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Ginger Whiz
Put two teaspoonfuls of ginger syrup, four teaspoonfuls of grape syrup, and four teaspoonfuls of orangeade into a tall glass. Stir well, and fill up glass with soda water.
A soda fountain formula that assumes a counter stocked with house-made syrups; the only real work is having the three components on hand.
- Ginger syrupFountain ginger syrup was a heavy sugar syrup carrying a strong ginger flavour; period formulas variously use bruised ginger root or a fluid extract of ginger. A strong homemade ginger simple syrup, or bottled ginger syrup sold for cocktails, stands in; ginger ale itself is much more dilute and will leave the drink flat-tasting.
- Grape syrupThis means sweetened concentrated grape juice, typically Concord, not grape jelly and not a modern flavored syrup. Reduced Concord juice with sugar gives the right dark, musky note.
- OrangeadeIn period sources orangeade is often a finished long drink of orange juice, sugar and water; the teaspoonful measure here implies something more concentrated kept ready at the counter. Fresh juice cut with an equal measure of simple syrup is close.
- ProportionsTen teaspoonfuls of syrup is a little over three tablespoons, about 1.7 fl oz. In a tall 12 oz glass topped with soda that is a modestly sweet drink; in an 8 oz glass it will be noticeably sweeter.
- Order of operationsThe recipe has you stir the syrups before the soda goes in. Stir first, then add soda water and give it one gentle lift with the spoon; further stirring afterwards costs carbonation, and the heavier grape syrup tends to settle.
- Soda waterPlain carbonated water, unflavored and unsweetened. Chill it hard and pour down the side of the glass; the recipe says nothing about ice.
- YieldOne tall glass.
On Uncle Sam's Water Wagon belongs to the boom in soft-drink manuals that accompanied the American temperance movement in the years before national Prohibition. "Whiz" was one of a family of jaunty fountain names -- fizz, frappe, phosphate, rickey, whiz -- and here it signals nothing more technical than syrups lengthened with soda. Ginger was a mainstay of that trade: its heat gave a nonalcoholic drink some of the bite drinkers expected, which is also why ginger ale and ginger beer flourished in the same period. The three-syrup structure is characteristic of fountain work, where a handful of stock syrups were combined in different ratios to yield dozens of separately named drinks.