L’eau clairette de coings is still more estimable than the preceding, and imparts a new activity to the limbs.
Eau clairette de Chamberri should be made of the ripest black grapes, a small quantity of spirit of wine, a little sugar, and other ingredients. In addition to giving an appetite, it rejoices the heart. The longer it is kept, as in the case with all Ratafias, the better.
The white Ratafias, or Hypoteques, should be mixed with cinnamon, mace, cloves, and coriander. Under these circumstances they render the blood balsamic. The best fruits for white Ratafias are oranges, peaches, and apricots.
Curaçoa derives its name from the group of small islands in the West Indies, situated near the north shore of Venezuela, in the Caribbean Sea. The liqueur is made in these islands by the Dutch. It is also made at Amsterdam from orange peel imported from the Curaçoas. The bitter orange used is the Citrus bigaradia.
It is commonly obtained by digesting orange peel in sweetened spirits, and flavouring with cinnamon, cloves, or mace. The spirits employed are usually reduced to nearly 56 under proof, and each gallon contains about 3½ pounds of sugar. Curaçoa varies in colour. The darker is produced by powdered Brazil wood, mellowed by caramel.
Parfait Amour is a liqueur composed of several ingredients, such as citron, clove, muscat, and others.
Kirsch, Kirschwasser, or Kirschenwasser, or cherry water, is the genuine drink of the Black Forest. The head-quarters of this liqueur, as Griesbach and Petersthal in the Reuch valley, are rich in cherry trees of the Machaleb variety. H. W. Wolff, in his Rambles, rises into an almost poetic description of its virtues. “It is,” he says, referring to the Black Foresters, “their general stimulant and comforter, their consoler in grief, their promoter of conviviality, their safety valve in trouble or excitement.” After this, little can be added without the danger, or rather the certainty, of bathos. When genuine—for alas, it shares the common fate of drinks, adulteration—it is said to be ardent and slightly poisonous. In other words, it contains “that excellent stomachic, hydrocyanic acid.” Of late the Black Foresters have rivalled the Servians in a spirit distilled from wild plums. Stolberg thinks Kirschenwasser in no way inferior to the spirit made from corn at Dantzic,[95] and others hold it equal to the Dalmatian Maraschino. The liqueur is also made in Germany, France, and elsewhere.
Pomeranzen, or Pomeranzen-Wasser, somewhat resembling our orangeade, is principally drunk in Northern Germany.
Raspail was originally, as many other liqueurs, medicinal, and was so called from the name of its inventor. Mariani has made an Elixir à la coca du Pérou. This, like Raspail, is an agreeable tonic.