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By E. C. Tracey (Decade ago the enormous growth)
A decade ago the enormous growth of the cold soda water business led the manufacturers of apparatus and supplies to consider the possibilities in hot soda. It is only a few years ago that hot soda was unknown, and all cold soda fountains were closed at the fall of the year, not to reopen until warm weather of spring recreated a demand for cold drinks. The first step in the advancement of soda water was the use of ice cream at the soda fountain; the second was the running of the fountain with hot and cold beverages for the six winter months.
The hot soda business as first started seems almost ridiculous. In the beginning a little boiler, even a tea kettle on a gas stove, anything that would give a little hot water, was considered sufficient, and the druggists did not attempt to run anything special, but just serve syrups with hot water. Most all the soda water syrups, with the exception of chocolate and coffee, made nauseating, sickishly sweet, hot drinks, which did not succeed. The coffee and chocolate syrups, however, gave a promise of pleasing the public, and soon became the only ones that were served, with the exception of ginger, which trailed along like the tail of a kite.
But it was not long before some of the bright, progressive druggists realized that if the poor hot chocolate and coffee then served would sell a little, a better coffee and chocolate would certainly sell well. Then began a complete change from recognized methods, which is one of the hardest things for any trade to accomplish-namely, the getting away from precedents, and starting afresh. In this case it meant making coffee and chocolate that resembled the coffee and chocolate served at home, rather than the kind made by the use of the syrups used in cold soda drinks. The better these drinks were made the more popular they became until the greatest improvement of all was introduced, and the crowning step was reached, the idea of serving chocolate and coffee as finished beverages.
The chocolate, being a sweet confection, and most pleasing to the ladies, is the one that has reached the greatest success, and has become the backbone of the hot soda business. Nowadays every store that pretends to be progressive serves chocolate as a finished beverage, drawing it from a specially constructed apparatus built to meet these needs. After drawing a cupful of chocolate and topping it with whipped cream, a delicious article is served that commands success. Some concerns find a market for as high as 30 or 40 gallons of this beverage in a single day. Coffee has advanced in the same direction as chocolate, but not quite in the same proportion. About the time the improvement began in the coffee and chocolate beverages, beef extract was being exploited as a hot drink, and this soon found its way to the hot soda fountain and was added to the variety of drinks. It seems strange to us now that the dispensers of the country did not seem to realize that they needed variety to create a hot soda demand. They carried cold soda flavors to the extent of a list of 30 to 50 drinks. A customer would be hard indeed to suit who could not find something in such an assortment that would please, and yet, the dispensers tried to do hot soda business with a list of four beverages.
Shortly after this clam bouillon found its way to the hot soda counter. Soon tomato followed. With every addition of new flavors the hot soda business went forward with leaps and bounds, and in the last couple of years oyster and chicken bouillons have been added to the list of good, hot drinks served at leading fountains, and also various flavored beef drinks, such as asparagus bouillon and beef extracts, seasoned with vegetables. The improvements in the drinks themselves and the increase in the varieties offered by the confectioner and druggist, broadened the horizon of the hot soda business and increased the trade steadily. This was a very important factor in the soda water business at large, for with the addition of profitable hot soda business the dispenser could see his way clear to keeping his fountain open all the year round, and he was very often much surprised to learn that even in the winter months he would sell as much cold soda as he did hot, and that the two together produced a profitable annual business, in a department of his store, which previously had only been open for six months in the year. Only three or four years ago, when this fact began to be realized, the trade at large and the manufacturers began to take an intense interest in hot soda water that they had never before displayed. The geniuses of soda water then started to invent new hot soda drinks by the hundreds, until now the variety is almost as great as cold drinks. The two classes have merged to such an extent that it is hard to draw the line which separates them. There are many up-to-date dispensers who run hot and cold soda flavors all the year round, and do as large and profitable a business in the winter as in the summer months.
Besides the staple hot drinks mentioned above, hot egg drinks are served in great variety, hot malted milk and combinations of this popular food with eggs, also with clams, tomato and other bouillons. A special combination of fruit flavors, specially prepared in a manner which make suitable and palatable hot drinks, has also been added.
Olives are much used to serve with salty hot drinks and bouillons. This is a step in the right direction, for olives are always served with soup at a dinner and help to make any salty hot drink a success. The expense is small, the advertisement and increase in business large. Whipped cream is used in addition to almost all hot beverages, such as tomato, clam and chicken, as well as sweet drinks, like coffee and chocolate. Many successful soda water dispensers serve chocolate as a finished drink, and serve all bouillons, making them with hot milk (oftener half milk and half water), instead of using plain, hot water.
All sorts of seasonings are used in making hot drinks palatable-celery salt, ground spices, ketchups, Worcestershire sauce and condiments of every kind.
Some stores, and drug stores at that, have gone so far as to serve oyster and clam stews and Welsh rarebit.
Throughout the West there is much oyster bouillon sold, and it is made more attractive to the soda drinkers by serving it as follows: Pour an ounce of bouillon into a cup, add a little cream or milk, take a single oyster in a small sieve, hold this under the hot apparatus and draw the hot water over it. This adds flavor to the bouillon as well as cooking the oyster, which is then dropped into the cup and served to the customer, proving the sincerity of the drink.
Oyster cocktail is frequently found all over the country. Different kinds of soups have been added to the menu, such as mock turtle and various kinds of purees.
A man who owns a soda fountain has come to realize he can make his store as popular to the money-spending part of the population in the winter by serving the hot drinks they like, as he can with his ice cream sodas and sundaes during the thirsty season. In fact, they have reached the point where they even make hot chocolate fudge. This has made a hit wherever introduced, and consists of a very rich, thick chocolate sauce, kept hot in a chafing dish (which will not burn on account of the chafing dish having a water-bath), and the confection is served by pouring a ladleful of this hot chocolate sauce over ice cream.
This seems a great contradiction, but in reality makes a delicious combination. As soon as the hot chocolate strikes the ice cream it chills the under surface of the chocolate, and does not melt the cream, as you would expect. This is sometimes garnished with whipped cream and a cherry. Speaking of a garnish, salted nuts, olives and pickles, in addition to the regulation crackers, salt or sweet, as the nature of the drink calls for, are often seen at the hot soda counter.
There appears to be an increasing demand by women customers for an addition of hot drinks in the nature of a hot confection like hot chocolate. Men's desire for hot, salty drinks has been catered to with success, but this other demand will doubtless do much in the future to develop the hot soda business. Hot chocolate fudge, mentioned above, is a step in the right direction, but that is still chocolate, and outside of a few special hot fruit flavors, which have never reached any great amount of success, there is nothing at present served in the line of a hot confection except coffee and chocolate. The ladies' trade, which largely supports the soda water business, is always fond of anything that caters to its taste for sweets, as the hot, salty drinks cater to the men's taste for something hot and bracing. The situation is as old as the hills. It is simply to have at your store what people like, induce them to try it, and then they will come in steadily increasing numbers to patronize your enterprise. There is no business in the world in which it is so easy to make a success as it is at the soda fountain, because your customer is able to test the quality of your merchandise on the spot and will then form his opinion as to whether he likes the product or not. If he likes it he will continue to buy.
Serve the best. Serve it in the best way. Have it hot. Serve plenty of novelties to attract attention. Hot soda is then no longer an uncertain enterprise in your store, but will take its place as a profit-maker in almost equal proportions with cold soda water business.
Hot Soda Methods.