THE GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION
are pretty well drawn from the fruit, covered. Strain through a jelly
bag, and strain again
if
any amount of sediment is still in sight. Add
more sugar, to taste, to make a fairly sweet syrup; stir in the juice of
I
lime for each cup of syrup.... Fill tumblers with fine ice, then
pour in as much of this fruit syrup as they will take, garnishing with
bright red or green cherries, and sipping through brightly tinted
straws. . . . The true West Indian Shrub has already been given on
Page 123.
CERTAIN PROVEN FORMULAE for the HOME CONSTRUCTION
of SucH FLum NEEDS as BITTERS, BouNcES,
&
BRANDIES; WINES, MEADS,
&
CoRDIALs; to SAY NoTHING of a RosE LIQUEUR BRANDY by a VI–
COMTE,
&
the SIMPLE
~INSTRUCTION
for MAKING GuM-or
GOMME,
or BAR-SYRUP
FIRST a BRIEF DISCOURSE on the HEALTH-GIVING TRIBE of
BITTERS, INCLUDING THREE RECEIPTS for THEIR CoMPOUNDITION–
BEING an ALLEGED FoRMULA for ANGOSTURA, ONE for ORANGE,
&
ONE
for HELL-FIRE BITTERS-sometimes CALLED "CAYENNE WINE."
Let us wave our white bar towel in a good-natured plea for truce
right at the outset, and affirm that this receipt for Angostura bitters
makes no claim to be the one hundred per cent, unchangeable, price–
less and violently kept secret formula. By the same token, if we
breathed our last in tonight's sleep, the heirs and assigns of Dr. Johann
Gottlieb Benjamin Siegert-one-time surgeon in Bleucher's army (we
trust the Angostura receipt booklet means the Blucher who, aged and
infirm, made that incredibly severe forced march to aid Wellington,
and even though he was "late," nevertheless added the vital crushing
effect against Napoleon at Waterloo)-should lower
all
house flags
at half mast for the vats of their liquid we have consumed, or caused
to be c?nsumed in our warped and intermittent career.
~et
it never be said that so starry-eyed a devotee at the Angostura ·
shrme would ever claim that their "world's best kept secret" had ever
• 150 •