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Almond Cream Syrup
Extract Almond, 1 ounce; Rose Water, 2 ounces; Plain Syrup to make, 1 gallon.
A fountain syrup in the plainest possible form: a flavour concentrate stirred into stock simple syrup, then drawn by the ounce and topped with carbonated water. Everything depends on the strength of the "plain syrup" the book assumes.
- Plain syrupFountain plain syrup was a heavy simple syrup, typically well over a 1:1 bar syrup and often approaching saturation (roughly 6 to 7 lb of sugar per finished gallon in the published formulas, though manuals differ). Made thinner, the flavouring will taste harsh and the finished soda watery.
- Scaling downOne gallon is 128 fluid ounces, so the flavouring is under 3 percent of the batch. For a quart, use about 1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract and 1 tablespoon rose water in enough syrup to make 32 ounces.
- Almond extractModern supermarket almond extract is benzaldehyde in alcohol and is what this calls for in effect. Period druggists sometimes compounded it from oil of bitter almond, which had to be the washed, prussic-acid-free grade; there is no reason to seek that out now.
- Rose waterBuy food-grade rose water from a Middle Eastern or baking supplier, not a cosmetic rose toner. Brands vary enormously in strength — start with half the quantity, taste the finished syrup, and add more.
- Ounces here are fluidAll three quantities are liquid measure. Rose water is near the density of water, so weighing it works; an alcohol-based extract is lighter than water, so weighing it will run about 10 percent short by volume.
- MixingStir the flavourings into cool syrup rather than hot. Both almond extract and rose water are volatile and alcohol-carried; heat drives off exactly the aromatics you are paying for.
- ServingThe fountain measure was 1 to 1 1/2 ounces of syrup in the glass, filled with charged water and given a single stir. A gallon therefore yields roughly 85 to 125 sodas; a quart, roughly 20 to 30.
- KeepingA heavy sugar syrup is largely self-preserving, but with no acid in the formula it will still take up mould at the surface. Bottle it full, cap it, and refrigerate; scale the batch to what you will drink in a month or two.
Almond and rose water is one of the oldest flavour pairings in Western confectionery, descending from medieval and Near Eastern orgeat — an almond-milk drink whose name goes back through French to a barley-water original, and which reached the American soda fountain in a variety of forms. By the time trade manuals like this one were compiled, many fountain operators were working from ready-made extracts sold by druggists, and a "formula" could shrink to the three lines you see here, a flavour dose plus stock syrup. The presence of rose water is the giveaway that this is an older taste being kept alive. Floral flavouring is often said to have been common in nineteenth-century American baking and confectionery, and to have receded from the mainstream palate over the following decades, so a soda that may have read as simply almond-flavoured in 1900 tastes distinctly perfumed and old-fashioned today.