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Flavors Used in Making Brandy (UNDER this head will be found)

UNDER this head will be found a description of all the various aromas so necessary to aid the manufacturer in giving a perfect imitation of genuine French brandy. Various flavors are given in our recipes, in order to furnish the several characteristics of the genuine article; for instance: oil of Cognac, butyric ether, argol or crude tartar, œnanthic ether, acetic ether, acetic acid, wine vinegar, and raspberry syrup, are all used to give that distinguishing vinous flavor so apparent in fine brandy. Hickory nut infusion, almond oil, torrefied prunes, orris, neroly, vanilla, raisin spirit, and prune spirit, all give an imitation of the fine nutty flavor, characteristic in brandy. Sugar, syrup, or honey, destroys the fiery taste of the alcohol, while tannin powder, green and black tea, catechu and kino are used to imitate the astringent quality in brandy, and musk and ambergris yield a fine aroma. The best of brandy owes its delicate aroma to a peculiar oily smoothness, produced by the action of tartaric acid upon the pure alcohol used as a basis. Of course we cannot furnish all the various combinations of the aromas hereafter mentioned, to do so would fill ten volumes the size of this book, but we propose to give a description of each, and explain their various properties, and with this and the aid of the excellent recipes already given, must the manufacturer be guided in experimenting upon new combinations. Our system of imitating Brandy is the "French System," and is the only method based upon scientific principles. It will be observed that we first take "pure spirit" as a basis, and then unite with it ingredients which represent all those constituents, and those only, which are found by chemical analysis to exist in the foreign liquor we seek to imitate.