Vermont Cooler

A fruit-and-maple syrup base kept on hand and diluted to order, in the manner of a soda fountain. The proportions are for a bottle of cordial, not a single glass.

• The measuresA half pint is one cup, so the base is three cups total in equal thirds. Four tablespoonfuls is a quarter cup, which makes roughly twelve drinks from one batch.
• Raspberry juiceNo commercial product is meant here. Crush ripe or thawed frozen raspberries, let them stand half an hour with a little sugar if they are tart, then strain through a fine sieve or jelly bag. Roughly a pound of berries will give about a cup of juice, depending on ripeness and how hard they are pressed.
• SweetnessTwo thirds of the base is pure sweetener, which is heavy by current taste. A quarter cup in a tall glass of soda is drinkable; in a short 6 oz glass it will cloy. Start with two tablespoons and adjust.
• Maple syrup gradeThe darker grades, formerly sold as Grade B and now labelled dark or very dark, carry the maple flavour through the carbonation better than the lightest grades, which tend to disappear behind the honey.
• Honey choiceUse a mild clover or wildflower honey. Buckwheat or chestnut honey will dominate both the maple and the fruit.
• Mixing the baseCold honey and syrup resist blending. Warm the three together gently, just to body temperature, whisk smooth, then cool completely before bottling. Warm base will foam over when it meets soda.
• Soda waterIn a kitchen of this period this would likely have meant a charged siphon or bottled soda. Plain seltzer works; add it slowly down the side of the glass over ice, and stir once rather than agitating, or the sugar will drive the fizz out at once.
• KeepingRefrigerate the base in a sealed bottle. The sugar concentration is high enough to hold it a couple of weeks, but the fresh berry flavour fades after four or five days.
• The section headingThe text calls only for raspberry juice. Strawberry juice, prepared the same way, would substitute directly.