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Tannin
luble in alcohol. Dissolved in 8 or 10 parts alcohol it forms the celebrated pineapple essence. From 20 to 25 drops of this essence, added to a pound of sugar, containing a little citric acid, imparts to the mixture a strong taste of pineapple. This essence is much employed as a flavoring substance by manufacturers of domestic brandy; it also imparts a delicious flavor to rum, arrack, punch, etc. Butyric ether is used in the same proportion as the others. (See "Butyric Acid," "Fruit Essences," and "Rum Essence.") Black and Green Tea.
Tea, either green or black, gives a pleasant astringent flavor to an imitation brandy, and is much used by dealers in that article. Use in the following manner: to each oz. of tea, add one pint of boiling water; let it infuse for a few minutes, and when cool strain. Eight oz. prepared in this manner is sufficient for 100 gals. brandy. Tannin.
Tannin, or tannic acid, is made from powdered galls, oak bark, etc. The term tannin was originally applied to a principle, or principles existing in many vegetables, having a very astringent taste; as obtained, however, from different plants, it was found to exhibit some difference of properties, and chemists have recognized but two kinds, one existing in the skin of the grape, oak bark, galls, etc., distinguished by producing a bluish black precipitate with per-salts of iron; and the other existing in Peruvian bark, catechu, etc., and characterized by producing a greenish, gray, or dark olive precipitate with the same salts. The former is the substance known in this work as tannin, and used by us to give the astrin-