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Claret Mint
Try This One.
Draw 1 ounce claret syrup and ½ ounce crême de menthe syrup in a mineral glass, add dash of phosphate, fill glass with solid soda, add a spoonful of cracked ice, garnish with a maraschino and a crême de menthe cherry.
A fountain drink from the era when a druggist's syrup rail did the work a bar now does. Nothing here is alcoholic despite the names, and the whole thing takes under a minute once you have the two syrups and acid phosphate on hand.
- Claret syrupA fountain syrup flavored and colored to suggest red Bordeaux; period formulas vary, many built on grape with a little citric acid, though some call for actual claret wine. A good grape or black cherry syrup is the nearest substitute sold today.
- Crème de menthe syrupAgain a syrup, not the liqueur. Green peppermint syrup gives the same color and flavor. Half an ounce is a tablespoon, and it will dominate if you go heavier.
- PhosphateAcid phosphate, a dilute solution of phosphoric acid with calcium and magnesium salts, sold to fountains as a souring agent that sharpens sweet syrups without the fruit character of lemon. A dash is small, on the order of a quarter teaspoon, though fountain dash bottles varied. It is still manufactured for the cocktail trade.
- Mineral glassA fountain glass of the period, commonly in the 8 to 10 ounce range, straight-sided and heavy-bottomed. Any tall 10-ounce glass works.
- Solid sodaFountain draft arms had a fine stream and a coarse one; "solid" means the coarse stream, which fills fast without building much foam. From a bottle, pour club soda or seltzer straight down the center to about an inch from the rim.
- Order of operationsSyrups and phosphate go in first and are filled onto, not stirred after. The incoming stream mixes the glass; extra stirring drives off the carbonation this drink depends on.
- Ice lastA spoonful of cracked ice on top, not a full glass of cubes. The drink is meant to be cold and sharp rather than diluted, and it is drunk immediately.
- The two cherriesA red maraschino and a green mint cherry, the latter a maraschino steeped in peppermint syrup. Green cocktail cherries sold for garnish are the same thing.
- YieldOne glass.
The American Soda Book belongs to the long stretch when the soda fountain was a department of the drugstore, and its recipes read like prescriptions because the men writing them were pharmacists. Acid phosphate is the giveaway: it came out of the same dispensary shelf as the syrups, was promoted as a mild tonic as well as a flavor sharpener, and gave the fountain a sourness that no fruit syrup could supply. Drinks named for wines and liqueurs "claret," "crème de menthe," later "champagne" and "port" were a standing fountain convention, offering the vocabulary of the bar in a glass a temperance household could accept. The "Try This One" heading marks it as a suggestion for the dispenser to add to his own board rather than a fixed classic.