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Ginger and Lime Juice
One ounce ginger syrup; 1 ounce lime juice syrup. Use mineral glass and draw full of soda with coarse stream and stir with spoon.
A two-syrup fountain drink from the era when every drugstore had a carbonator. The whole thing rests on how the soda water is delivered.
- The measuresAn ounce of syrup is 2 tablespoons. Fountain syrups were typically drawn with a measuring pump rather than spooned. Two ounces of syrup total suits a glass of roughly 8 to 10 oz; scale up proportionally for a taller one.
- Mineral glassA fountain tumbler for plain soda drinks, not a mixing vessel; probably in the 8 to 10 ounce range. Any tall glass of that capacity works.
- Coarse streamFountain taps had two draws: a fine, aerated spray and a coarse, heavy stream. Coarse means the syrups get folded together by the force of the water, which is why only a light stir is called for afterward. Pour your seltzer hard and straight down the middle.
- Stir once, brieflyThe spoon is there to lift the heavy syrup off the bottom, nothing more. Prolonged stirring drives off the carbonation the drink depends on.
- Lime juice syrupNot fresh lime juice. Period lime syrup was a sweetened, often shelf-stable lime cordial. Bottled lime cordial is the closest match; fresh juice plus simple syrup in equal parts is a reasonable substitute, though sharper.
- Ginger syrupFountain ginger syrup was an infusion of ginger root in heavy sugar syrup, sometimes with capsicum for bite. Commercial ginger syrups vary wildly in strength, so taste and adjust the ounce up or down.
- IceThe original assumes fountain water already cooled by coil, so no ice is specified. Cold seltzer straight from the refrigerator is the closer approximation; ice will dilute a drink built on only two ounces of syrup.
- YieldOne glass.
Soda fountain manuals of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were trade books, written for the dispenser behind the counter rather than the cook at home, which is why the instructions assume equipment nobody has now: syrup pumps, a draught arm with more than one stream, and a rack of syrup bottles. Ginger and lime were both common fountain flavours, ginger for its warmth and reputed digestive virtue, lime because citrus syrups kept better than fresh juice. Most fountain drinks were non-alcoholic, and a great many were built by recombining the same stock of syrups in different proportions.