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COFFEE, BURNT (the French "Gloria")
This coffee should be served in small cups, and be made as strong and clear as possible, and sweetened almost to a syrup. At the last moment a little brandy should be poured gently over it with a spoon, fire set to it, and when the spirit is partly consumed, the flame blown out, and the coffee drunk quite hot. Allow a cupful for each person. Probable cost, 6d. per cup.
A demitasse of syrupy sweet coffee finished with flaming brandy. The whole thing hinges on the coffee being strong enough to stand up to sugar and spirit, and on the flame being extinguished before drinking.
- Strength"As strong as possible" means a brew well above ordinary breakfast strength, which would disappear entirely under the sugar. The recipe gives no ratio, so any figure is a modern estimate.
- The sugar"Sweetened almost to a syrup" is not exaggeration: figure 2 to 3 teaspoons per small cup, stirred until fully dissolved while the coffee is still very hot. Undissolved sugar will sit at the bottom and the drink will taste thin at the top.
- Brandy quantityThe original gives none. A scant tablespoon (about 15 ml) per cup is the working amount — enough to light, not enough to drown the coffee once part of it burns off.
- Warming the spiritCold brandy poured from the bottle often will not catch. Warming the spoonful briefly over the coffee or in a small pan raises enough vapour to light; the flame burns the vapour, not the liquid.
- Floating itPouring "gently over it with a spoon" is the technique that makes this work — the brandy must lie on the surface rather than mix in. Hold the back of a spoon just above the coffee and let the spirit run down it.
- Flame safetyLight it away from anything overhead, keep the bottle well back from the cup, and blow the flame out once the spirit is partly consumed, as directed. A burning alcohol flame is nearly invisible in daylight; a metal lid or saucer laid over the cup smothers it reliably.
- CupsSmall cups means demitasse, 2 to 3 fl oz, and preferably thick-walled or glass with a handle. A thin porcelain teacup will get uncomfortably hot to hold, and a wide cup lets the flame spread further than you want.
- CostSixpence a cup was not trivial — this was an after-dinner flourish for guests rather than everyday coffee.
Gloria is the standard French term for coffee laced with spirit — usually brandy or eau-de-vie — and it turns up in nineteenth-century French usage as a café-and-cognac served at the end of a meal, the burnt or flamed version being the showier form. Cassell's appears to treat it as one of the recognised ways of taking the drink rather than as a novelty. The technique belongs to the same family as brûlot, the flamed brandy-and-coffee preparations that spread from France to Creole New Orleans, and to the older habit of burning spirit to soften its rawness: the spirit is only partly consumed in the flame, leaving sweetness behind. Its appearance in an English household dictionary reflects how thoroughly late-Victorian dining borrowed French service at the table's end.