253. Cinnamon Cordial

Boil one-fourth pound of roughly pulverized Ceylon cinnamon in one quart of water, half an hour; add one and a half pounds of sugar, and refine it in the cinnamon water; after getting cool mix with one and a half quarts of brandy; cork well, let stand for a few days in a warm place, filter and bottle.

254. Clove Cordial

Infuse in a big glass jar one-fourth ounce of roughly pulverized cloves, half an ounce of likewise prepared coriander, and a handful of dried cherries in a quart of brandy, five weeks, in the sun or on a warm place; shake daily. Clear and refine five ounces of sugar in half a pint of water; skim very carefully, let it get a little cool, add the infusion and filter through blotting-paper and glass funnel; bottle and let it lie for a few weeks.

255. Coffee Liqueur

Roast three ounces of the best mocha; grind it; prepare a syrup out of one pound of sugar and half a pound of water; put the coffee in the boiling syrup, and let it boil for a few seconds; mix all with one quart of brandy, cork well, and let it stand for a month; then filter, and the liquor is ready for use.

256. Cognac

All liquors obtained by distillation of the grape-juice are usually called cognac in France, although only that prepared in the city of Cognac, in the arrondissement of the departement Charente, deserves this name; this is the best, while those from Languedoc, Armagnac, Auris, Rochelle, and Bordeaux, are all of inferior quality and less aromatic; but even in the genuine cognac we have to distinguish between many different brands, which depend upon its age, and the results of the wine crop. In France it also has the names " Trois-six," corresponding to its percentage of alcohol, and " Eau de vie" while the English call it "brandy." Charente and Gironde alone produce yearly more than one million hektoliters (1 hektoliter=105.67 liquid quarts). The fineness of this liquor increases with its age, and when old enough, assumes the taste of an exceedingly fine, spirituous wine. There are many imitations, mostly with spirits of 900 proof, cognac oil and coloring.

257. Curacao

This famous liquor is manufactured best in Amsterdam by infusing curagao peel in very good brandy that has been sweetened with sugar syrup. The curagao fruit is a species of the bitter orange, that grows mainly in Curagao, one of the Lesser Antilles, north of Venezuela, and the greatest Dutch colony in the West Indies.

258. Currant Ratafia

Fill into a large stone pot or jar four quarts of good brandy, two quarts of currant-juice - you obtain this juice by placing the pot with the currants within a larger vessel partly filled with water, which is heated until the currants in the smaller pot burst - add three pounds of sugar, a stick of cinnamon, some cloves; let it stand four weeks; stir daily; filter through flannel, and bottle.

259. Currant Metheglin

The juice of eight quarts of currants is mixed with twenty quarts of boiling water in which eight pounds of honey are dissolved; add one ounce of cremor tartari; stir well for a quarter of an hour; when the fermentation is over and the liquid is clear, add one quart of brandy; bottle at once, fasten the corks with wire, and place the bottles in the cellar; you may use the beverage after six weeks.