Ricqlès Alcool de Menthe

Alcool de menthe de Ricqlès is a clear, colourless spirit of peppermint, long sold in a small flat glass flask with a screw cap and a white label framed in fine engraved scrollwork, on which two winged figures hold up a bottle between them. The liquid is alcohol and water in which the essential oil of peppermint is dissolved, at 80 per cent by volume, and it is used by the drop.

The maker dates it to 1838, when Heyman de Ricqlès, a silk merchant with a taste for botany, distilled peppermint leaves and kept their oil in spirit. It was sold at first in sealed glass phials through pharmacies, protected by patents in the 1840s and a trademark in 1857, and in 1898 the business moved to a factory at Saint-Ouen, outside Paris.

Its uses were many and loosely defined. An advertising card of about 1903 shows a lady recovering from a faint at the theatre with a few drops taken on sugar; in October 1915, L'Illustration told readers that it purified water, warded off epidemics and belonged in every soldier's kit. Cappiello, O'Galop and Barrère drew posters for it, and in the 1930s the company registered the slogan la menthe forte qui réconforte, the strong mint that comforts.

Haribo France bought the brand in 1987, and the maker says production of the spirit then moved to Uzès, in the Gard. French pharmacies still sell it as a supplement, one to three drops on a sugar lump or in a glass of water, up to six times a day, while the maker's own pages, mindful of differing national rules, describe it for rubbing on the temples and the nape of the neck. The advice on the card of 1903 and the advice on the pharmacy shelf today are, word for word, nearly the same.