Champagne Cider

This is a fountain formula rather than a kitchen recipe: it makes a flavoring syrup that a soda jerk drew into a glass and finished with carbonated water. Almost every ingredient is a proprietary product from a soda-supply house, so the formula is more readable than reproducible.

• How it was actually servedFountain practice was roughly 1 to 1½ fluid ounces of syrup per 8-ounce glass, topped with carbonated water. A gallon of syrup therefore yields somewhere between about 85 and 128 drinks.
• The ambiguous measure"American Champagne Cider Extract, ½ ounces" is printed with a plural after a fraction; it most likely means half an ounce, though the plural leaves room for a mis-set figure. Extract strengths varied by maker in any case, and trade manuals generally advised flavoring to taste against the house standard.
• Champagne Cider ExtractA compounded flavor, generally built on apple essence with fruit esters such as ethyl acetate and ethyl butyrate. It was an imitation flavor sold to fountains and bottlers rather than a cider or wine product, and nothing comparable is sold at retail today.
• Tartaric Acid SolutionThe acid that supplies the tart, dry bite. Fountain formularies assumed a house solution of tartaric acid in water, but this book does not say at what strength, so the 2 ounces cannot be converted to a reliable weight of dry acid. Citric acid was a common substitute where tartaric was scarce.
• Sarsaparilla ColorDespite the name this contributes no sarsaparilla flavor. It is a caramel coloring sold under a flavor-house label, used here purely to give the drink the pale amber tint of cider.
• Soda FoamA saponin preparation, historically an extract of quillaia (soap bark) or yucca, added in tiny amounts so the drink threw a head like sparkling wine. Quillaia extract is still permitted as a foaming agent in soft drinks, at strictly limited levels; the half ounce per gallon here is a period trade dose, not a regulated one.
• Simple syrup at fountain strengthFountain simple syrup was heavier than a modern bar syrup, typically a very dense sugar solution, though this book does not specify a strength. That density is what lets a single ounce flavor and sweeten a full glass of soda water.
• No alcoholNot a fermented drink -- Nothing in the formula ferments and nothing is distilled, though the extract itself would have been an alcohol-based flavoring used in tiny amount. The champagne reference is to the carbonation and the foam, not to the contents.