Speaker 1: Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
Speaker 1: with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Daffy's Elixir was one of the most popular patent medicines
Speaker 2: in Britain during the eighteenth century, and it was produced
Speaker 2: for nearly three hundred years, which is amazing considering these
Speaker 2: types of products were usually often just a flash in
Speaker 2: a pan. But what makes Daffies different than others we've
Speaker 2: talked about this season, other than perhaps its longevity, is
Speaker 2: that its ingredients list was not a secret initially maybe,
Speaker 2: but it didn't stay that way for very long, and
Speaker 2: the manufacturers plural seemed to be okay with that. And
Speaker 2: then there's the question of ownership. Who thought of it
Speaker 2: and whose recipe was the original? As the story goes,
Speaker 2: it was probably created by clergyman Thomas Daffy of red Myle,
Speaker 2: Leicestershire in sixteen forty seven. They named it Elixer Salutes
Speaker 2: or Elixir of Health, and things took off from there,
Speaker 2: not only with dozens of different formulas, but also published
Speaker 2: recipes to help you make some in your own home.
Speaker 2: That's unheard of. Welcome to Criminalia. I'm a Rage Marky.
Speaker 1: And I'm Holly Fried. It was a novel idea to
Speaker 1: publish ingredients and recipes for patent medicines in newspapers and pamphlets.
Speaker 1: Most products didn't even put that information on the label,
Speaker 1: but in the nineteenth century, recipes began to be widely
Speaker 1: distributed in places like household management books, and that included
Speaker 1: Elixer salutes. But these recipes did not always have an
Speaker 1: associated name or source. So who should claim themselves as
Speaker 1: the sole manufacturer of the genuine elixir of health? Well,
Speaker 1: that's complicated, and we're going to talk about why. During
Speaker 1: this time of patent medicine popularity, there were, of course rivals,
Speaker 1: there were counterfeitters, and each reclaimed to consumers that the
Speaker 1: other was of quote spurious imitation. Ownership of a recipe
Speaker 1: could be claimed by its inventor or by anyone any relative,
Speaker 1: an employee, or a business partner in the manufacturing company.
Speaker 1: Basically legit or not. Anyone who had access to the
Speaker 1: recipe could say that they owned it, and there wasn't
Speaker 1: actually much to be done to correct those falsehoods once
Speaker 1: they happened, which makes the historical record on Elixer salutis
Speaker 1: a bit of an adventure.
Speaker 2: Manufactured and sold for roughly three hundred years. The elixir
Speaker 2: became popularly known as Daffy's Elixir and was one of
Speaker 2: the longest surviving and one of the most successful of
Speaker 2: all patent medicines. So let's start at the beginning. When
Speaker 2: Thomas Daffy died in sixteen eighty, his recipe stayed in
Speaker 2: the Daffy family, but not for long. It was such
Speaker 2: a popular product that herbalists and chemists had begun making
Speaker 2: their own versions for them their apothecary shelves, even though
Speaker 2: their ingredients often bore little to no resemblance to the
Speaker 2: Thomas Daffy original. It's believed only three people knew the
Speaker 2: original recipe after Daffy's death, his daughter Catherine, and two
Speaker 2: other family members, Anthony and Daniel Daffy. Daniel was his son,
Speaker 2: and Anthony was very likely a nephew, probably not a son.
Speaker 2: Records dating back three hundred years can be a little
Speaker 2: bit fuzzy sometimes, Both, though, were apothecaries in Nottingham.
Speaker 1: Way back in the historical timeline when the product was
Speaker 1: first introduced. Daffy's Elixir was listed in the Oxford English
Speaker 1: Dictionary as a remedy for toothaches, in particular for teething babies,
Speaker 1: and its origin was listed as seventeenth century English clergyman
Speaker 1: Thomas Daffy, and maybe he intended it to be for
Speaker 1: toothaches or not. That's actually hard to know because its
Speaker 1: usage changes over time, as we're going to talk about.
Speaker 1: By sixteen eighty though, around the same time of Thomas's death,
Speaker 1: Thomas Daffy's name was replaced with Anthony Daffy in the OED.
Speaker 1: Close to the turn of the eighteenth century, Anthony moved
Speaker 1: to London and began to advertise Elixer Salutis as Daffy's
Speaker 1: Elixir Salutis. He began to market it beyond word of
Speaker 1: mouth by distributing pamphlets listing the patent medicine as a
Speaker 1: laxative rather than a remedy for toothaches. It was nicknamed
Speaker 1: quote the famous purging cordial. Anthony's advertising brought it out
Speaker 1: of the shadows and into the national and eventually international market,
Speaker 1: and people began using it for all sorts of things.
