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Arctic Punch
Two-thirds glass shaved ice, 4 ounces sweet cream, 3 dashes Jamaica rum or 1 dash of bitters; shake slightly in shaker, pour into glass without straining. Serve with straw, and, if desired, nutmeg.
A fountain drink rather than a bar drink: essentially a shaken milk punch built on shaved ice, thin enough to take through a straw. Two decisions carry it — how fine the ice is, and how briefly you shake.
- The hinge: shake slightlyFour ounces of cream shaken hard over ice will thicken toward whipped cream and clog the straw. A few short shakes, just enough to chill and aerate, is the whole technique.
- Shaved ice, not cubesFountain shaved ice is snow-fine and melts into the cream to make the drink drinkable. Cubes or cracked ice give you a watery layer under a thick cream layer. A blender pulse or a Lewis bag gets close.
- The glassSoda glasses of the period ran to various sizes, commonly somewhere around 8 to 12 ounces; with two-thirds packed with shaved ice, the 4 ounces of cream settles into the gaps rather than sitting on top. Scale to whatever tumbler you have; the ratio matters more than the volume.
- Sweet creamMeans fresh, unsoured cream, as distinct from soured or sour cream. Use heavy or whipping cream; light cream or half-and-half makes a thinner, more refreshing drink and is easier to shake without thickening.
- DashesA dash from a stoppered bottle is small and inexact, commonly reckoned at something like an eighth of a teaspoon. Three dashes of rum is a flavoring, not a measure of liquor -- well under a teaspoon in total.
- Rum or bittersThe two options are not interchangeable in strength: three dashes of Jamaica rum reads as molasses and spice, one dash of aromatic bitters as clove and gentian. Choose one; both together muddies the cream.
- NutmegGrate it over the surface at the last moment. Pre-ground nutmeg sinks and tastes of dust.
- YieldOne drink. It does not hold — serve as soon as it is poured, unstrained, ice and all.
American drug-store fountains of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries ran a parallel drink culture to the saloon, and this is one of the seams where the two met: a milk punch, a form long made with brandy or Jamaica rum and finished with grated nutmeg, rebuilt for a soda glass and a straw. The rum here is measured in dashes rather than ounces, in the manner of the fruit syrups and extracts a fountain worked with. Names like Arctic, Polar and Iceberg have often been associated with fountain drinks served over shaved ice, and the finely shaved ice itself was a selling point for a fountain with the shaver and the trade to keep both busy.