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Sleeping Cup
Boil half a dozen cloves, half a dozen coriander-seeds, and half an inch of stick cinnamon in half a pint of water till the liquor is pleasantly flavoured. Strain it, put it into a tumbler, and stir briskly into it a quarter of a pint of fine old Jamaica rum. Add sugar to taste, and serve.
A Victorian nightcap: a spiced infusion cut with rum. Nothing here is difficult, but the proportions are stiffer than they look on the page.
- Imperial measuresHalf a pint imperial is 10 fl oz, about 1¼ US cups; a quarter pint is 5 fl oz, a scant ⅔ cup. That is roughly three modern shots of rum in a single tumbler.
- Serving sizeThe recipe is written for one glass and reads as a single nightcap, but at 5 fl oz of spirit it is more sensibly split between two, or made with half the rum.
- Reduce as you infuseSimmering whole spices in water for the several minutes needed to draw out flavour will cook away some of the liquid. Start with a little extra water, or cover the pan, so you finish near the half-pint you began with.
- Whole spices onlyCloves, coriander seed and a cinnamon stick are all used whole and strained out. Ground spice will not strain cleanly and turns the drink cloudy and gritty.
- Bruise the corianderCracking the coriander seeds lightly with the flat of a knife before they go in the water gets far more out of them in the same few minutes.
- "Fine old Jamaica rum"A dark, pot-still aged Jamaican rum is the intended thing and is still widely sold. Spiced or heavily sweetened rums will fight the infusion.
- Warm the glassA quarter pint of room-temperature spirit poured into hot liquid drops the temperature sharply. Pre-warming a heatproof tumbler helps, since the boiled infusion suggests the drink was meant to be taken warm.
The "sleeping cup" belongs to the long British habit of the nightcap — a warm, spiced, spirituous drink taken at bedtime, of a piece with the older posset and caudle, which were milk- or ale-based and often taken as much for health as for pleasure. By the later nineteenth century Jamaican rum was a staple of the British grocer's shelf, a direct product of Caribbean colonial trade. Infusing the spices in plain water rather than wine keeps the cost down while letting the rum carry the drink.