Mai Trank (May-Drink) (German)

Instructions

1. Put into a large deep jug one pint of light white wine to two pints of red.
2. Dissolve in it sufficient sugar to sweeten it agreeably.
3. Wipe a sound China orange and cut it in rather thick slices, without paring it. Add it to the wine. One orange will be sufficient for three pints of wine.
4. Wash the woodruff and drain it well, then throw in some small bunches or faggots of it. The quantity used should not be very large, or the flavour of the beverage will be rather injured than improved by it.
5. Cover the jug closely to exclude the air and leave it until the following day.
6. Serve it to all May-day visitors.
7. Notes from Acton: Rhenish wine should properly be used, but this is expensive in England. She has tried the receipt on a small scale with lemon-rind instead of oranges, and the mixture was very agreeable. Woodruff is more odorous when dried gradually in the shade than when fresh gathered; it grows wild in Kent, Surrey and other parts of England, and flourishes in many suburban gardens near London.