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Grape Phosphate (Syrup ounces Phosphate)
Grape Syrup, 1½ ounces. "Phosphate Solution" A sufficient quantity Soda water To fill glass NOTE. - Tastes vary greatly as to the quantity of "phosphate" to be added; some like only a little, while others like it quite acid. The taste of the customer should be consulted. This drink should always be served solid in a small to medium glass. It is the greatest "thirst quencher" known, and is very popular. Grape "Phosphate Solution."
Tartaric Acid, 4 ounces; Hot water, 8 ounces.
Mix, dissolve and filter through filter paper. Make but a small quantity, as it should be fresh. NOTE.-"Acid phosphate" does not blend so well with grape juice as tartaric acid solution. The object of "phosphate" in soda water is to give a pleasant acid taste to the drink and to quench thirst. A solution of tartaric acid, as above, does this better than any other acid, and is cheap and readily prepared. It should be served from a "squirt" bottle, two or three "squirts" in a glass, with the carbonated water drawn upon it, and stirred with a spoon.
A fountain formula rather than a household one: a measured shot of syrup, an acid solution dosed to taste, and carbonated water. Everything hinges on the acid being right and the soda being cold and hard.
- The acid solutionFour ounces of tartaric acid by weight dissolved in eight fluid ounces of hot water makes a very strong acid solution. The book says to make only a little and keep it fresh; a batch scaled to a cup or two of water, kept in glass and discarded within a week or so, is the sensible reading.
- Dosing"Two or three squirts" from a fountain bottle is a small dose of the solution in a glass. Start at the low end, stir, taste, and add more — the drink goes from bright to harsh very quickly.
- Tartaric acid vs. acid phosphateThe "acid phosphate" the author rejects here is a dilute phosphoric-acid preparation, still sold for fountain work. Tartaric acid is the same food acid found in wine and in cream of tartar; buy it as a food-grade powder, not a laboratory reagent, and label the bottle clearly since it looks like every other white powder in the kitchen.
- Filtering"Filter through filter paper" is meant to catch undissolved grit and any dust in the acid. A paper coffee filter does the job.
- Grape syrupFountain grape syrup was a heavy sugar syrup flavoured with Concord grape juice, far thicker and sweeter than modern juice. Approximate it with two parts sugar dissolved in one part unsweetened Concord grape juice, or use a bottled grape soda syrup. Plain grape juice will not carry the drink.
- "Served solid"Fountain jargon: drawn so the glass holds liquid rather than foam, using the still or coarse stream rather than the fine spray that whips a drink up. In practice, pour the cold soda water down the side of the glass, stir once, and serve with no head.
- Glass and yieldA "small to medium" fountain glass was usually somewhere in the 6-to-10-ounce range. One recipe as written makes a single drink: 1½ ounces syrup, the acid to taste, soda water to fill.
- CarbonationThe whole effect depends on soda that is genuinely cold and highly charged. Siphon water or freshly opened seltzer, chilled to just above freezing, gives the sharp bite the author is describing; flat or lukewarm soda leaves you with sweet grape water and a sour edge.
Phosphates were the workhorse of the American soda fountain from the 1870s through Prohibition — a shot of flavouring syrup, a dash of acid, and carbonated water, sold for a nickel to people who wanted something sour and cold rather than sweet and creamy. The name comes from "acid phosphate," a dilute phosphoric-acid solution sold to druggists as a tonic ingredient, which is why the word is said to survive on menus in a few regional pockets long after the chemistry stopped mattering; this author's preference for plain tartaric acid, cheaper and easier to keep, shows how much of fountain practice was pharmacist's improvisation. Grape as a fountain flavour rests on the Concord grape, generally traced to Ephraim Bull's Massachusetts vineyard in the mid-nineteenth century, whose pasteurised juice became a temperance staple and then a syrup base. The instruction to consult the customer's taste on acidity is a reminder that the dispenser worked in front of the buyer, adjusting each glass by hand.