Home › At the Fountain › Fruit Punch (Strawberry syrup ounces ounces)
Fruit Punch (Strawberry syrup ounces ounces)
Strawberry syrup, 10 ounces; 10 ounces orange syrup, 10 ounces pineapple syrup, 2 ounces lemon syrup, 1½ ounce acid solution phosphate. Use ½ ounces of this to a large glass ⅓ full of shaved ice, then fill glass with soda, and a small amount of crushed strawberry, pineapple and orange, and serve with straws.
This is a bar-style batch formula: you mix a punch base once, then build individual glasses from it. Everything hinges on the acid phosphate, which is what keeps the sugar from tasting flat and syrupy.
- The measurements are fluid ouncesThe measurements are almost certainly fluid ounces -- fountain syrups were generally measured by volume, so 10 ounces is 1¼ cups. The base totals about 32½ fluid ounces, roughly a quart, enough for many drinks.
- The dose per glass is ambiguousThe text reads "½ ounces of this to a large glass," and the plural may be a typesetting slip for 1½ ounces. Half an ounce of syrup in a large glass of soda would be barely sweet; if it tastes thin, increase the pour to taste.
- Acid solution phosphateThis is acid phosphate, a dilute phosphoric acid preparation still sold for cocktail and soda use. It contributes tartness without the fruit flavour of citrus juice. If you substitute lemon juice, the punch will taste noticeably more like lemonade.
- "Soda" means carbonated waterAt the fountain this came from a pressurised draft arm, cold and hard-carbonated. Chilled seltzer from a siphon or a fresh bottle works; anything already going flat will not carry the syrup.
- Shaved ice, not cubesA glass one-third full of shaved or finely crushed ice chills the drink almost instantly; cubes chill more slowly and leave the syrup sitting at the bottom.
- The fruit syrupsPeriod fountain syrups were heavy, often on the order of two parts sugar to one part water, with fruit juice or extract added. Modern bottled syrups vary widely in sweetness, so taste the base before committing to a ratio.
- Crushed fruit"A small amount" of crushed strawberry, pineapple and orange goes in after the soda, as the text has it. Fresh fruit crushed with a little sugar ahead of time gives the best result.
- Glass size and yieldThe book does not say what a "large glass" held. At the ½ ounce printed, the quart of base would make about sixty-five drinks; at 1½ ounces, about twenty.
Soda fountain fruit punch belongs to the era when the drugstore counter, not the saloon, was the respectable place to buy a cold drink. Formula books like this one were trade manuals for dispensers, who kept a rack of fruit syrups and a jar of acid phosphate and combined them into house specialties. Acid phosphate was introduced as a medicinal tonic in the nineteenth century and was later absorbed into fountain practice, where it did the work of citrus juice. The crushed fresh fruit floated on top marks this as a premium item.