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Grape Lemon
Grape Syrup Lemon Syrup, 7 ounce; Soda water, large stream, ½ ounce; A dash of Acid Phosphate. Stir gently with spoon, 7 ounces. Grape Syrup . . . . . . . 1/2 ounce. Lemon Syrup . . . . . . . 1/2 ounce. Soda water, large stream . . . . . . 7 ounces.
A fountain formula written in the shorthand of a working dispenser: syrups first, carbonated water second, a sour note last. The line breaks have collapsed in the original setting, so read it as two syrups at half an ounce each.
- The garbled measurementsAs printed, the two syrups and the soda water all appear to share the "½ ounce" figures. The sense of the formula is most likely ½ ounce grape syrup and ½ ounce lemon syrup, with soda water drawn in a large stream to fill; the "7 ounces" at the end is probably the finished volume of the glass rather than an ingredient quantity.
- Acid phosphateA dilute solution of phosphoric acid with calcium, magnesium and potassium salts, sold to fountains as a souring agent that sharpens sweet syrups without the fruitiness of citrus. It is still made for cocktail and soda work; a dash means roughly a quarter teaspoon.
- Large streamFountain taps had a coarse stream and a fine spray. The coarse stream was used to mix and dissolve syrup at the bottom of the glass, the fine spray to build head. Substituting a strong pour of chilled seltzer down the centre of the glass does the same job.
- SyrupsPeriod grape and lemon syrups were sugar syrups flavoured with juice or extract. If using a commercial bottled syrup, start at a scant half ounce of each and taste.
- Stir gentlyVigorous stirring drives off the carbonation the customer is paying for; one slow turn of the spoon from the bottom of the glass is enough to lift the syrup.
- Order of buildingOrdinary fountain practice put syrups (and the phosphate) into the empty glass before the water, though the formula as printed lists the acid phosphate after the soda water. Anything added to an already charged glass will encourage it to fizz up.
- YieldApparently one 7-ounce glass. Fountain soda water was drawn cold from an ice-cooled coil, so drinks of this kind were commonly served without added ice.
Soda fountain manuals like this one were trade books, not household cookbooks: their readers were dispensers who needed a formula they could execute quickly. Acid phosphate belongs squarely to that world. It arrived in American fountains in the later nineteenth century on the back of the period's enthusiasm for phosphates as tonics and nerve foods, and by 1900 a "phosphate" had become a whole category of fountain drink alongside the plain syrup soda and the ice cream soda. Combinations of two fruit syrups, as here, were the dispenser's way of extending a small stock of bottles into a long menu. The drink is essentially a grape soda with the sweetness cut twice over, once by lemon and once by the phosphate.