Speaker 2: When Anthony died, the secret recipe became an open secret.
Speaker 2: It wasn't very secret before his death, though, to the
Speaker 2: chagrin of the Daffi family.
Speaker 1: Quote.
Speaker 2: Despite all the efforts of Anthony Daffy and his family
Speaker 2: to keep it to themselves, it still got out. Before
Speaker 2: seventeen hundred, there are published records of more than one
Speaker 2: version of the Elixir, but then over the next two
Speaker 2: hundred years, many versions were published in dozens of household
Speaker 2: medicine books, pharmacopeias, and books of household management.
Speaker 1: After Anthony's death, it's believed that his widow, Eleanor, continued
Speaker 1: to market the product until their daughter, also named Catherine,
Speaker 1: took over the business in seventeen oh seven. Probably this
Speaker 1: is a turn in the elixir journey that is a
Speaker 1: little bit ill defined, but we do know that in
Speaker 1: the early seventeen hundreds, the Elixir began being advertised widely
Speaker 1: in not only local pamphlets, but also in emerging national
Speaker 1: newspapers and journals.
Speaker 2: Anthony and Eleanor's daughter Katherine is considered responsible for placing
Speaker 2: an ad, well sort of an ad you'll see what
Speaker 2: we mean in the Postboy in seventeen oh seven, or
Speaker 2: maybe very early seventeen oh eight, telling the origin story
Speaker 2: of the tonic, which will paraphrase, and it went a
Speaker 2: bit like this that during the inventor Thomas Daffy's lifetime.
Speaker 2: The elixir had been sold by his son Daniel in
Speaker 2: apothecary at Nottingham. The ad claimed his kin, Anthony Daffy,
Speaker 2: also knew the secret ingredients and preparation. It's also said
Speaker 2: that at the time Anthony's widow, Eleanor, disputed Thomas Daffy's
Speaker 2: daughter's right to name herself proprietus of the elixir, though
Speaker 2: we don't know why she felt that way, or why
Speaker 2: it would even be written in marketing materials, but there
Speaker 2: it is.
Speaker 1: The new and rapidly growing medium of newspapers offered a
Speaker 1: way to expand the reach of your advertising. Patent medicines,
Speaker 1: or otherwise beyond anything that was previously available, you could
Speaker 1: reach national and international consumers at least potentially. One advertisement,
Speaker 1: placed in an addition of the Manchester Mercury in seventeen
Speaker 1: fifty seven, begins describing the product as a cure quote
Speaker 1: the original elixir so much approved of in both town
Speaker 1: and country, which has performed such number of great cures
Speaker 1: when all other medicines have failed, recommended by several eminent physicians.
Speaker 2: We're going to take a break for a word from
Speaker 2: our sponsors. When we're back. We'll talk about how many
Speaker 2: manufacturers really produced Daffy's Elixir and how many claimed they
Speaker 2: were the.
Speaker 1: Original Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk Diceyan Company, and
Speaker 1: how while they were definitely not the original makers of
Speaker 1: the elixir, they became its number one source.
Speaker 2: By the seventeen twenties, there were at least half a
Speaker 2: dozen different Daffi's Elixir manufacturers competing to be the number
Speaker 2: one seller, names like Ray Rock, Barclay, Bradshaw, Jackson, Swinton, Smith, Staples.
Speaker 2: Throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, all of these
Speaker 2: names came and went as producers of the elixir, but
Speaker 2: one company dominated the others, William and klud Dicey and
Speaker 2: Company of Bow Churchyard in London. By seventeen seventy five
Speaker 2: ish they claimed they had the soul rights of manufacture
Speaker 2: of what was now being called true Daffy's Elixir, though
Speaker 2: there's no official record of anyone having soul rights. There
Speaker 2: is though record that the Daffy family knew there were
Speaker 2: fake versions out there. An advertisement as early as seventeen
Speaker 2: hundred featured the warning quote reader, beware of counterfeiters, for
Speaker 2: they swarm.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about this dominating producer, Dicey in Company, from
Speaker 1: at least the early nineteenth century until the mid twentieth century,
Speaker 1: when it disappears from the market. Most of Daffy's elixir
Speaker 1: sold is thought to have been manufactured by Dices. The
Speaker 1: company saturated the market so well that what had always
Speaker 1: been nicknamed Daffi's was now popularly known as Dicey's, Daffy's, Dicey's, Daffy's.
