Celery Cocoa Cream

A hot fountain drink from the era when druggists sold chocolate and celery over the same counter. It comes together in under a minute, and the only real decision is how heavy a hand to use with the celery.

• "Hot soda" is not carbonatedFountains kept a separate urn of plain hot water for winter drinks, drawn hot but generally short of boiling. Heated water will not hold carbonation, so fill with hot water, not seltzer.
• Chocolate pasteThe fountain's stock chocolate base, typically cocoa and sugar cooked with water to a thick, spoonable paste, stiffer than modern thin chocolate sauce; formulas varied from manual to manual. A heaped tablespoon of a stiff chocolate syrup, or cocoa mashed with an equal weight of sugar and a little boiling water, stands in for it.
• Ounces here are volumeOunces here are most likely volume -- fountain formulas were generally written in fluid ounces. Read one ounce of paste and one ounce of cream as 2 tablespoons each; the recipe does not state the size of the finished glass, but it is a single serving.
• Four dashesA dash from a dash-bottle was small and not standardised, so four amounts to well under a teaspoon in total. Essence of celery was an alcoholic flavouring extract; celery bitters are the closest current equivalent, and strengths vary enough that it is worth starting with two dashes and tasting.
• Stir while fillingThe paste is stiff and will sit in the bottom of the mug if the water is simply poured on. Draw the water in a thin stream against a moving spoon so the base dissolves as it goes.
• Cream before heatThe ounce of cream goes in with the paste, not after, which is how the recipe lists it. Adding cold cream to an already-filled hot mug only drops the temperature.
• The celery salt is the pointThe celery salt -- the recipe says only to serve it with the drink, so it may have been dusted over the whipped cream or offered alongside. Either way it reads as savoury against the chocolate.