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Lime Phosphate
Squeeze the juice of one lime and add two tablespoonfuls of cherry syrup and one tablespoonful of plain syrup. Put into a glass half full of shaved ice, and add a dash of acid phosphate. Fill up with soda water, and decorate with a cherry. Serve with straws.
A soda-fountain formula, built in the glass and meant to be drunk immediately. Nothing here is difficult; the only unfamiliar item is the acid phosphate.
- Acid phosphateA dilute solution of phosphoric acid with calcium, magnesium and potassium salts, sold to fountains as a souring agent. It is still made (Horsford's is the usual brand) and nothing else behaves quite the same way: it adds sharpness and a faint mineral dryness without the fruit flavor of more lemon juice. A "dash" was poured from a dash bottle and was not a fixed quantity; a quarter to half a teaspoon is a reasonable modern starting point.
- Plain syrupFountain shorthand for simple syrup. It was usually made heavier than a modern 1:1 syrup, in some manuals approaching two parts sugar to one of water, so a tablespoon may carry more sugar than you expect.
- Cherry syrupNot cherry juice but a sweetened flavoring syrup, the kind that comes in a jar of maraschino cherries or is sold as fountain syrup. Tart cherry juice will read as sour rather than sweet and will throw the balance off against the lime and the phosphate.
- Shaved iceShaved or finely cracked ice, not cubes. It chills the glass fast and gives the drink the slushy body a fountain soda is supposed to have; cubes leave the syrup sitting in a warm layer at the bottom.
- Order and the sodaAs written, the lime juice and the two syrups go into a glass already half full of shaved ice, the dash of acid phosphate follows, and the soda water fills it up; pour the soda down the side of the glass. Give it one gentle lift with a spoon at most, since stirring drives off the carbonation this drink depends on.
- Glass and yieldOne drink, in a 10 to 12 oz soda glass. Half full of ice plus the syrups leaves about five or six ounces of soda water.
- AdjustingLimes vary considerably; a small one gives about half an ounce of juice, a large one nearly an ounce. Taste before topping up and add plain syrup if the lime dominates.
Phosphates were one of the standard families of American soda-fountain drinks, alongside sodas, lemonades and egg drinks, and the name refers to the acid phosphate rather than to any particular flavor. Acid phosphate is generally traced to fountain use in the later nineteenth century, when phosphoric-acid preparations were sold both as a souring agent and as a mild tonic, and it is often said to have survived because it sharpened sweet syrups in a way citrus alone could not. Books of this kind, collections of soft drinks presented as a complete repertoire for the host, are usually said to have multiplied in the years around national Prohibition, when the phrase "on the water wagon" for abstaining is often described as common slang, and the fountain recipe became respectable parlor knowledge rather than trade knowledge.