Speaker 1: The Daffies that became Diceys seems to have first appeared
Speaker 1: during the seventeen twenties, so that's about twenty to thirty
Speaker 1: years after all of those allegedly secret recipes were first produced. DICE's,
Speaker 1: as we mentioned, was just one of many producing the product,
Speaker 1: and people were okay with this. It was generally accepted
Speaker 1: that there was more than one version of their go
Speaker 1: to patent medicine. For an analogy, think of it the
Speaker 1: way we have different brands of say aspirin on the
Speaker 1: market today.
Speaker 2: But by the turn of the nineteenth century, two names
Speaker 2: show up repeatedly when it comes to the elixir and
Speaker 2: its preparation, Dicey Yes and also a brand named Swinton.
Speaker 2: Consumers may not have noticed a difference, but there actually
Speaker 2: was one. Dicey's version was based in senna leaves, while
Speaker 2: Swinton's elixir base was jolip root, and we'll talk about
Speaker 2: how both are part of an early ingredients list. But
Speaker 2: Swinton's Daffy's elixir had one thing in its favor. It
Speaker 2: had a direct link to the Daffy family. And here's how.
Speaker 2: A man named Peter Swinton married Mary Acton around seventeen
Speaker 2: sixty three, and Mary was the niece of Anthony Daffy.
Speaker 2: This Anthony Daffy was the grandson of the Anthony who
Speaker 2: was Thomas Daffy's nephew. It's somewhat confusing because we have
Speaker 2: a lot of similar names, but hang in there with us.
Speaker 2: We'll try to figure it all out. According to records,
Speaker 2: Mary seems to have been the maker of the elixir
Speaker 2: for the Swinton brand until her death in seventeen eighty,
Speaker 2: after which Peter claimed proprietorship of the product. Peter died
Speaker 2: a few years after his wife and left the rights
Speaker 2: to the elixir to his son, who was another Anthony,
Speaker 2: Anthony Daffy Swinton. This Anthony continued to produce and sell
Speaker 2: Swinton's original Daffy's Elixir until roughly eighteen fourteen, and after
Speaker 2: which writes to produce the product appeared to have gone
Speaker 2: to Smith and Company.
Speaker 1: Manufacturing later turned over to Messrs W. Sutton in Company
Speaker 1: of Enfield, Middlesex, who continued to market it throughout the
Speaker 1: later nineteenth century. It remained in production in a similar
Speaker 1: form as in previous years, and we'll get into how
Speaker 1: its ingredients and preparations varied by manufacturer in just a bit.
Speaker 1: Eventually it made its way to the American market, most
Speaker 1: likely through Diceian Company. Prior to the American Revolutionary War,
Speaker 1: the elixir was exported from Britain to colonial America, but
Speaker 1: after eighteen hundred it was manufactured. It appears in Pennsylvania
Speaker 1: by the Diattville Glassworks. Thomas W. Diot, owner of said
Speaker 1: glass works in the eighteen thirties, was well known for
Speaker 1: tempering the bottles for patent medicines that he sold around
Speaker 1: the country.
Speaker 2: We are going to take a break for a word
Speaker 2: from our sponsors now, and when we return, we'll talk
Speaker 2: about the ingredients used to make this elixir and how
Speaker 2: some differed from what was considered the original.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about ingredients like senna
Speaker 1: and jalap and how manufacturers of the elixir over the
Speaker 1: years changed its health claims.
Speaker 2: As we mentioned earlier in the episode, the top two
Speaker 2: producers of this elixir were the Dicey and the Swinton brands.
Speaker 2: Most published recipes that actually had attribution were associated with
Speaker 2: these two specific manufacturer names as well, But one common
Speaker 2: observation of the recipes from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
Speaker 2: was that Daffy's Elixir was very similar to a product
Speaker 2: called tincture of Senna, which was sold by apothecaries and
Speaker 2: druggists during that time. Sena tincture was an herbal remedy
Speaker 2: used to relieve constipation and contained generally the leaves of
Speaker 2: Senna alexandrina in an alcohol base. Its use went way
Speaker 2: back before the time of a patent medicine's craze, but
Speaker 2: it was available around the time many of these wannabe
Speaker 2: Daffy's Elixir manufacturers were busy being wannabes. They could have
Speaker 2: easily read about it, for instance, in Nicholas Culpeper's English
Speaker 2: Physician and Complete Herbal which was written in seventeen eighty nine.
