Beverages
Rum of sorts is made wherever sugar cane flourishes, often for purely local use. In world terms, by far the larges producer is Puerto Rico. All styles are made there, including some unusual añejos (aged) rums. However, white rum predominates, typified by Ron Bacardi, progenitor of Cuba rum, whose largest distllery is in Puerto Rico. The next most important rum island is Jamaica. Jamacian rum is traditionally double distilled in pot-stills and distinctly pungent, but Jamaica also produces light white rums by continuous distillation.
White rum is best for punches, daiquiris and other cocktails, while the stronger and darker rums are used in grogs, flamed dishes, cooking and pâtisserie. Old rums cam be drunk as liqueurs. There are many uses for rum in cooking, from soaking sponge cakes, to flavouring pancake batters, dessert creams, mousses, zabaglione, sorberts, fruit salad, etc., or sprinkled on babas and savarins, flaming pancakes and omelettes and macerating crystallized or dried fruit. Rum also combines well with sweet potatoes, pineapple and bananasand the meat and fish dishes that these accompany (pork, sautéed chicken, turkey, scampi or monkfish kabobs, kidneys, roast duck, etc.). The aroma enhances sauces and marinades. rum is suitable for flaming only very tender cuts of meat, such as offal and spring chicken.
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Grain whisky is made from a mixture of any malted and unmalted cereals. A long maturation period is the key to the mellow flavour of Scotch whisky. Law requires that it be matured in oak casks in Scotland for a minimum of three year before becoming Scotch whisky. In fact most Scotch whisky is matured for five to six years or lomger. In the case of a blended whisky, law states the youngest be printed on the label.
Canadian whisky, made from cereals, is marketed under numerous names and has a fairly light taste. Maize (corn) is found inlarge proportions in the mixtures, which are fermented under the action of the malted barley as for other whiskies.
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Espresso coffee is a black Italian-style coffee. It is also very popular in Austria, where it is usually known as moka, even if it is not made from mocha coffee beans. It is made in a special pressurized apparatus by forcing steam from boiling water through the ground coffee. The Italians have also produced cappuccino coffee, so called because of its pale brown colour, reminiscent of the robes of the Capuchin monks. This consists of strong coffee to which frothy cream or milk is added. It is sometimes served with a sprinkle of chocolate on top.
In South America, where coffee growing was introduced in 1720, the best varieties are exported, but large quantities of tinto (strong black very sweet coffee) are consumed there. In Argentina and Mexico, people also drink a type of coffee that has been roasted with sugar and has a caramel flavour. In the West Indies, coffee is flavoured with vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, etc. Nowadays, two species of coffee tree provide 95% of world production. They are coffea arabica and coffea robusta. Arabica coffees, having beans that are elongated, oval and flat, are mild and aromatic and generally considered to be the best. They come mainly from Brazil but also from Arabia, Ethiopia and India (Mocha). Thet are also grown in Mexico and Costa Rica, but although this coffee is full of flavour, the quality is not as good.
The Stimulating effect that coffee has on the body is due to the alkaliod called caffeine. In hid "Treatise on Modern Stimulants", Balzac remarked: "Coffee sets the blood in motion, so that the driving force springs from it. This stimulation speeds up digestion, takes away the desire for sleep and enables one to exercise one's mental faculties for a longer time." The 19th-century Larousse states that coffee is particularly indicated for men of letters, soldiers, sailors and all workers that have to stay in hot surroundings, lastly, to all inhabitants of a country where cretinism is rife.
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About 1830 the ban on the importation of rum into France from the West Indies was lifted. It had been prohibited so as not to compete with Cognac. At the same time a fashion for English things introduced the vogue for punch. A forerunner of the cocktail, it has been made according to various recipes. English punch consists of boiling tea poured over slices of lemon, with sugar, cinnamon and rum. In French punch, the quantity of tea is smaller and the rum is sometimes replaced by Brady, poured in last and flamed. All the other world punches are simular, some using wines, or other hard liquers.
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Water-based drinks, which may be still or sparkling, hot or cold, include lemonades, sodas and syrups, broths, infusions, tea, coffe, chocolate and chicory. Drinks of vegetable origin may or may not be alcoholic, for example, fruit and vegetable juices, wine, cider, beer, perry, etc. Drinking habits may vary considerably depending on the customs of a country and the latitude.
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