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The Plaza
Into a glass half full of shaved ice pour four tablespoonfuls of orgeat syrup, and add three tablespoonfuls of ice cream. Shake well, and add soda water to fill glass.
A soda-fountain ice cream soda in miniature, written for someone standing behind a marble counter with a syrup pump and a spindle mixer. The proportions translate directly; only the equipment needs thought.
- OrgeatAn almond syrup, sweetened and often perfumed with orange flower water. Commercial bar orgeat sold for tiki drinks is a close equivalent and should serve here, though brands vary in sweetness and almond intensity; four tablespoonfuls is a quarter cup, which is assertive but plausible against soda water.
- The glassA soda fountain glass of the period held roughly 10 to 12 ounces. Anything smaller will overflow once the soda hits the ice cream and foams.
- ShakingShake the ice, syrup and ice cream together in a cocktail shaker or a tall tin, then pour back into the glass and top with soda. Shaking the finished drink with soda in it will make a mess.
- Ice creamThree tablespoonfuls is a small scoop. The recipe does not specify a flavour; plain vanilla is the safest choice, since anything eggier or more heavily flavoured will fight the almond.
- Shaved iceShaved or finely cracked ice, not cubes, so it partly melts into the syrup and thickens the mix. Cubes will simply rattle and leave the drink thin.
- Soda waterPour it down the side of the glass in a steady stream against the ice cream to raise a proper head of foam. Add it last and serve at once, with a straw and a long spoon.
- YieldOne drink.
On Uncle Sam's Water Wagon collected non-alcoholic drinks at the height of the American temperance movement, when the soda fountain was the respectable alternative to the saloon. The attribution to the Plaza places this among a set of recipes gathered from named New York establishments, arguably a device for lending prestige to teetotal drinking. Orgeat itself long predates the fountain: the name comes through French from a barley-based drink (Latin hordeum, barley), and over time the barley gave way almost entirely to almonds. Its survival into the twentieth-century soda fountain, and from there into mid-century tiki bartending, makes it one of the few syrups on this list a modern drinker can still buy without hunting.