Speaker 1: An early recipe for what was called true Daffy, dating
Speaker 1: to seventeen hundred lists the following ingredients. This was only
Speaker 1: twenty years, mind you, after Thomas Daffy died. Quote aniseed, brandy,
Speaker 1: coconeel ella, campaign, fennel seed, jalla, manna, parsley seed, raisin, rhubarb, saffron, senna,
Speaker 1: and Spanish liquorice. Modern analysis suggests, though they were mostly
Speaker 1: made from alcohol, many forms of the elixir could function
Speaker 1: as a laxative of note. Other older recipes included guwackened
Speaker 1: wood chips, caraway seeds, and on occasion, coriander seeds.
Speaker 2: So laxative that seems plausible toothaches debatable. Let's break down
Speaker 2: these ingredients a bit. Using an alcoholic distillation as an
Speaker 2: ingredient would have helped to preserve the elixir. Aniseed is
Speaker 2: a folk remedy often used for indigestion, so that's on
Speaker 2: brand for a purgative. Jollip, mana, and senna all have
Speaker 2: laxative qualities. Raisins would have added sweetness, but also fiber. Rhubarb,
Speaker 2: like raisins, would also have been a good source of fiber.
Speaker 2: Those other ingredients, some of them may or may not
Speaker 2: have anti inflammatory benefits. Coconeil does not have laxative properties,
Speaker 2: but it's long been used to give things a really
Speaker 2: deep red color. Add those alternative ingredients we mentioned too,
Speaker 2: Guiacum wood chips were historically used to treat syphilis, not constipation,
Speaker 2: and caraway and coriander may have helped with digestive conditions
Speaker 2: like heartburn.
Speaker 1: In later years, the ingredients list differed depending on which
Speaker 1: manufacturer you got your tonic from, but most often contained
Speaker 1: a similar list to that one from seventeen hundred. It
Speaker 1: was really amazingly consistent. The whole thing doesn't sound very tasty. Well.
Speaker 1: It was said to be an acquired taste. Any alcohol
Speaker 1: could be used, but the alcohols of choice for a
Speaker 1: true elixir salutis were gin or brandy. In fact, in
Speaker 1: the eighteen hundreds, when the product was at peak popularity,
Speaker 1: gin was so popular as an ingredient that the name
Speaker 1: Daffies became British slang for Jim.
Speaker 2: Antique. Bottle Collector's ABC magazine published in twenty nineteen that
Speaker 2: they had discovered, at least so far nearly thirty recipes
Speaker 2: for Daffy's elixir across the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries,
Speaker 2: including one that was handwritten, and unlike most other proprietary medicines,
Speaker 2: you could if you wanted to just make them at home.
Speaker 2: There were multiple recipes available to make small batches. The
Speaker 2: Lady's Friend and Family Physical Library, published in seventeen eighty eight,
Speaker 2: notes that quote this is an agreeable purge if there
Speaker 2: is such a thing, and nothing more can be useful
Speaker 2: than to keep it ready made for family use. Modern
Speaker 2: Domestic Cookery and Useful Receipt Book from eighteen twenty nine
Speaker 2: printed another version from William Augustus Henderson called quote the
Speaker 2: true Daffy's elixir, and this was considered by many to
Speaker 2: be the true do it yourself recipe.
Speaker 1: So what's in that homebrew? Henderson's was as follows, quote
Speaker 1: take five ounces of aniseeds, three ounces of fennel seeds,
Speaker 1: four ounces of parsley seeds, six ounces of Spanish liquorice,
Speaker 1: five ounces of senna, one ounce of rhubarb, three ounces
Speaker 1: of ella campaign root, seven ounces of kiln, twenty one
Speaker 1: DRAMs of saffron, six ounces of manna, two pounds of raisins,
Speaker 1: a quarter of an ounce of cocaine, eel and two
Speaker 1: gallons of brandy stone the raisins, slice the mots and
Speaker 1: bruise the jallab, then mix the hole together, and after
Speaker 1: letting them stand close covered for fifteen days, strain out
Speaker 1: the elixir. If you look closely at it, that ingredient
Speaker 1: list isn't too different from what manufacturers were producing, and
Speaker 1: other make it yourself versions that we found contained spirit
Speaker 1: of malt, sac or white wine, and liquorice shred. When
Speaker 1: it came to method, of course, it varied a bit
Speaker 1: among the home recipes as well.
