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COOL CUP (another way) (Pour a pint of claret)
Pour a pint of claret and a tumblerful of water into a large cup. Mix with them two table-spoonfuls of finely-sifted sugar, a salt-spoonful of powdered cinnamon, a quarter of a small nutmeg grated, and the thin rind of half a small lemon. Put a sprig of borage or a little cucumber-rind with it for two or three minutes before using. Sufficient for a quart cup. Probable cost, 3d., exclusive of the claret.
A Victorian claret cup: red wine lengthened with water, lightly spiced and briefly perfumed with borage or cucumber. It is assembled, not cooked, so the only real decisions are proportion, sweetness and how long the aromatics sit in it.
- "Cup" means the drink and the vesselA cup here is a class of cold wine punch, and the "large cup" is simply a large serving vessel, jug or pitcher, that the mixture is made up in. Any 1.5-quart pitcher does the job.
- TumblerfulA Victorian tumbler runs roughly 8 to 10 fl oz. With a pint of claret (a British pint, 20 fl oz) that is about 28 to 30 fl oz of liquid, somewhat short of the quart (40 fl oz) cup the recipe says it is sufficient for -- the balance made up on serving, with ice.
- ClaretClaret is the British term for red Bordeaux. A dry, medium-bodied red with modest oak works; anything jammy or high in alcohol will sit oddly against the sugar and spice.
- Finely-sifted sugarFinely powdered and sifted sugar; caster sugar is the nearest modern equivalent. Granulated will do if you dissolve it in the water first.
- Salt-spoonfulA salt-spoon holds about a quarter teaspoon. That much cinnamon in a quart is assertive; start with half and taste.
- Lemon rind onlyPare the thin yellow zest with a peeler and leave the white pith behind, which turns the cup bitter over even a short steep.
- The two or three minutes matterBorage and cucumber rind give a clean cucumber-melon scent quickly and a green, vegetal bitterness slowly. Fish them out on time rather than leaving them in the jug.
- BorageBorage is easily grown and sometimes sold with soft herbs; the blue flowers are the usual garnish, floated or frozen into ice. The recipe itself offers a little cucumber rind as the alternative.
- Serving and yieldAbout a quart, or four modest glasses. Chill the wine and water beforehand and add ice at the last moment, since ice melting in the jug will thin an already watered drink.
Cool cups belong to the long English tradition of wine cups — claret, hock, cider and champagne cups — cold, diluted, lightly spiced drinks served through the summer at picnics, cricket matches, garden parties and balls, where something weaker than wine and more interesting than water was wanted by the jugful. The pattern is always the same: wine, water or soda, sugar, an aromatic, and a green garnish. Borage is the signature of the type; it is generally traced to the old belief that the herb cheered the spirits, and it survives today in the sprig sometimes floated in a jug of Pimm's. The costing — threepence, exclusive of the claret — prices the groceries a housekeeper had to buy and leaves the cellar out of the reckoning.