On them at dinner to bestow a dozen kinds of drink,
Such liquor as they have, and as the country gives;
But chiefly two, one called kwas, whereby the Moujike lives,
Small ware and waterlike, but somewhat tart in taste;
The rest is mead, of honey made, wherewith their lips they baste.”
Stopes is of opinion that the finest cider is made, not in the west, as has been commonly asserted, but in the east of England. This authority seems particularly to favour the Ribston pippins of Norfolk.
“Worcester,” says Macaulay, in his History of England, ch. iii., “is the queen of the cider land;” but Devon and Somerset, Gloucester and Norfolk, might dispute the title. To make good cider the apples should be quite ripe, as the amount of sugar in ripe apples is 11·0; in unripe apples, 4·9; in over-ripe apples, 7·95. The fermentation should proceed slowly. Brande says that the strongest cider contains, in 100 volumes, 9·87 of alcohol of 92 per cent; the weakest, 5·21. By distillation, cider produces a good spirit; but it is seldom converted to that purpose in consequence of its acidity, which, however, is greatly remedied by rectification.
Much cider is distilled in Normandy, and sent to this country under the name of arrack, or some other foreign spirit, according to its flavour. To the Normans the invention of this liquor has been attributed. They are also said to have received it from the Moors. Whitaker (Hist. Manchester, i. 321) says this drink was introduced into this country by the Romans; and Simmonds (p. 25) that it was first used in England about 1284.
AN OLD CIDER MILL.