Speaker 2: Analysis of those recipes dating from as early as the
Speaker 2: sixteen eighties, which is shortly after Thomas Daffy's death, through
Speaker 2: eighteen fifty shows there are some ingredients that often overlap,
Speaker 2: but there are three primary ingredients in common. And no,
Speaker 2: it's not the fennel, the raisins and the rhubarb. It's
Speaker 2: the senna, the jallab and the copious amounts of alcohol.
Speaker 2: All of the Daffy's Elixir recipes have a high alcohol content,
Speaker 2: ranging from around twenty five percent to more than fifty
Speaker 2: percent by volume. Among the twenty seven recipes uncovered by
Speaker 2: Antique Bottle Collector, twenty six are different versions, although some
Speaker 2: of those recipes have identical ingredient lists with just differing
Speaker 2: proportions and maybe slightly differing method and also sure transcre
Speaker 2: ryption errors and other mistakes could have been made when
Speaker 2: recipes were transferred between people and over generations. That's certainly
Speaker 2: a really common problem with documents in general, as they're
Speaker 2: shared and they evolve.
Speaker 1: We can't talk about a patent medicine without talking about
Speaker 1: its dubious medical claims. And as there were many variations
Speaker 1: of Daffy's elixir, there were also many claims it was
Speaker 1: originally designed for toothaches, as we said, or maybe stomach ailments,
Speaker 1: depending on what you read, but it doesn't matter. Daffy's
Speaker 1: wasn't a single source remedy for long. By the early
Speaker 1: nineteenth century, it was advertised as an elixir intended to
Speaker 1: help the following ailments. And you should brace yourself because
Speaker 1: this is going to take a minute. Quote the stone
Speaker 1: in babes and children convulsion fits, consumption and bad digestives,
Speaker 1: agus piles, surfeits, fits of the mother, and vapors from
Speaker 1: the spleen, green sickness, children's distempers, whether the worms, rickets,
Speaker 1: stones convulsions, gripes, king's evil, joint evil, or any other
Speaker 1: disorder proceeding from wind or crudities, doubt and rheumatism, stone
Speaker 1: or gravel in the kidneys, colic and griping of the bowels.
Speaker 1: The this stick, both as cure and preventative, provided always
Speaker 1: that the patient be moderate in drinking, have a care
Speaker 1: to prevent taking cold, and keep to good diet. Dropsy
Speaker 1: and scurvy. The frequent use of the medicine to treat colic,
Speaker 1: gripes or fret in horses was deplored in early veterinary manuals.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's right. There were at least two recipes
Speaker 1: found that were intended for veterinary use.
Speaker 2: That is a long list, and as that long list shows,
Speaker 2: in the end, it became, characteristically as most other quack medicines,
Speaker 2: a product promoted as a cure all and a general
Speaker 2: pick me up. Popular as it was while it was
Speaker 2: claimed it could cure everything. This elixir probably couldn't cure anything.
Speaker 2: But what it could do was get you drunk.
Speaker 1: And on that note, would you like a little sip
Speaker 1: of curious what ails you? Well?
Speaker 2: Yes I would.
Speaker 1: Okay, this one gave me such a delicious inspiration and
Speaker 1: I'm very glad and happy to report that it turned
Speaker 1: out really well. So once we mentioned there's an ingredient,
Speaker 1: we mentioned that's not any of the primaries that I
Speaker 1: literally did the meerkat set up and went, let's put
Speaker 1: that in a drink, and that is saffron.
Speaker 2: Oh, one of the alternatives.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, And once that came up, I knew exactly
Speaker 1: what I wanted to do. And because gin was so
Speaker 1: prominent in it and it was very alcohol forward, I
Speaker 1: was like, we need to do a spirit forward drink
Speaker 1: that features gin and saffron, And I thought, ooh, we
Speaker 1: could mess with a gimlet and make something new. First
Speaker 1: of all, you got to do a little infusion before
Speaker 1: you're ready to make your drink. This is a prep
Speaker 1: the day before situation. As an aside, I thought when
Speaker 1: I was a kid that saffron was like for millionaires,
Speaker 1: because every time my mom would make saffron bread, she
Speaker 1: would make sure we knew how expensive that saffron had
Speaker 1: been and we better appreciate it.
Speaker 2: I felt the same way.
