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Cinnamon Syrup
One gallon of simple syrup, 10 drops oil cassia, 2 ounces of soda foam. Color
A soda fountain formula rather than a kitchen recipe: it makes a gallon of flavoring syrup meant to be drawn an ounce or so at a time and finished with carbonated water. Three of its four components need translation.
- Simple syrup, fountain strengthFountain simple syrup of this era was heavy — roughly 7 to 8 lb of sugar dissolved per gallon of finished syrup, near saturation, which is what kept it from fermenting in an open-topped jar on a warm counter. A modern 1:1 syrup will taste thin and spoil quickly by comparison.
- Oil of cassia is not ground cinnamonCassia oil is the steam-distilled essential oil of Cinnamomum cassia, dominated by cinnamaldehyde, and it is enormously stronger than the spice. Ten drops in a gallon is on the order of 1 part in 8,000 — the dilution is the whole point, and doubling it produces something harsh and mouth-burning rather than twice as cinnamony.
- It will not mix on its ownEssential oil will not dissolve in sugar syrup. The standard fountain practice was to cut the oil first into a small quantity of high-proof alcohol or to triturate it with a little powdered sugar or magnesium carbonate and filter, so the flavor disperses instead of floating in droplets on the surface.
- Soda foam"Soda foam" was a proprietary foaming extract, usually built on quillaia (soapbark) saponins or egg albumen in a syrup base, added so the drink would head up under the carbonated stream. Quillaia extract is still permitted as a beverage foaming agent but is tightly limited by quantity; it can simply be left out, at the cost of a flatter glass.
- "Color"The instruction ends mid-thought because every fountain kept its own coloring bottles. Cinnamon syrup was tinted red or reddish-brown, in this period often with cochineal, caramel, or an early coal-tar dye of uncertain composition. Caramel color is a historically defensible choice and the easiest to obtain now.
- Yield and dispensingOne gallon is 128 fl oz, or roughly 85 to 128 glasses at the period standard of 1 to 1.5 oz of syrup topped with 6 to 8 oz of carbonated water. Scaling down to a pint means about 1 drop of cassia oil, which is why the formula is written by the gallon.
- Keeping itHeavy syrup and cinnamaldehyde are both mildly preservative, but a gallon of open syrup is still a sugar solution. Bottled full, capped, and refrigerated, it holds for months; watch for cloudiness or a yeasty smell at the neck.
Flavoring syrups like this one are the working stock of the American drugstore soda fountain, which had grown from a pharmacist's sideline into the social center of small-town business districts. Cinnamon was one of the standard "spice" syrups kept alongside vanilla, sarsaparilla, and lemon, and cassia rather than true Ceylon cinnamon was generally the source — cheaper, far more assertive, and available as a distilled oil from the same wholesale drug houses that supplied the fountain's acids and extracts. The presence of soda foam in the formula is a reminder that the fountain sold appearance as much as flavor: a drink was expected to rise in the glass and hold a head while it was carried to the table. The unfinished last word, "Color," is characteristic of the genre. These books were written for dispensers who already owned a shelf of coloring solutions and needed no instruction on which one to reach for.