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Lime and Pineapple
Squeeze the juice of a lime into a tall glass, add two tablespoonfuls of plain syrup and one tablespoonful of pineapple syrup. Mix well, add shaved ice, fill up the glass with carbonated water, and at the same time put in a teaspoonful of cherry juice. Garnish with a slice of orange, and serve with straws.
A soda fountain build from the era when the fountain, not the bar, was the place to get a cold drink. Nothing here is difficult; the vocabulary is the obstacle.
- Plain syrupFountain "plain syrup" or "simple syrup" was sugar dissolved in hot water and cooled; period formulas vary, from roughly equal weights of sugar and water to considerably sweeter. Two tablespoons is a fairly sweet drink for a single lime; taste and cut back if your lime is small.
- Pineapple syrupA flavoring syrup, not canned pineapple juice. The fountain version was sweetened and often made from crushed fruit strained and cooked with sugar. Substitute a commercial pineapple syrup, or reduce pineapple juice with sugar and expect a thinner result.
- Cherry juiceIn fountain usage this generally means a sweet red cherry syrup, such as the liquid from a jar of maraschino cherries, rather than fresh cherry juice. The recipe adds it as the glass is filled with carbonated water.
- Shaved iceGenuinely shaved or finely crushed, not cubes; it chills fast. Note that the recipe has you mix the juice and syrups before the ice goes in, not after.
- Carbonated waterFountain carbonated water was drawn under pressure and could be quite lively. Pour down the side of the glass against a spoon to keep the fizz.
- Order of operationsMix the juice and syrups thoroughly before any ice or water goes in. Once the glass is cold and full, syrup sits on the bottom and no amount of stirring fixes it neatly.
- YieldOne tall glass. Scaled up for a pitcher it goes flat quickly; build each glass to order.
On Uncle Sam's Water Wagon belongs to the run of soft-drink recipe books for the home that appeared around the arrival of national Prohibition, when temperance sentiment and the American drugstore fountain grew up together. The phrase "on the water wagon" was already common slang for having sworn off liquor, and the book's title trades on it directly. The pineapple and maraschino syrups reflect what a fountain actually kept on hand, since bottled flavoring syrups were a substantial commercial trade by the 1910s, and the straws and the orange slice mark it as something meant to be lingered over at a counter rather than drunk down.