vineyard; and the Clarets, Sauternes, etc. of Bordeaux and Languedoc.
Medoc and Haut Medoc are known to wine lovers everywhere, for here are
the famous vineyards of the Chateau Lafitte, owned by Baron Rothschild;
the Chateaux Margaux, Latour, and many others.

                         The Wines of Germany.

The principal wine districts of Germany are the valleys of the Rhine and
Moselle and their tributaries, whence come the well known Hock and the
red and white wines, which, though sometimes rather thin and deficient
in flavor, are never colored, plastered, boiled, or have spirits added
to them, and are therefore natural and wholesome. Here also is the
renowned Johannisberg Castle vineyard, owned by the family of Prince
Meternich. Every bottle of this wine bears his family arms, and it is
the beverage of Emperors and Kings. By reason of its exquisite “Bouquet”
it is pronounced “The finest and costliest drink on earth.”

                  Wines of Hungary, Italy, Spain, etc.

Hungary sends forth her “Imperial” opal-tinted Tokay wines, made of
overripe grapes, from which the juices are never squeezed but allowed to
drop; other Hungarian wines are as dry as those of France, as mellow as
those of Germany, and more fragrant than the choicest of Spain. Italy,
Spain and Portugal produce wines of much repute, but neither of the
latter two countries make sparkling wines; they supply Sherry and Port
which generally have spirits added to them.

                            American Wines.

The wines of California and other sections of the United States are
rapidly rising in popular estimation, and the time is probably not far
distant when they will rival those of any part of the world. The
consumption of domestic vintages increases with the constant improvement
in their quality, which follows the slowly acquired knowledge, as to the
best methods of turning the luscious juices of our own abundant grapes
into wine.

                               Champagne.

The French make four varieties of champagne, viz.: NON-MOUSSEUX,
CREMANT, MOUSSEUX, and GRAND-MOUSSEUX. The first is fully fermented
wine, fined, drawn into bottles, and allowed to rest a long time.
CREMANT is moderately sparkling. MOUSSEUX throws out its cork with an
audible report and begins gently to overflow. GRAND-MOUSSEUX pops out
the cork with a loud noise and overflows with much foam, as it has the
pressure of five atmospheres. A sound, rather dry champagne is said to
be one of the best of remedies for impaired digestion.

                        Good and Poor Champagne.

Good champagne throws up for a long time after being opened a continuous
stream of small, sparkling bubbles of gas:

                 “Each sunset ray, that mixed by chance
                   With the wine’s diamond, showed
                 How sunbeams may be taught to dance.”

Even after hours of exposure, when it has lost all its excess of
carbonic acid, good champagne still retains the characteristic flavor of
true wine, while an inferior sparkling wine becomes, after exposure,
almost as insipid as a mixture of sugar and water. The best are made
from the first pressings of the grape. Those made from a third, fourth
or fifth pressing require the addition of sugar and are cloying and far
inferior in flavor. Imitation champagnes are made by sweetening any
ordinary still wines or cider and charging them with carbonic acid gas.

                             MALT LIQUORS.

Malt liquors, properly so called, should be made only of malted barley,
hops, yeast and water, but other materials are also used. PORTER is a
beer of a high percentage of alcohol and made from malt dried at a high
temperature, which gives it its dark color. ALE is pale beer with
considerable alcohol and made of pale malt, with more hop extract than
porter.

As every per cent. of sugar in the malt yields by fermentation about
half a per cent. of alcohol, it is evident that ale, porter, and lager
beer are stronger or weaker, as more or less malt is used in making
them.

                           ALCOHOL IN BEERS.

BEERS are stimulating from their alcohol and refreshing from their
carbonic acid, besides being tonic and somewhat nutritive. The oil of
the hops gives them aroma and the lupulin they contain soothes the
nerves. Their taste is vinous, sweetish, and bitter at the same time.
The quantity of alcohol in malt liquors was given by Prof. Englehardt,
as the result of analyses made for the N. Y. State Board of Health, in
1885, as follows.

                                              Per cent
                                                of
                                                alcohol
                                                by
                                                weight.

               Lager,  average    192 samples 3.754

               Ale        “       199 samples 4.622

               Porter     ”        70 samples 4.462

               Weiss Beer “        28 samples 2.356

                          Beer Adulterations.

It has been popularly supposed that beer is much adulterated. But the
result of many analyses made by Mr. C. A. Crampton, for the Department
of Agriculture at Washington, last year, show him “That beer is as free
from adulteration as most other articles of consumption, and more so
than some.” The analyst found that, practically, no foreign bitters
other than hops were used; but he also found that nearly one quarter of
the samples analyzed contained, as a preservative, the unwholesome
salicylic acid. This powerful drug is also largely used in the
manufacture of cheap wines, etc., and the practice should be rigidly
prohibited.

GINGER ALE is made by fermenting sweetened water, to which extract of
ginger has been added, to such a degree as to generate carbonic acid gas
and become effervescent. It is a healthful and agreeable beverage,
containing some alcohol and being slightly stimulant.

GOOD CIDER contains 3 to 5 per cent. of alcohol. It is made from the
fermented juice of apples. Many grown people acquired their fondness for
cider on the “Old Farm” in childhood. It is sold by grocers in bulk, and
is also bottled extensively and sold as “Champagne cider,” and quite
often as champagne.

                           DISTILLED LIQUORS.

The disagreeable taste of freshly distilled ardent spirits is due to the
presence of fusil oil and other empyreumatic substances, which time
alone can transform into harmless ethers which smell and taste
agreeably, and produce an exhilaration over and above that of the
alcohol which holds them in solution. Spirits can be distilled from any
vegetable matter which will yield alcohol, yet many substances yield
only a rasping, nauseous or flavorless liquor, which age does not
improve. To some of these products, artificial flavors and color are
given and the imitation articles are thus placed on the market. But true
whiskey, brandy, etc., have a specific and original flavor of their own,
and contain vegetable oils and acids.

