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Cubanade
Orange Syrup, 1 ounce; Grape Juice, 1 ounce; Lemon Juice, ½ Lemon, 2 drams; Jamaica Ginger from shaker, 1 dram; Shaved Ice, ¼ glass. Mix thoroughly, garnish with a sprig of mint and a maraschino cherry.
A fountain formula rather than a bar recipe: the proportions assume a heavy 8- or 10-ounce soda glass finished with carbonated water from the tap, which the text takes for granted.
- Drams and ouncesA fluid dram is 1/8 fluid ounce, roughly 3.7 ml or a scant 3/4 teaspoon. The ounces here are fluid ounces, so the drink is 1 oz orange syrup, 1 oz grape juice, and small dashes of the rest.
- The ambiguous lemon"Lemon Juice, 1/2 Lemon, 2 drams" reads as two different measures. It most likely means the juice of half a lemon strained into the glass, with the 2 drams given as the equivalent quantity; half a supermarket lemon yields closer to 4 drams, so start with 2 teaspoons and adjust.
- Finish with sodaNothing in the list makes a glassful, so the formula was almost certainly meant to be lengthened with carbonated water, though the text does not say so. Build over the shaved ice and fill from the tap; fountain manuals of the period describe drawing a coarse stream first to mix and a fine stream to top up. Without some carbonated water this is a syrup puddle.
- Jamaica gingerA fluid extract of ginger in alcohol, kept in a dasher bottle on the counter, not the ginger ale or ginger beer of today. A dram is about 3/4 teaspoon, which is a lot of extract; a strong ginger syrup or a few drops of ginger tincture gives the same heat.
- Orange syrupFountain orange syrup was a sweetened, concentrated flavoring, not orange juice, and considerably sweeter than a light syrup. Substituting juice will leave the drink thin and sour.
- Grape juiceUnfermented bottled juice, in American practice most often Concord, which is sweeter and more foxy-flavored than a European-varietal juice you might use in its place.
- Shaved iceQuarter of a glass of true shaved ice, scraped fine, chills and dilutes at once. Cubes will not do the same work; crush them or the drink stays warm and over-sweet.
- YieldOne glass. The mint sprig and cherry are the whole garnish, added last.
The soda fountain built its trade on named drinks that sounded like somewhere else, and "Cubanade" sits comfortably among tropical-sounding fountain names of a period when American interest in Cuba was high, though nothing in the text ties it to a particular moment. The lemonade suffix marks the family it belongs to: an acid-and-syrup drink lengthened with carbonated water, the fountain's basic template, varied by whatever was in the syrup rail. Jamaica ginger, the sharp note here, was a druggist's preparation before it was a soda flavoring; fountains grew out of pharmacies, and the dasher bottle of ginger extract on the counter is a trace of that ancestry. Its reputation was ruined in 1930, when adulterated extract drunk for its alcohol paralyzed thousands of people.