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Coffee Syrup (To make a coffee syrup)
To make a coffee syrup which is convenient when trade is lively, use 2 pints American Condensed Coffee to 1 gallon simple syrup. This should be made fresh every few hours, and served from syrup
A soda-fountain formula rather than a kitchen one: a sweet coffee concentrate meant to be pumped into glasses all afternoon. The proportions translate directly, but the holding instructions belong to a counter with constant turnover.
- The proportions2 pints concentrate to 1 gallon (8 pints) simple syrup is 1 part to 4. Scaled down, that is 1/2 cup strong coffee concentrate to 2 cups simple syrup.
- Simple syrup at the fountainFountain simple syrups were often heavier than a 1:1 bar syrup; published formulas vary, some approaching 2 parts granulated sugar to 1 part water by weight, near saturation, on the reasoning that a denser syrup keeps better and dilutes the drink less. The recipe does not specify which is meant. A 1:1 syrup will give a thinner product.
- American Condensed CoffeeA commercial coffee concentrate sold to the fountain trade, no longer available; whether it was sweetened is not stated here. The nearest substitutes are a modern liquid coffee extract or a cold-brew concentrate reduced hard; taste and adjust, since these vary enormously in strength.
- "Fresh every few hours"This is the hinge. Coffee flavour in a warm open syrup jar flattens quickly, which is the likely reason the original calls for remaking it rather than building a day's worth, though the text does not say. Refrigerated and covered, a small batch holds a few days before it dulls.
- "Served from syrup"The text breaks off mid-phrase and the missing words are unknown; some reference to the counter's syrup dispenser is the obvious guess. Fountain syrup pumps were commonly calibrated to a one-ounce shot.
- Yield and useThe full batch makes 10 pints, around 160 one-ounce servings. Use it as you would any coffee syrup: an ounce in a glass topped with soda water, or over ice cream, or stirred into cold milk.
The soda fountain of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries ran on syrups: flavours on the marble counter were typically kept as sweetened concentrates and dispensed by a pump calibrated to one ounce. Coffee was among the standard line, and manuals of this kind exist precisely to tell the dispenser what to keep in each jar and how fast it would spoil or fade. Coffee syrup outlived the fountain in Rhode Island, where coffee milk, made by stirring the syrup into cold milk, is still the official state drink and is generally traced to the immigrant coffee culture of the same period.