Recommended The Bar-Tender's Guide by Jerry Thomas (1862, p.79) — Jerry Thomas 1862
| 1 whole | lemon peel — thin lemon peel | acid |
| 4.5 whole | sugar — sugar | base |
| 4 oz | water — boiling water | dilution |
| 8 oz | water — water | dilution |
| 2 oz | sherry — sherry | modifier |
| 1 whole | champagne — champagne, hock, or Chablis | other |
| 1 whole | Verbena — verbena | other |
- Dissolve the sugar in boiling water with very thin lemon peel and let it stand for a quarter of an hour.
- Add the chosen base wine, a sprig of verbena, the sherry, and the additional water.
- Mix well, let stand half an hour, then strain and ice it thoroughly.
Garnish: Lemon peel and verbena
Ice: Iced
- Nose
- Bright lemon and verbena rise above cool wine notes.
- Palate
- It is drier and more linear than the claret cups, with the sherry adding a subtle middle weight without obscuring the wine's lift.
- Finish
- The finish is crisp, aromatic, and lightly vinous.
- Summary
- An elegant iced wine cup that moves the family toward cleaner and brighter sparkling service.
This entry helps show how the cup family could be abstracted away from a single wine style and applied flexibly across sparkling or lighter white-wine bases. That portability is part of what makes cups such an important precursor to later mixed wine service traditions.
The preliminary sugar-and-peel infusion matters. It builds the aromatic base before the wine is introduced, which keeps the final cup coherent rather than flat.
This recipe makes the cup family look surprisingly systematised: aromatic syrup base, herb note, wine choice, rest, strain, chill. It is almost a reusable service template.