LIQUEURS, » 429 
as to leave a pleasant impression on the gustatory nerves; 
therefore, they should never be of great alcoholic strength, but 
retaining a superb finesse of flavour, and being sweet enough to 
please ladies. Furthermore, by reason of the specific herbs, 
and aromatic essences, which go to flavour the different liqueurs, 
certain medicinal virtues attach themselves respectively to each 
of the best products, these liqueurs consisting mainly of spirit 
sweetened with cane sugar, the proportion of such ground work 
varying from thirty-three to fifty per cent. 
It has been well said that these liqueurs are chiefly produced 
by the alchemist, and the convent. They are of three distinctive 
qualities. First come Ratafias, or simple liqueurs, in which the 
sugar, the alcohol, and the aromatic substances are in small quan- 
tities ; for example, anise water, noyeau, the apricot, and cherry 
ratafias. But, through the practice of steeping macaroons of the 
bitter almond in spirit, and calling the result “‘ratafia,” any liqueur 
of the bitter almond flavour now bears this designation. The 
name was got originally from the fact that some such a liqueur 
used to be drunk at the ratification of compacts, and bargains, as 
a glass or cordial comfort. At first, the housewife had only to 
infuse four ounces of sweet almonds, and the same quantity of 
bitter almonds, in a quart of British gin, together with a pound of 
loaf sugar. These ingredients were kept in a warm place, being 
mixed, and stirred {frequently for a fortnight, then straining, and 
filtering into liqueur bottles. Of all the ratafias, Curacoa became 
facile princeps ; the novels of eighty years ago were full of allusions 
thereto. We remember how the feeble Sir Francis Clavering drank 
this, and cried over it after breakfast, and how it disagreed with 
Major Pendennis because of the orange peel. Fauntleroy possessed 
the secret of concocting unequalled Curacoa, and when sentenced 
to death for forgery, took this secret with him to the scaffold. 
Curacoa is made in Amsterdam from the rind of bitter oranges 
which have been grown about the island of Curacoa, in the 
Dutch West Indies. The orange peel, with a little lemon, is 
steeped in pure spirit for some weeks, adding cinnamon, coriander 
seed, saffron, and sugar. Curacao is the more proper spelling. 
Fermented cherries yield an excellent distilled spirit, cherry- 
water, kirschenwasser; if from a cherry called marasche, it is 
maraschino. A famous wild cherry-ratafia is still made at 
Grenoble, and a five-fruited ratafia at Hyéres. _ gs ie 
The second quality of liqueurs are those having the essential | 
