New-York tribune., 1901-04-14
UNFAMILIAR INTOXICANTS
POTENT LIQUORS WITH QUEER TASTES
AND NAMES.
From The London Evening Standard.

/
man acquired drunkenness. Scientists tell
us that man and a certain mcrobe are the only
living organisms that take naturally to alcohol
OF course there are exceptions. Individual do
/ mestic animals dogs donkeys, horses ana ele-
phants-Wi occasionally acquire taste for in
toXicants but, as a rule. animals will not touch
them. But, Byron says, Man. being reason
able. must get drunk The word roaspna Bile
here should be reasoning. for without a more or
less highly developed power of reasoning neither
man nor any other animal can get drunk, for the
simple reason that intoXicantS do not grow, but
have 10 he made. The alcoholic liquors with
which We in England are familiar are not very
many. In Tact, the lower classes a rule, only
indulge i'll beer, gin, rum, brandy and whiskey.
OF port and other wines they know little more
than the names. if they know those. But there
are many intoXicants made in this country
which are hardly ever seen outside the localities
where they are manufactured For example,
there is the grand old drink of the Vikings
mead. 1t is made from honey fermented. and,
though it does not taste if il of any par
ticuar strength, il is stronger than the Oldest
ale. and the unsuSpccting imbibcr Will find him
self quite suddenly laid out after a couple Of
ordinary glasses This liquor is made penti-
fully in HuutingdOns shire and in some parts of
Wales. We'll in other counties. But the
Londoner knows it not. He even believes that
it is drink like sack, which nobody now knows
how 10 make. Yet. barring its intoxicating
effects to those not used it. it is one Of the
most wholesome and palatabie alcoholic bey-
erageS in existence.
Another drink not much known in England.
but common III the United States which con
c"als the most Intoxicating qualities beneath Il
mild taste. name and appearance is what in the
states is known as hard cider. one gets it,
though rarely in SOmersetshire. A glass of il
VIII uIse; a strong man who is not used to it.
In some parts of the country a most fiery and
potent spirit is made from pums. 1t is manu-
factured and sold surreptitously, and can be
made either from ordinary cultivated plums or
from the wild green gage which in Huntingdon 4
shire is called a crack" This spirit is wafer
white. and the taste for il is acquired one.
for to the uninitiated il resembles methylate ted
spirit There are many varieties Of beer made
in England which only locally known and
appreciated Heather beer is one of these. 1t is
getting uncommon now, the older people " ho
know the recipe gradually dying out and
the younger generation content with the
ordinary beer of the village inn, arsenicate or
! otherwise
Many of the old English drinks survive in out
Of the way villages. They unattainable to
the ordinary traveller one reason for this being
that. unless he be pedestrian tourist he will
never probably strike the places where these old
breWS are made, and, even if he should, they
are not sold at inns, though they may he made
( there for private consumption only. Their chief
/ manufacturers are Old housckeepers to small
farmers and cottagerS, that il is only by liv-
ing in a village and knowing the inhabitants
/ that one may get to know of these drinks
"koorow," old liquor, practically obsolete
these three hundred years, is still made in GER
tain villages of Derhyshre. 1t is a species of ale
exceedingly smooth and favored with spices
Another old English beer is "braket,' which is
made from ale, pepper and honey. This is a
! drink which was exceedingly popular in the
fourteen hundreds 1t can he got in certain parts
/ Of Hampshire and DOrsetshire. 'Aleberry'' is
/ still another which may yet be found. though
seCom. Its necessary ingredients old beer
! spices sugar and bread. But old beer mas now
/ become a rarity.
! Some terribly potent liquors can he distilled
! from the innocent looking ba lana. Also from
! the milk Oc the coccanut. They fond of the
! latter in the West Indies, though. of course, the
! chief drink there is rum. The drinks of the
old World many and varied those
! Of the New. The Japanese make excellent
! one from the purns and from the flowers of the
! motherVort and the peach. The Chinese pro
| duce several qualities of spirit from rice and
! ulsc all of them Intoxicating. and most of then
poisonously intoxicating, besides which they
can make an alcoholic drink from mutton. The
| Russians run them close in a curious prepara-
! tion Of an animal nature. This is their qWaSS
a drink which to the uninitiated tastes Ike SOAP
and water, and which is made from milk. Co
coanut is used in the old World as in the New
! one met hud of preparing an intoxicating drink
from II obtains in the Marquesas. and would
! ,,rohally not recommend itself to the European
who was at all fastidiOus in his tastes. Briefly
| the process is as follows: A number of boys
who ere for the time being unemployed are set
to work to chew up chips of cocoanut ana to
crit ont the result into a bowl The contents OF
the vessels are then collected and ernptled INTO
a vat Water is added, together with little
sugar and palm wine. and the compound is a.
Lowed to ferment when it makes a drink whlch
| ic greatly appreciated among the ISLANDERS IL
not by their white visitors. A popular drink IL