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Ching Ching
Fill a glass two-thirds full of shaved ice; add three or four lumps of sugar, the juice of a large orange and a few drops each of essence of cloves and peppermint.
A shaved-ice cooler built in the glass, from the era when temperance drinks borrowed both their names and their construction from the bar. The whole thing hinges on how heavy a hand you use with the two essences.
- Essences, not essential oilsPeriod "essence of cloves" and "essence of peppermint" were flavourings cut with alcohol, closer to a modern extract than to the essential oils sold today. Use culinary peppermint and clove extract; undiluted clove oil in particular is far more concentrated than anything the writer had in mind.
- How few drops is a fewStart with one drop of each in a single glass and taste before adding more. Clove and peppermint both bully orange juice, and once the drink is over-scented there is no fixing it.
- Lump sugarA period lump ran roughly a teaspoon of sugar, though sizes varied, so three or four lumps is somewhere around 3 to 4 teaspoons of granulated. Sugar syrup gives a more even result if you want the drink sweet from the first sip.
- Shaved iceShaved or finely cracked ice, not cubes: it chills fast and dilutes as it goes, which is where the length of the drink comes from. A blender or a canvas bag and a mallet both do the job.
- Orange juiceOne large orange yields about 1/3 to 1/2 cup, which is the entire liquid content here. Use juice squeezed to order; the drink is essentially undiluted citrus and ice melt.
- YieldOne glass, as written. It scales directly, but mix the essences into the sugar and juice first when making several so the flavouring is evenly divided.
- ServingA spoon and a straw, and drink it before the ice collapses.
The name is very likely the pidgin toast "chin-chin" -- generally traced to Chinese qing qing, picked up by sailors and traders in the treaty ports and current in English as a jocular way of saying "cheers." Spirituous versions of a drink under this name circulated in period bar books; this one leaves the spirit out, with the flavouring essences carrying the interest.