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Cherry Fizz
One and one-half ounces cherry syrup, 1 to 2 ounces lemon juice. Draw into a mixing glass, fill half full of cracked ice, stir well, strain into a fancy glass which has previously been filled about one-third full of fine ice, add a very little sodium bicarbonate on the end of a spoon, stir well, add a slice of lemon and orange or a cherry and orange.
This is a fountain drink from the era when the soda counter sat inside a drugstore, and the fizz comes from a chemical reaction rather than a siphon. A few points make the difference between a bright drink and a salty one.
- The hinge: add the bicarbonate last, at the glassThe bubbles come from sodium bicarbonate meeting the acid in the lemon juice, and the reaction is over in under a minute. Add it to the filled glass, stir once, and serve immediately; put it in the mixing glass and you will strain the fizz down the drain.
- "A very little" means very littleThe book says only what will sit on the end of a spoon, perhaps an eighth of a teaspoon. More does not mean more bubbles, it means a soapy, faintly salty finish, and it neutralises the tartness the drink is built on.
- No soda waterDespite the name, nothing carbonated is added. If you want a longer drink, plain seltzer on top is the modern reading, but the original is a short, intense glassful.
- Cherry syrupFountain syrup of the period was generally a heavier, sweeter sugar syrup than what is sold today. Modern cocktail or Italian soda syrups are thinner and less sweet, so taste and add a little more if the drink reads sharp.
- Lemon juice rangeOne ounce against 1.5 ounces of syrup is already bracing; two ounces is very sour and assumes the older, sweeter syrup. Start at one ounce and work up.
- Fine ice versus cracked iceCracked ice in the mixing glass chills without over-diluting during the stir. The fine ice in the serving glass is closer to shaved or crushed and is there for texture; it will melt quickly, which is another reason to serve at once.
- The "fancy glass"The book specifies nothing beyond "fancy"; any tall or stemmed fountain-style glass will do, and the drink is meant to be looked at, hence the lemon-and-orange or cherry-and-orange garnish.
- YieldOne drink.
Fizzes belong to the American soda fountain, which grew out of the pharmacy rather than the bar: bicarbonate of soda and acidulated syrups were sold as digestive remedies long before they were sold as refreshment, and a drink like this sits squarely on the line between the two. The effervescence here is made in the glass, a technique that persisted in fountain manuals alongside pressurised carbonated water. Cherry syrup was among the standard flavours a dispenser kept on the rail alongside vanilla, lemon and sarsaparilla. Fountain guides of this type proliferated in the early twentieth century, when soda counters were expanding fast and every apprentice needed a book of formulas; the trade is often credited with keeping American public drinking alive through the Prohibition years, though the fountain was already thriving well before that.