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Fruit Chocolate
Make syrup as follows: Strawberry syrup, 10 ounces; vanilla syrup, 10 ounces; raspberry syrup, 8 ounces; chocolate syrup, 4 ounces.. In serving, draw 2 fluid ounces of this syrup into a 12-ounce glass, add 1 or 2 fluid ounces of cream, nearly fill the glass with the coarse stream of carbonated water, then top off with the fine stream. Remember that women like a little more syrup and three times as much foam and froth as men like. Never overflow a glass.
A fountain formula in two parts: a bulk syrup blend, then the per-glass build. The blend makes 32 fluid ounces of syrup, enough for sixteen drinks at the stated 2-ounce draw.
- The syrups are fountain syrups, not preservesSoda-fountain fruit syrups of this era were heavy sugar syrups, far denser than a thin fruit coulis or maple-thin syrup, which will not carry the flavor at a 2-ounce draw and will make the drink watery.
- Ounces here are fluid ouncesOunces here are most likely fluid ounces -- the serving instructions specify fluid ounces, and fountain formularies generally blended syrups by volume, though the formula itself says only 'ounces.' Measuring by weight would shift the proportions, since the syrups differ in density.
- Coarse and fine streamA fountain draft arm had two outlets. The coarse stream is a heavy plain jet used to mix the syrup and build volume; the fine stream is a fine spray that whips air in and raises the head. At home, pour chilled seltzer briskly down the center to mix, then finish with a slow trickle down the inside of the glass to build foam.
- CreamFountain cream was usually a light or coffee cream, about 18 to 20 percent fat. Half-and-half is the closest match; heavy cream will read as too rich against the fruit.
- Keep everything coldCarbonation holds far better in cold liquid. Chill the glass, the cream, and the soda water; a warm glass will foam over on the first pour and go flat before it reaches the drinker.
- The glassA 12-ounce fountain glass with 2 ounces of syrup and 1 to 2 ounces of cream leaves roughly 8 ounces for soda and head. Serve at once, with a straw, and heed the last line: the drink is built to the rim, never past it.
- The line about womenThat sentence is trade lore aimed at the dispenser, not a measurement. Adjust syrup and foam to taste and ignore the demographics.
The American soda fountain reached its peak in the decades on either side of 1900, when the dispenser was a skilled tradesman with his own manuals, formularies and trade press. Books like this one were written for him: pages of syrup formulas by the quart, instructions on the two draft streams, and etiquette for the marble counter. Fruit Chocolate belongs to a whole family of blended-syrup drinks in which chocolate was used as a minor rounding note rather than the headline, a few ounces against nearly two pints of fruit and vanilla, giving depth and a slight bitterness without dominating. The combination of fruit syrup and cream in carbonated water is closely related to the ice-cream soda, and the fountain trade's habit of coaching operators on how to read a customer, seen in the aside about foam, reflects an era when the soda clerk was expected to sell as much as he mixed.