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Cherry Celery
Draw 1 ounce cherry syrup into a phosphate glass. Add a dash of American Celery Tonic Extract from squirt bottle, a dash of phosphate, fill with Tonic Extract from squirt bottle, a dash of phosphate, fill with solid soda, stir and serve.
A two-syrup fountain drink built in the glass, and one that depends entirely on getting the celery in small enough measure. The printed text repeats a phrase — "Tonic Extract from squirt bottle, a dash of phosphate, fill with" — which is a compositor's slip, not a second step.
- The hinge: celery is a seasoning hereA dash from a squirt bottle is a fraction of a teaspoon, not a pour. Celery extract is aggressively savoury and will swamp an ounce of cherry syrup if you treat it like a flavour syrup.
- Phosphate glassA tall, narrow fountain glass, commonly around 8 ounces. Any 8 to 10 oz tumbler works; the narrow shape gives the drink less surface area, which helps the carbonation last.
- An ounce of syrupTwo tablespoons. A typical fountain measure for a glass this size, which means the finished drink is sweet by design.
- "A dash of phosphate"Acid phosphate, a dilute phosphoric-acid preparation (with mineral salts) sold for fountain use and made again today. It adds tartness without the fruit character of citrus. Perhaps a quarter teaspoon; it is sour and mineral-tasting in quantity.
- "Solid soda"Fountain jargon for the coarse, heavy stream from the carbonated water tap, as opposed to the fine spray used to build foam. Pour plain seltzer straight down the side of the glass.
- American Celery Tonic ExtractA proprietary flavouring compound long out of production. Celery bitters, a few drops of celery seed tincture, or a small amount of homemade celery-seed syrup will get you to the same place; adjust by taste, starting well below what seems necessary.
- Stirring and iceThe original stirs after filling, which knocks out some carbonation — stir the syrup, extract and phosphate together first, then top with soda. No ice is called for; fountain water was drawn cold.
- YieldOne glass, about 8 ounces.
Celery had a long run as a nerve tonic in nineteenth-century American pharmacy, and since soda fountains sat inside drugstores, tonic extracts moved easily from the prescription counter to the syrup rail. Celery compounds were sold to fountain operators alongside cherry, vanilla and sarsaparilla, and the pairing of a sweet fruit syrup with a savoury, faintly bitter extract may well have worked in the same way — the extract doing the work of a bitters, keeping the drink from reading as candy. Acid phosphate, a general fountain stock, served the same corrective purpose. The taste for celery soda outlasted the tonic claims: bottled celery sodas remained a fixture of Jewish delicatessens in New York long after the fountain trade that produced recipes like this one had gone.