act as aphrodisiacs, a view which encouraged their consumption in a social rather than medical context. Most important of these was Rosa Solis or Rosolio, a drink that probably originated in Renaissance Turin. Distilled over large quantities of the insectivorous bog plant sundew, it included hot provocative spices like cubebs, grains of paradise and galingale. According to the seventeenth century medical writer William Salmon, sundew “stirs up lust”. He goes on to say that the distilled water “is of a glittering yellow, like Gold, and colours Silver of a Golden Colour if put therein”. In Salmon’s time, rosa solis was used in England at the banquet course to wash down other venerous food items such as kissing comfits and candied eryngo roots. Rosolio, or Resoil, is still producedmuch muske in your glasse amongst the rest of the Ingredients , it will have a pleasant smell. Some adde the gum amber with coral and pearle finely poudred , and fine leafe golde. Some vse to boyle Ferdinando bucke in Rosewater, till they haue purchased a faire deepe crimson colour, and when the same is cold, they colour their Rosa solis and Aqua Rubea therewith. From Sir Hugh Platt, Delightes for Ladies (London: 1600) With their flecks of gold leaf and their bright yellow hue, rosolio, usquebaugh and other golden waters were thought by the alchemists to encapsulate the 'cordial vertues' of the rays of the sun. Usquebaugh is one of the earliest English cordial waters and dates from the Tudor period. It retained its popularity well