Weak, strong or Navy?

[intrepid--fox.livejournal.com]

In Peter's Room, when Rowan and Nick are having heir midnight bonding session over cocoa and an abandoned lamb, Rowan asks Nick* whether she wants hers "weak, strong or Navy."  I've never heard the expression otherwise, and can't make up my mind whether Navy implies "extra strong" or "medium." Does anyone know for sure?

*or possibly the other way round - no book to hand.

Comments

[manda-09.livejournal.com]

My grandfather, who was Navy, used it to mean "strong enough for the spoon to stand upright, and with sugar". That was for coffee, tea, hot chocolate, etc.

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

My late husband, ditto, used the same meaning.

[intrepid--fox.livejournal.com]

Authoritative naval responses - thank you both!

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I'd always assumed that it was "with a shot of rum", but I have no actual knowledge on the subject, so hopefully someone can correct me.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

That was my assumption, too - I'll be disappointed if I'm wrong, as I'd read into it Rowan's treating Nick as 'grown-up' in offering the option of rum.

[hooloovoo_42]

Ditto. Strong, with rum. Possibly without milk.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

I thought of that too, but decided it must be by association with the whiskey in the lambs' milk and the rum omelet in Run Away Home (which Nicola eats with determination, suggesting that she's not going to abandon the experience the way Peter just had, and also suggesting she doesn't much like rum yet).

I remember worrying that Rowan seemed awfully young to be getting fond of whiskey herself (not the lambs' whiskey, but on other occasions). But that's a cultural difference.