egg; in this pour vanilla cordial, and dash the surface with cognac.
_Blue Blazer_
(use two large silver-plated mugs with handles).
One wine glass Scotch whiskey, 1 ditto boiling water. Mix whiskey and
water in one mug; ignite, and, while blazing, pour from one mug to the
other. Sweeten to taste, and serve in a bar tumbler, with a piece of
lemon peel. _Blue Blazer_ is really nothing more than ordinary whiskey
and water.
_Black Stripe._
Into a small bar-glass pour 1 wine glass of Santa Cruz rum and 1
tablespoonful of molasses; cool with shaved ice, or fill up with boiling
water, according to season. Grate nutmeg on top. This is ordinary rum and
water.
The following appeared in _Moonshine_, and may fitly conclude our chapter
on American drinks, for which the verdant English youth has paid to the
cunning dispenser so many nimble ninepences:—
“Thou art thirsty, Amaryllis; say to what dost thou incline?
Wilt thou toy with amber bubbles at the _Fons Burtonis_ brink?
Shall I crown the crystal goblet with the flashing _Rhenish_ wine?
Or it may be thou would’st wish for an _American long drink_?
Shall I brew a _Flash of Lightning_ or a _Bourbon Whiskey-skin_?
Or a _Saratoga Brace-up_? Sweetest, you have but to say.
Nay, perhaps a _Bottle Cocktail_ would your kind approval win?
Or a _Santa Cruz Rum Daisy_ will be something in your way?
I can recommend a _Morning-Glory Cocktail_ to your taste
And a _Corker_ or a _Nerver_ there are few who will despise;
_Tom and Jerry_ offers pleasures it were folly rank to waste;
In a _Nectar_ for the dog-days sweet Elysian rapture lies.
Be not silent, Amaryllis, name your poison, whatsoe’er
You’ve a mind for, be it _Thunder_, _Locomotive_, or _Egg Nogg_.
I have all ingredients handy, and I reckon I’m all there
When the question’s on the _tapis_ as to what shall be the grog.”
[Illustration: AN AMERICAN BAR-TENDER.]
[Illustration]
BEERS.
Definition—Different Modes of Manufacture—Antiquity—Osiris,
the Inventor—Adam’s Ale—Egyptian—Scandinavian—Adulterations.
AFRICA: Pitto, Ballo, Bouza. AMERICA: Persimon, Chica, Vinho
de Batatas. BAVARIA: Schenk and Lager. BELGIUM: Lambic, Faro.
BORNEO: Ava or Cava. CHINA: Samtchoo.
The dictionary definition, or rather description, of Beer is “an
alcoholic liquor made from any farinaceous grain, but generally from
barley.” This barley clause is, of course, not true in all countries,
nor is beer always made from a farinaceous grain. For the rest, the
description is all that could be desired. After the barley is malted
and grained, its fermentable substance is extracted by hot water. To
this extract or infusion hops, or some other plant of an agreeable
bitterness, are added, and it is afterwards boiled for some time, both
to concentrate it and to obtain all the useful matters from the hops.
The liquor is subsequently allowed to ferment in vats. The time allowed
for fermentation depends upon the quality and kind of beer. After it has
become clear it is stored for drink.
This ordinary popular description of beer will be probably sufficient to
satisfy the general reader. But we must add to it a second explanation of
beer, which is applied to a fermented extract, not from any farinaceous
grain, but from the roots and other parts of various plants, as ginger,
spruce-sap, beet, molasses, and many more. The scientific inquirer
may learn the mysteries of malting and brewing, which are very nearly
distinct trades, in the many treatises on beer-making which have adorned
the literature of this and other countries. In these he may read as
much as he wills of the _steeping_ of the barley, its extension, its
absorption of water, and the time occupied in this process; of the
_couching_ and _sweating_, as it is called, a result of the partial
germination of the grain; of the _flooring_, or spreading out like
hay over a field; of the _kiln-drying_, or the introduction of the
half-germinated grain into a kiln with a perforated floor, with the
necessary and variable amount of heat beneath it. And if all this is
not enough, he may continue to read at full length of _cornings_ or
_cummings_, of _pale_ and _amber-coloured malt_, of _grinding the malt_,
of _washing the malt thus ground_, of _boiling the worts with hops_,
of _cooling the worts_, of _fermenting the worts_, and, finally, of
_clearing and storing_.
