Home › At the Fountain › Ginger Cordial
Ginger Cordial
Ginger is a wholesome hot drink, but not a very palatable one. In hot ginger cordial, however, a delicious non-alcoholic combination is presented. The ginger cordial is somewhat difficult to prepare, and consequently is sold only in the finished syrup, One and one-half ounces American Ginger Cordial Syrup, 6 ounces hot water. Serve in a fine china cup.
A fountain formula rather than a kitchen one: the work was all in the syrup, which came ready-made in a bottle. Recreating the drink today means sourcing or making the ginger syrup yourself.
- The measurementsBoth figures are almost certainly fluid ounces. One and one-half ounces of syrup is 3 tablespoons; 6 ounces of hot water is 3/4 cup. One serving, about 7 1/2 ounces of liquid.
- The syrup no longer existsThe syrup -- "American Ginger Cordial Syrup" reads as a branded fountain product, and the text says plainly that the cordial was troublesome enough to make that it was sold only as finished syrup. Any strong ginger syrup will stand in, though commercial ones are often sweeter and less sharp.
- If you make your ownFountain syrups were generally built on a heavy sugar base, so that a small pour would carry both flavour and sweetness, though the proportions differed from manual to manual. A thinner syrup will need more than 1.5 ounces per cup.
- Cordial means no alcohol hereDespite the name, this is a sweetened flavouring syrup. The word "cordial" in the American fountain trade meant a rich fruit or spice syrup, not a liqueur, and the text is explicit that the finished drink is non-alcoholic.
- The cup matters more than it soundsThe cup -- Six ounces of hot water poured over syrup in a cold cup will not stay very hot; rinsing the cup with boiling water first helps. The recipe gives no reason for specifying a fine china cup.
- Adjust to tasteThe 1:4 ratio is a starting point. Ginger syrups vary enormously in heat; taste and add hot water rather than assuming the number is fixed.
Hot drinks were a real part of the American soda fountain's business, not an afterthought -- the fountain sold year-round, and in winter the urn of hot water earned its keep with beef tea, hot chocolate, hot lemonade and spiced syrups like this one. Ginger had a long reputation as a warming, settling remedy, which is why the entry opens by conceding that it is wholesome but not palatable. The insistence that the drink be served in fine china rather than the fountain's usual glassware is a small piece of merchandising, signalling that a hot drink was worth its price. The reliance on a purchased proprietary syrup is equally characteristic of the trade in this period, when dispensers' manuals and syrup manufacturers were closely intertwined and a recipe could double as an advertisement.