How to Make the Drinks Violet Cup, Tom Collins and the History Behind Them

Germany has some of the most unique drinks the world over, but also some of the most delicious. The stories behind them are equally as delightful. Violet Cup for example, is a flower cup whose origin is Germany. The cup made out of fresh violets has to be made in March or April, when the violet blossoms first open in the spring sun. Violets were incidentally Napoleon Bonaparte and his wife Josephine Beauharnais' favorite flowers. The not particularly faithful and not particularly innocent Josephine loved the "flowers of innocence" as flowers, perfume, dessert with sugar, syrup and drink. At one of her intoxicating celebrations she threw violet bouquets into the wine and therefore formed the basis for Violet Cup, which was only perfected later in the Palatine area. To make close to 6 portions of Violet Cup you need:

1 large wineglass (200ml / 7 fl oz)

Fill of violet blossoms (without the stalks)

Juice of 2 oranges

2 bottles dry white wine

100g (4oz / ½ cup) sugar

1 bottle champagne or sparkling dry white wine

Wash the fresh violet blossoms well, pat dry, put into a glass bowl with the orange juice and one bottle of wine. Cover and set aside for 3 hours. Then pour through a sieve, mix with sugar dissolved in a little water, pour into a punch bowl, add the second bottle of wine and add the chilled champagne directly before serving. Sprinkle a few violet blossoms into the cup to garnish. This is a very popular drink at events like garden parties.

Not the case however, for the long drink with gin from England, the Tom Collins. Collinses are not shaken, but prepared directly in the glass. James Cook, who sailed around the world, had his fun with the lemons, of which this drink contains plenty. In 1776 he wrote a little book about the "Preservation of Health on Long Sea Voyages" and was given a gold medal by the Royal Scientific Society for his "praise of the lemon." As a practical consequence of Cook's work on the health of sailors, as of 1795, every British seaman was given a daily ration of lemon juice on the orders of the admiralty. This was how the sailors got their nickname "limeys," which is still in use today. To make a Tom Collins all you need to do is have:

4 finely crushed ice cubes

Juice of ½ lemon

1 bar spoon sugar syrup

5cl (3 tablespoons) dry gin

Soda water to fill glass

To garnish: 1 slice of lemon

You'll want to mix ice, lemon juice, sugar syrup and gin in a large tumbler. Top up with soda water. Garnish with a slice of lemon and serve with a straw.