The Kanzas news., 1857-12-05
The Kanzas News.
5, 1857.
What we Drink.


No other people on the face of the earth
indulge in such variety of beverage as do
we, the people of these United States.
Our cobblers, juleps, smashes, cocktails,
&e., have already gained a worldwide repu-
tation, as peculiarly American drinks.
In old times, when pure liquors could be
had, and were generally sold at moderate
prices, our people sometimes lived to an old
age as strong tipplers; but we cannot tell at
the present day what we are drinking-aye,
he's wise man who, without chemical anal
ysis, could tell, though the effects will !
Port, Sherry, and Medeira wines; brandy,
champagne, DC, are manufactured and adui-
terated to suit all fiavors, by unscrupulous
dealers, who realize fortunes in the busi-
ness The man who quaffs much of either,
must be ..made of oak and copper fastened"
to stand it long. For the benefit of our
readers, we clip the following recipes from
the New York Atlas. They are prepared
expressly for liquor-dealers, and copied from
a book printed in that city:
THE use of Bitters IN Ale and Porter.-To
avoid the costly use of hops, the small deal
ers and bottlers of ale and porter, as sub
stitute for the bitter hops, make use of quas-
sia, nux-vomica or strychnine, aloes, catechu,
pillitory, long peppers, wOrmwood, genilan;
and for false strength, similar to alcohol,
coculus indicus copperas, and grains of
paradise.
The following articles are used for giving
strength and body to beer and ale: Quassia,
pounds; gentian, bruise, 2 pounds; aloes,
1 pound; water, 10-gallons; and boil to 5
gallons. Then add copperas, pound, and
boil to gallons. Add TO suit taste.
Another recipe for the same: Quassia
raspen, 2 pounds; liquorice-root, pounds;
sulphate of iron, pound. Boil for 2 gallons.
The quantity of fluid necessary for i'm
parting false strength to beer, must be
regulated by the palate.
For the conversion of common gin into
Schiedam Schnapps: Common gin, 5 gal
Ions; sulphuric acid, 2 drachms; spirit of
nutmeg, l pint; of nitric ether, ounce;
clear water, pints. Mix the honey and
water, and add to the gin the sui phuric acid
Imitation CLaret-Boiled cider, gallons;
,spirits, g gallons; clear water, 5 gallons;
,cate chu, powdered, 2 ounces; color with
sred beets and tincture of Iogwood, to suit
taste. When this is not sufficiently acid,
add from one to two drops of sulphuric
acid to the gallon, to suit the taste.
Cheap Champagne. Water, fifty gallons;
bruised ginger, ounces; ground mustard,
5 ounces; boil for thirty minutes, and when
cool, add quart of yeast; ferment from ten
to fifteen days. First add six ounces of bit
ter almonds, bruised; spirit and grains par
adise tincture, to suit convenience. For
coloring, use cochineal. A fine aroma is
added to the champagne by adding 5 drops
of spirit of orris-root, or drops of essence
of evergreen, or vanilla drops: or dissolve
5 grains of ambergries in half a glass of
pure alcohol.
So much for liquors; now as to coffee
On the voyage of importation, coffee some
times becomes damaged by contact with 9TH
er portions of the cargo, such as hides, or
balsam of copavia, and more frequently with
bilge-water. The worst of it finds pur-
chaser at auction, and is roasted with mix
ture of chicory, or peas and otherwise fla
vored; SO that, unless we see the clean bean,
we know not what our coffee is.
Our tea, too-that great solace at the con-
versational meal, which we drink while talk
ing over the pleasures and tolls of the day;
that drink full of stimulation and provoca-
ton, calling forth wit and good humor from
old and young, and from old maids in par
ticular, who so need its stimulating influ-
ence to be pleasant and agreeable-aye, this
article of so great consumption, tea, is still
more ''doctored" than the former, sulphate
of iron, and green vitrol, and add flavor and
twang by the admixtures of cate-chu,
most powerful stringent.
Tho Eorfait11ra ,f roa1optioT RIGHTS