ALCOHOLIC CORDIALS.

Evening Star, Issue 6914, 29 May 1885, Page 4

ALCOHOLIC CORDIALS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —As your correspondent "Cordial Drinker" has not replied to my letter of the 22nd, it may be taken for granted that he is a manufacturer, as well as a drinker, whose ire has been roused by anyone daring to explain the mysteries of his trade. If my suspicions arej ungrounded, then " Cordial Drinker " ought never to have written his letter. I purport in the following lines to detail the manufacture of cordials. If they are not made in the following manner, and I believe it is the only way in which they can be made, then cordials are made of worse and cheaper "stuff" than pure rectified spirits of wine:— Recipe for making aniseed cordial. — hj gallon brandy, aniseed, cloves, and a little salt; infuse all together, and add 2lb sugar with 2i pints water. Cinnamon cordial is made by the same process.

Peppermint cordial is made as follows : Twenty-six gallons rectified spirit of malt, 30dwt oil of peppermint, 241b sugar, three pints rectified spirit of wine, 20 gaUons water ; then add 2oz of alum boiled in one jiint of water. The cordial is then bottled and sold by grocery stores as au unfermented temperance drink.

Recipe for making parfait amour (Anglice—perfect love). —Pound the rinds of four lemons m a mortar, infuse in three quarts of brandy with Joz of cochineal for two days; add 21b sugar in six quarts of water and Jib almonds. Into the whole add \ dram each of alum and crystal mineral. Pour tho clear liquor off, and strain.

Cloves is made in the same manner as peppermint, only more spirit of wine is used. It is commonly believed that hops are intoxicating. This belief is an absurd mistake. Hops are only used to color and flavor the beer. Therefore, in my opinion, beer, in the ordinary acceptation of the ierm, is less intoxicating, and certainly more healthy, than that standard Blue Kibbon drink ginger beer. The ginger is more stimulating than malt, and the malt combined with the hops makes the beer a tonic. Beer, I believe, is about the best of all licensed victuallers' drinks, and is far superior to all cordials, and even tea, as a beverage. Of course Ido not say that beer is not intoxicating—l condemn it because it is ; but I state these facts because they are true. Perhaps raspberry vinegar is the only unfermonted drink in the whole list of beverages that can be safely recommended. It is made as follows : The raspberries are crushed and strained, sugar is added, and ;also honey; one and a-lialf pints of malt -vinegar are added to every pint of raspberry juice. Even raspberry is objected to, owing to vinegar entering into its manufacture. Ginger, rhubarb, gooseberry, cherry, and all other "Blue Kibbon wines" contain never less than 17 per cent, of pure alcohol or proof spirit, and usually contain from 17 to 40 per cent, proof spirit. All, or nearly ail, grocery stores sell these villainous productions ; and, therefore, I hold, sell sly j grog. Let us hope that this atrocious fact, which has been so long overlooked, will at last be inquired into by the authorities. Mr "Wendell's wines, are, perhaps, the only Ibeverages Good Templars can use with safety. His (Mr Wendell's) champagne is the cheapest and only non-intoxicating beverage at present offered to the public. I am not writing this as a puff of Mr Wendell, nov have I any interest in his wines; but the above is my own decided opinion.—l am, etc., William K. Craig. Dunedin, May 29.