Speaker 1: It is pricey compared to some other ingredients or herbs
Speaker 1: or any kind of mix in you might use. But
Speaker 1: it's also a nice case where a little goes quite
Speaker 1: a long way. So for this, you need a pinch
Speaker 1: of saffron, like I would say, less than a third
Speaker 1: of a teaspoon. I get mine, and it comes in
Speaker 1: like pre set little mini envelopes, and so I just
Speaker 1: use it as in the envelope. It averages out to
Speaker 1: like maybe a third of a teaspoon. Maybe you're being
Speaker 1: very generous. You're gonna put that into an airtight container
Speaker 1: with six ounces of gin, so you're gonna make a
Speaker 1: lot more gin than you actually need. But if you,
Speaker 1: as we've said before, if you shrink your amounts a
Speaker 1: lot smaller, you start to mess with the proportions and
Speaker 1: it doesn't quite work as well. So put those in
Speaker 1: your eartight container. Give it a good shake. You'll notice
Speaker 1: right away it starts to turn yellow. Leave it overnight
Speaker 1: if you don't want to wait overnight six to eight hours.
Speaker 1: You can shake it more if you want optional, but
Speaker 1: it's fun to do. Then when you're done, you're still
Speaker 1: gonna have those kind of little spindly threadlike pieces of
Speaker 1: saffron that you'll strain out, and the gin will be
Speaker 1: a beautiful golden yellow color. And it is time to
Speaker 1: get ready to make your drink. So into your shaking tin,
Speaker 1: you're gonna put two ounces of this saffron infused gin,
Speaker 1: three quarters of an ounce of lime juice, three quarters
Speaker 1: of an ounce of simple or vanilla syrup, and then
Speaker 1: we're gonna add another ingredient that came up, which is
Speaker 1: a half ounce of cognac. Shakey, shaky, shake with ice.
Speaker 1: Strain it into a pre chilled cocktail glass. You will
Speaker 1: not have ice in that glass. And then note how
Speaker 1: absolutely beautiful it turns out and how absolutely beautiful it tastes.
Speaker 1: I am obsessed with drink now. I gotta have saffron
Speaker 1: all the time. I'm calling this one open secret since
Speaker 1: Daffy's recipe was gonna open secret. I love this. I
Speaker 1: love a spirit forward drink once in a while, and
Speaker 1: this one was like exceptional. And what's really cool is
Speaker 1: that there's a ton of gin in it, which a
Speaker 1: lot of people don't like. And I really think people
Speaker 1: that don't like gin might like this drink. So I
Speaker 1: tested it on people that don't like gin and they
Speaker 1: liked it.
Speaker 2: That's in its favor.
Speaker 1: The mocktail is you're gonna use the same proportions for everything,
Speaker 1: But instead of that two ounces of gin, you're gonna
Speaker 1: use flat tonic to do your saffron and fusion. Make
Speaker 1: sure it is very flat before you seal your thing
Speaker 1: and shake it because you don't want any surprise explosions.
Speaker 1: It's never fun. And then in lieu of kognac, you'll
Speaker 1: only use half an ounce. But again this is a
Speaker 1: proportion game. You're gonna use four ounces of white grape
Speaker 1: juice and you're gonna soak it with a tea bag
Speaker 1: of black tea. If you want to heat up your
Speaker 1: white grape juice, that is totally fine. You really only
Speaker 1: need to steep it for like ten minutes. You can
Speaker 1: also cold steep it and give it more like forty
Speaker 1: five minutes or an hour. That also works fine. But
Speaker 1: you basically just want to give that white grape juice
Speaker 1: a fuller body and a bigger flavor than it has
Speaker 1: on its own, because that is going to help balance
Speaker 1: out all those other ingredients. And that is you make
Speaker 1: it exactly the same. So it's a two ounces of
Speaker 1: your saffron infused fluid, whether that be gin or flattonic,
Speaker 1: three quarters of an ounce of lime juice, three quarters
Speaker 1: of an ounce with simpler vanilla syrup and then just
Speaker 1: a half ounce of cognac or your tea infused white
Speaker 1: grape juice. Delicious.
Speaker 2: That sounds both of them sound delicious, both versions.
Speaker 1: You want it so cold and it's so good. Now
Speaker 1: I just have to be constantly infusing gin with saffron
Speaker 1: and then you'll feel fancy if you grew up like
Speaker 1: me getting yelled at about how expensive saffron is.
Speaker 2: Oh, I think that might be our age group.
Speaker 1: That is the open secret. It is a lot of alcohol.
Speaker 1: So it is one that we want you to be
Speaker 1: very careful with. Drink responsibly always. We will be right
Speaker 1: back here next week with another tale of snake oil
Speaker 1: and another drink to go with it. Criminalia is a
Speaker 1: production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from Shondaland Audio, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.