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Almond Syrup
Extract Almond, 1 ounce; Fruit Acid, 1 ounce; Plain Syrup to make, 1 gallon. If your fountain is small, serve the well-known popular flavors. Do not attempt to introduce new drinks.
A fountain formula rather than a domestic one: a gallon of flavored syrup meant to be drawn an ounce or so at a time and finished with carbonated water. Scaling down is straightforward once the two odd items are identified.
- Fruit acidTrade shorthand for a solution of citric acid (sometimes tartaric) in water; published fountain formulas differ on the strength, and this one does not say. It supplies the tartness carbonated water alone cannot; substituting an equal weight of dry citric acid would make the syrup harshly sour.
- Plain syrupFountain plain syrup was heavier than a 1:1 household simple syrup, thick enough to hold flavor against a hard stream of soda water. A thinner simple syrup will taste watery in the finished glass.
- Ounce, weight or fluidThe original does not say which, and fountain formulas of this kind are often ambiguous. For both the extract and the acid solution, fluid ounces are probably the safer reading.
- Almond extract then and nowPeriod "extract almond" was frequently a dilution of oil of bitter almonds, which had to be sold free from prussic acid. Modern almond extract is benzaldehyde in alcohol; strengths varied then and vary now, so start at the stated rate and taste. Do not substitute bitter almond oil bought as an essential oil, which is not a food product.
- ScalingOne gallon is 128 fl oz. For a quart, use 1/4 oz (about 1 1/2 teaspoons) each of extract and fruit acid, then plain syrup to make 32 oz total.
- Serving proportionFountain practice was 1 to 1 1/2 fl oz of syrup in a glass, filled with cold carbonated water and stirred once. A gallon yields roughly 85 to 125 drinks.
- KeepingA syrup at this sugar concentration is fairly stable, but the acid and the alcohol-based flavor both fade. Bottle it, refrigerate, and use within a month or two for the almond character to survive.
- The advice at the endThe closing lines are counter-management, not cooking: the caution is against stocking flavors that will not move in a small fountain.
The American soda fountain ran on syrups like this one — a neutral sugar base, a measured dose of flavoring extract, and an acid to give the drink a bite. Almond was one of the flavors carried behind fountain counters, and almond syrup has an older ancestor in orgeat, the sweetened almond syrup used in European drinks and still stocked behind bars today. Fountain almond syrup of this period was commonly flavored not with almonds but with benzaldehyde, the compound responsible for the smell of bitter almonds, which was among the earlier flavor chemicals to be made synthetically and gave a consistent syrup that needed no straining or emulsifying. The brisk instruction not to introduce new drinks reflects the economics of the trade, where a dispenser's profit depended on turning over a short list of familiar flavors.