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Delmonte Cup
Fill a glass one fourth full of shaved ice, and pour over four tablespoonfuls of orange syrup, two tablespoonfuls of raspberry juice, and one tablespoonful of orange juice. Fill up with carbonated water, decorate with a slice of orange, and serve with straws.
A soda-fountain drink built in the glass, from the era when the fountain was the respectable alternative to the bar. The proportions assume a tall soda glass and a fountain-strength syrup, both worth adjusting for.
- Glass sizeA fountain soda glass of the period held roughly 10 to 12 ounces. Scaled to a modern pint glass the seven tablespoons of syrup and juice will read as thin; keep to a 10-12 oz glass or increase the flavourings by about half.
- Orange syrupFountain syrup was a heavy sugar syrup, in most period formulas well over one part sugar to one of water, flavoured with orange. Commercial orange soda syrup or a homemade simple syrup infused with orange zest and a little juice will do; ordinary orange juice is not a substitute, as four tablespoons of it will not sweeten the drink.
- Raspberry juiceThe recipe calls for juice rather than syrup, so probably the pressed juice, likely unsweetened and tart, though period 'juices' were sometimes lightly sugared. Thawed frozen raspberries pushed through a sieve give the closest thing. If you use a sweetened raspberry syrup instead, cut the orange syrup back to three tablespoons.
- Shaved iceShaved, not cubed. It chills fast and holds the syrup in suspension so the drink does not separate into a sweet bottom layer. A short blitz of cubes in a blender or a few seconds in a canvas bag with a mallet gets you there.
- Carbonated waterPlain seltzer, as cold and as fresh as possible. Pour it down the side of the glass against the ice to keep the fizz; the original fountain delivered it under pressure, from a freshly charged supply rather than an opened bottle.
- Order of buildingSyrups go on the ice first for a reason. Stir them briefly into the ice before the seltzer goes in, then leave it alone, or the carbonation is gone before it reaches the table.
- YieldOne drink.
A "cup" in drink terminology traditionally meant a fruited, wine-based punch; here it has been rendered teetotal. Volumes of soft-drink recipes multiplied in the temperance years before national Prohibition, and their standard move was exactly this one, taking the vocabulary of the bar and the ingredients of the soda fountain and putting them in the same glass. The heavy reliance on bottled fountain syrups is the tell that this was written when every drugstore had a marble counter and a carbonated-water tap.