Beer is probably a word of German, as ale, signifying the same thing,
is of Scandinavian origin. But the source of the German word is a moot
question of comparative philology. Those interested in this matter may
find abundant information in a note inserted by M. A. Schleicher in the
_Zeitschrift_ of Kuhn. We are led thereby to a Gothic form, _pius_,
which in its turn conducts us to the Lithuanian _pyvas_. _Pyvas_ or
_pivas_—since etymology is a science _dans laquelle les consonants font
peu de chose, et les voyelles rien de tout_—may be easily attached to the
secondary root _piv_ found in the Sanskrit _pivâmi._ In Indo-European
tongues, and in accordance with the dictum of Voltaire, p, b, v, are
interchangeable as labials. And so we come to the conclusion that
_pivas_, or its descendant _beer_, means nothing else but _drink_; or,
in other words, that this particular form of drink is _the_ drink _par
excellence_. And so we might rest content, were it not for the uneasy
scruples of a certain M. Pictet, who has introduced a Slavic origin. But
of etymology this taste will suffice.
Twenty centuries before the Christian era, Osiris, according to some
authors, invented beer,[103] and according to others it has been at all
times a drink of the Hebrews. We have, indeed, heard of Adam’s ale, but
that term has been generally applied to a species of drink which would
hardly come under our present category. It is perhaps more probable that
the beverage of Osiris and the early Hebrews was a simple infusion of
barley without more. Pliny, however, Theophrastus, and Tacitus, speak of
beer as known from very early times to the people of the North, who were
prevented by their situation from the cultivation of wine.[104]
The ancient beer of Egypt is compared by Diodorus Siculus to wine on
account of its strength and flavour. This Egyptian beer is indeed spoken
of by Herodotus as _barley wine_, a title which still survives in some of
the windows of our public-houses. At present beer is the habitual drink
of the English, German, Dutch, and Scandinavian races. A drink, better
called _barley water_ than _beer_, appears to have been the favourite
beverage of the Danes and Anglo-Saxons, our ancestors in the remote
past. Before Christianity had enlightened and corrected their views
about the delights of a future state, these benighted folk supposed that
the chief felicity enjoyed by the good—in those days synonymous with
the brave—after their death and transplantation into Odin’s paradise,
would be to drink in large goblets large quantities of ale. Perpetual
intoxication thus entered largely into their conception of celestial joy.
Beer as we understand it—modified, that is, by the introduction of
the hop—was probably little known in England before the beginning of
the sixteenth century. The varieties of beer at the present time are
numerous. Some of them will be considered later on in detail. There
are, however, only three principal types of fabrication,—the Belgian,
Bavarian, and English. The beers of England, as of France, and for the
most part of Germany, become sour by the contact of air. This defect is
absent from Bavarian beers.
So favourite a drink has, of course, been largely adulterated. Taste,
colour, and smell are frequently due to unscrupulous falsifications.
Bitterness is produced by strychnine, aloes, nux vomica, gentian,
quassia, centaury, pyrethrum, absinthe, and many other ingredients.
Colour is obtained by liquorice, chicory, and caramel; and flavour by
other additions, which perhaps it is better not to particularize. Water,
of course, is added to beer, as to most drinks, to enlarge the quantity
and therefore the price. Potatoes are frequently a substitute for grain.
Potash is introduced to give the much-desired “_head_,” chalk to diminish
acidity, and chloride of sodium, or common salt, for the sake of what is
called a _piquant_ flavour. It were well if these little eccentricities
of the beer vendors had here their confine; but the sacred hunger for
gold has added, alas! to these, virulent and narcotic poisons,[105] such
as belladonna and opium, henbane and picric or carbazotic acid. In the
city of London this kind of adulteration was formerly, it was fondly
imagined, to some extent prevented by some ancient guardians, known
as _ale-conners_, who had the right of entering all public-houses and
tasting their ales.
Only the most important beers of different countries are given in the
following list, arranged alphabetically for convenience of reference:—
AFRICA.
