Home › At the Fountain › Ginger Cocktail
Ginger Cocktail
Take ¼ ounce of American Dublin Ginger Ale Syrup, ½ ounce American Grape Syrup, ½ ounce American Orangeade in a soda glass. Fill glass with solid soda and mix thoroughly. May also be served with shaved ice.
A fountain formula, meant to be built in the glass with carbonated water drawn straight from the tap. The proportions are written in fluid ounces of commercial syrup, so the main work of translation is figuring out what those syrups were.
- "American" is a brand, not a styleThe capitalized syrup names appear to be proprietary products rather than descriptions of type. Any good ginger syrup, grape syrup and orange syrup will stand in; the ratios matter more than the labels.
- Solid sodaFountain draught arms offered more than one stream, one of which delivered a solid flow rather than froth. "Solid soda" means filling the glass with liquid rather than head. From a siphon or bottle, pour down the side of a tilted glass to keep foam off.
- Ginger ale syrupA sweetened ginger extract of the kind fountains used for the ginger ale they drew by the glass. A quarter ounce is about half a tablespoon, and it reads as a background note under the grape.
- Orangeade syrupFountain orangeade syrup was sweetened orange with citric or tartaric acid for tartness. Plain orange syrup will read flat; add a squeeze of lemon to get the acidity the original assumed.
- Soda glassA period soda glass held roughly 8 to 10 ounces, so the 2¼ ounces of syrup are diluted about three to one with charged water. One drink.
- MixingSyrups this heavy sink and stay put. Stir from the bottom with a long spoon, briefly, or the carbonation goes with the stirring.
- Shaved ice versionIce dilutes as it melts and knocks the carbonation down. If you use it, shave or crush it fine, add it last, and drink promptly.
Soda fountains of this period sold a whole class of drinks called cocktails that contained no spirits at all: the fountain trade borrowed an already-alcoholic term for a category of its own, and dispensers' manuals collected them for customers who wanted something more composed than a plain phosphate. The three components here each had an independent life at the counter: the ginger ale that fountains sold by the glass, grape syrup drawing on the American market for unfermented grape products that grew up in the temperance decades, and orangeade for acid and lift. Books like this one were produced for the trade, which is why the ingredients are named as brand names a dispenser would already have on the shelf rather than as things a home cook would recognize.