                          Alcohol in Liquors.

The following table shows the proportion of alcohol (by volume) in the
various liquors.

                                         Volume of
                                           Alcohol,
                                           per
                                           cent.

                    Cognac Brandy        55 to 70

                    Arrack, made from    60 to 61
                    Rice

                    Whiskey, American    60

                      “      Scotch      50 to 51

                      ”      Irish       50

                             Rum         49-7

                             Gin         47-8

BRANDY.—This is made from wine; that from white grapes is preferred and
it requires about seven bottles of wine to make one of brandy. Even the
best Cognac is burning and rough until kept for two or three years, and
it improves with increased age, until, when thirty or forty years old,
it develops a flavor somewhat similar to that of vanilla.

WHISKEY is a spirit distilled either from fermented malt, rye, barley,
oats, wheat or corn. The very best and sweetest grain is only used for
making good whiskey. American whiskey is more easily obtained pure than
perhaps any spirituous liquor and is therefore more reliable in this
country. The name whiskey is a corruption of the Erse and Irish word
_Usquebaugh_, “Water of Life,” the French _Eau de Vie_.

RUM is made from distilled molasses and skimmings from the boiling
sugar.

GIN is distilled from unmalted grain, the product being rectified and
flavored with juniper berries.

                            Favorite Brands.

CHAMPAGNES come in quarts and pints, _Sec_ or “Dry,” “Extra Dry,” etc.
Among favorite Brands are those of Heidsieck, Mumm, Roederer, Cliquot,
Bouché, Morizet, Pommery, Delbeck, etc.; the AMERICAN Champagnes of
California, Urbanna, Pleasant Valley, etc., besides various imitation
sparkling wines. Among favorite CLARETS are St. Julien, Medoc, St.
Emillion, St. Estephe, Floirac, Pontet Canet, Chateaux Margaux, Lafitte,
La Rose, etc.; also the SAUTERNES and WHITE WINES of Graves; Barsac,
Chateaux, Yquem, Latour, etc. There are the Johannisberger, Hockheimer,
Rüdesheimer, Marcobrunner of the RHINE; the ITALIEN Capri, Falerno and
Chianti; Port, Sherry and Madeira of various brands; and Claret, Port,
Sherry, Muscatel, Angelica, Tokay, and other vintages of AMERICAN MAKE.

CORDIALS include Anisette, Benedictine, Curaçao, Chartreuse, Maraschino,
Kirschwasser, Kummel, Chocolate, Ginger, Raspberry, Rock and Rye, and
Absynthe. There are Ales, Porter, Stout, Lager Beer, Peach and Apple
cider, Orgeat, Soda and Sarsaparilla. Favorite Brandies are those of
Otard, Hennessy, Martelle, Robin, Seignette, Dupin, and good California
Brandy; also Blackberry, Cherry, Ginger, Peach and Cider Brandies.
Besides scores of fine AMERICAN WHISKEYS, there are the SCOTCH Thistle
and IRISH Cruiskeen Lawn; Old Tom, London, Holland and Geneva GINS; St.
Croix, Jamaica and N. E. RUMS. Many Grocers keep also a supply of
NATURAL and ARTIFICIAL MINERAL WATERS, as the Congress, Hathorn, etc.,
of Saratoga; Carlsbad, Seltzer, Clysmic, Vichy, Apollonaris, Williams
Quelle, Lithia, Hunyadi; and a variety of Bitter Waters.

                          Transcriber’s Notes

 Printed          Corrected        Page
 Tarter           Tartar              3 Cream of Tartar
 Marmelades       Marmalades          3 Marmalades
 molases          molasses            5 molasses and whale oil.
 SELF-RAISING     SELF-RAISING,      14 wheat granulated, SELF-RAISING,
 VERMICILLI       VERMICELLI         17 VERMICELLI, SPAGHETTI.
 disagreeble      disagreeable       18 is very disagreeable,
 peeple           people             27 but some people seem
 FIRSTS’          FIRSTS”            30 FIRSTS” must be a grade
 semi transparent semi-transparent   33 and is semi-transparent before
 exhilerating     exhilarating       36 its exhilarating properties
 piminto          pimento            41 oil pressed out, with pimento
 unground         unground.          41 sold whole or unground.
 potatoe          potato             47 tuber like the potato;
 crystalize       crystallize        49 crystallize the grape sugar
 Seives           Sieves             58 Sieves, Feather Dusters,
 Lauguedoc        Languedoc          60 of Bordeaux and Languedoc.
 Margeaux         Margaux            60 Margaux, Latour, and many
 unwholsome       unwholesome        62 unwholesome salicylic acid.
 heathful         healthful          63 It is a healthful and
 Cogñac           Cognac             63 Cognac Brandy
 Cogñac           Cognac             64 Cognac is burning and rough
 Heidseick        Heidsieck          64 are those of Heidsieck, Mumm
 Rudescheimer     Rüdesheimer        64 Rüdesheimer, Marcobrunner of the
 Curaçoa          Curaçao            64 Benedictine, Curaçao, Chartreuse
 Kirchwasser      Kirshwasser        64 Maraschino, Kirschwasser, Kummel
 Chocolat         Chocolate          64 Chocolate, Ginger, Raspberry,
 ariety           variety            64 variety of Bitter Waters.

On page 59, under Grocers’ Sundries, two newlines and a blank line were
removed before “Borax”.

Some irregular spellings have been retained.

End of Project Gutenberg's Grocers' Goods, by Frederick Bartlett Goddard