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Creme de Cocoa
One-third glass of shaved ice, 1½ ounces chocolate syrup, 2 ounces sweet , 34 tumbler pure milk cream, ¾ tumbler pure milk. Shake and strain into another tumbler into . Shake and strain into another tumbler into which has been placed 1 tablespoonful whipped cream. Grate chocolate on top and serve.
A shaken fountain drink rather than a liqueur: chocolate syrup, cream and milk over shaved ice, finished with whipped cream and grated chocolate. The measurements come from the soda counter, where the tumbler itself was the unit.
- The tumblerFountain tumblers of the period were commonly around 8 fluid ounces, though sizes varied and the book does not say. On that reading three-quarters is roughly 6 ounces, and the drink would fill a fair-sized glass once the ice and whipped cream are in.
- Cream and milk quantitiesThe proportions in this line have not survived cleanly. The workable reading is about 2 ounces of sweet cream to 6 ounces of milk, which gives the body a fountain drink of this type expects.
- Chocolate syrupFountain chocolate syrup, whether bought in or mixed at the counter, was generally thicker and less sweet than modern squeeze-bottle sauce. If using a commercial syrup, expect to cut the quantity or the drink will read as candy.
- Sweet cream"Sweet" here simply means not soured or cultured. Ordinary heavy or light cream is what is meant.
- Shaved ice, not cubesShaved ice chills fast and dilutes as it goes, which is why the drink is strained off it rather than served over it. Crushed ice is the nearer substitute for cubes.
- Strain into a fresh glassThe whipped cream goes into the serving tumbler first, then the shaken drink is poured over it so the cream rises through and floats. Grate the chocolate last, over the cream, not into the shaker.
- The nameDespite it, there is no crème de cacao and no alcohol in this. Fountain formularies borrowed liqueur names freely for cream-and-syrup drinks.
- YieldOne drink.
American soda fountains of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries kept formula books like this one so that any clerk could turn out a consistent glass, and the recipes read as trade instructions rather than home cookery: quantities in ounces and fractions of a tumbler, the shaker and the strainer assumed to be at hand. A drink called crème de cocoa borrows the name of a European cordial, though it is often said, rather than documented, that fountains adopted such names to give customers something bar-like to order. The finish here, whipped cream floated in the glass and chocolate grated over it, is the fountain equivalent of a garnish, and it is what separated a ten-cent specialty from a plain glass of chocolate milk.