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6. (a) An Americano

(b) Negroni.

7. False: it was invented about 1870 by a Milan café-proprietor called Gaspare Campari.

8. The Caribbean—Port of Spain, Trinidad.

9. (a) Fernet Branca

(b) Underberg.

10. Quinine. Such drinks were and often still are thought to have tonic and prophylactic virtues.

GIN

1. Perhaps an abbreviation of “geneva” from Dutch “genever”= “gin,” following Old French “genèvre” after Latin “juniperus”= “juniper,” the shrub or low tree whose berries are used in flavouring gin. The form “geneva” arose from confusion with the name of the Swiss city. I think it more likely that “gin” is an abbreviation of the English word, of which “giniper” and “ginnuper” are early spellings.

2. Thomas Carlyle. That Germanic capital should have given it away.

3. T. S. Eliot, at a women’s luncheon club in the US in the 1950s. He may have been thinking of Byron’s remark, “Gin and water is the source of all my inspiration,” another playful allusion to gin’s disreputability.

4. The flavour comes from flavourings, substances added to a pure spirit, principally juniper but also coriander and usually cassia bark and orris root, whatever they are. In contrast, the flavour of brandy and whisky comes ultimately from the grape and grain they are made from.

5. At Leiden in Holland in the seventeenth century, for medicinal purposes—like every other tipple in the book. Gin was supposed to be beneficial to the urinary system, and English gin is perhaps still taken in moderate quantities to alleviate gout.

6. Dutch or Hollands gin is made from malted barley, maize and rye. The English distillers are rather evasive. Grain, they helpfully say, also “vegetable matter,” also, less often, molasses. But all the original flavour is taken out anyway.

7. Because of the excellence of its springs or wells, such as Clerkenwell and Goswell. Water is a most important constituent of alcoholic drinks. Or was—the statement is less true today, with the distiller or brewer in control of the chemistry of his water-supply.

8. Gin and Angostura bitters—score a quarter of a mark. For specifying Plymouth gin—half a mark. For confining the bitters to just a few drops—three-quarters. For leaving it to the drinker’s taste—a full mark.

9. No time at all. “You can make gin in the morning and drink it in the afternoon,” as they used to say.

10. Pimm’s No. 1.

LIQUEURS

1. Briefly, and broadly, Heering is a sweetened spirit flavoured with cherries, Kirsch is an unsweetened fruit brandy or “white alcohol” distilled from a mash of cherries.

2. At the meet before a fox-hunt, where it forms the stirrup-cup.

3. Well, the defeat of the Stuart cause, but the next most important was probably that after it Bonnie Prince Charlie is supposed to have given the recipe for Drambuie to one of his supporters as a gesture of gratitude before departing into exile.

4. Orange Curaçao, the generic name for a liqueur flavoured with orange-peel and orange in colour; the others are brands, in fact Grand Marnier is a brand of Orange Curaçao.

5. Because both Izarra liqueur (green and yellow varieties) and the game of pelota belong to the Basque country.

6. Set light to it, apparently. There will not be much combustion and the result, which chars the coffee-beans slightly, is quite drinkable (and crunchable).

7. (a) Crème de menthe (France).

(b) Calvados (France). Only half a mark for Applejack (US).

(c) Cassis (France).

(d) Kümmel (Holland, Germany).

(e) Mirabelle (France), Quetsch (Germany), Slivovitz (Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia).

The above is not a complete list.

8. (a) Kitró (the Greek islands of Naxos and Ios).

(b) Medronho (Portugal).

(c) Eau de Noix (France).

(d) Van der Hum (South Africa). The naartjie is related to the mandarin and tangerine.

(e) Forbidden Fruit (US). The shaddock is related to the grapefruit.

The above is not necessarily a complete list.

9. Cointreau, gin, lemon-juice. White of egg too if you want a fizz.

10. Catherine de Medici of Florence.

RUM

1. Not certain. Once