Captain Clapperton _(Expedition to Africa_, i., 133, 187) found at
Wow-wow, the metropolis of Borghoo, a kind of ale bearing the name of
_pitto_, obtained from the same grain as that used for the same purpose
in Dahomey, and by a process nearly similar to the brewing of beer in
England from malt, only that no hops were added, a defect which prevented
it keeping for any length of time. The people of the countries from the
Gambia to the Senegal use a kind of beer called _ballo_. At a village
called _Wezo_ there is a beer called _otèe_, a sort of ale made from
millet, of a very enlivening nature. Another sort of beer, called _gear_,
is found at Ragada. At _Whidah_ an excellent beer is made from two sorts
of maize. The Jews at Taffilet use beer of their own brewing. Isaacs
(_Travels in Africa_, ii., 319) says that the Zoola nation, between
Delagoa Bay and the Bay of Natal, has a description of beer, with which
the natives are wont to get drunk. This beer is made from a seed called
_loopoco_, something in size and colour like rape. It has powerful
fermenting properties, and forms a beverage of a light brown hue, potent
and stimulating. In Sofala a beer is made from rice and millet; also in
Abyssinia is to be found a drink of many names—_tallah_, or _selleh_,
or _donqua_, or _sona_—commonly brewed from wheat, millet or barley,
mixed with a bitter herb called _geso_. According to Bruce, Abyssinian
beer of an inferior kind is made from _tocusso_. This is really a variety
of _bouza_, which is also made from _teff_, the _poa abyssinica_ of
botanists.
AMERICA.
_Persimon_ beer, from the fruit of the date plum (_Diospyros
Virginiana_), is drunk in North America. In South America, long before
the Spanish conquest, the Indians prepared and drank a beer obtained from
Indian corn, called _chica_ or maize beer. The process followed in making
_chica_ is very similar to that of beer brewing in Britain. The maize is
moistened with water, allowed partially to germinate and dried in the
sun. The maize malt so prepared is bruised, treated with warm water,
and allowed to ferment. The liquor is yellow, and has an acid taste
something like cider. It is in common demand on the west coast. In the
valleys of the Sierra the maize malt is subjected to human mastication,
not invariably by the young and beautiful girls, but by old ladies and
gentlemen who still retain, by the indulgence of nature, the requisite
dental arrangement. The saliva mixed with the chewed morsel is supposed
to produce a more excellent _chica_. Indeed, the result is so choice that
this kind is commonly called Peruvian nectar. _Chica_ can also be made
from barley, rice, peas, grapes, pine-apples, and manioc. The Brazilians
have a beer called _Vinho de Batatas_, from the Batata[106] root.
_Sora_, a Peruvian beer, was formerly forbidden by the Incas because of
its extremely intoxicating nature.
AUSTRIA.
The most famous beer is perhaps the Pilsener, or white beer, from Pilsen
in Bohemia, the favourite drink in Vienna. Gratzer is brewed from wheat
malt.
BAVARIA.
The peculiar flavour of the Bavarian ale is perhaps a result of
the very free use of pitch or resinous matters to protect the wood
of the fermenting tun, but it seems more probable that it is due
to the commixture of pine tops. _Schenk_ beer is draught beer, in
contradistinction to _Lager_, or store beer. The one is drunk in summer,
the other in winter. _Bock beer_[107] and _Salvator_, dark heavy kinds
of stout, are both well known. _Kaiserslautern_ is the name of a famous
brewage in Rhenish Bavaria.
BELGIUM.
White beers, the result of a mixture of oats and wheat, called
_Walgbaert_ and _Happe_, were made in Brussels in the fifteenth century.
_Roetbier_ and _Zwartbier_ were, as their names tell us, red and black
beers. _Cuyte_ was at one time a favourite and aristocratic drink. It
has since fallen from its high estate. There are some forty kinds of
beer, at least, now manufactured in Brussels. The white beer of Louvain
in South Brabant is the most esteemed; but an Englishman has described
it as having the flavour of pitch, soapsuds and vinegar. The winter
brew is termed _Faro_, the summer _Lambic_. The _Faro_ is by some said
to be prepared from the strong _Lambic_ and a small beer called _Mars_.
All Belgium beers, according to the opinion of some experts, have a
certain stamp of vinosity. In addition to the _Lambic_ and _Faro_, which
are distinguished in this particular, may be mentioned the _Uitzet_ of
Flanders, the _Arge_, of Antwerp, and _Fortes-Saisons_ of the Walloons.
The white sparkling beers of Louvain are the best of summer beers, they
are succeeded by those of _Hougaerde_ and _Diest_. The brown beers of
_Malines_ and the _Saison_ of _Liege_ possess good reports. Latterly
the _Grisettes_ of _Gembloux_, the beer of _Dinant_, the _blonde_ of
_Buiche_, and the ale of _Oppuers_ have been creditably mentioned.
BORNEO.