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Grape Phosphate (Syrup ounce Soda water large)
Grape Syrup, 1 ounce; Soda water, large stream only, 7 ounces. A dash of Acid Phosphate. Stir with spoon.
A fountain formula rather than a kitchen recipe: two liquids and a soda spigot, with the proportions doing all the work. It scales to a single tall glass.
- The measurements are fluid ouncesOne ounce of syrup is two tablespoons; seven ounces of soda water is a scant cup. The finished drink is about eight ounces, which suited the standard heavy fountain glass of the period.
- "Large stream" is equipment languageFountain draft arms had a coarse stream and a fine spray. The coarse or "large" stream delivered water fast and deep into the glass with minimal foaming; the fine stream was used to build a head. Pouring soda from a siphon or bottle down the inside of a tilted glass gets close.
- Acid phosphateA dilute solution of phosphoric acid with traces of calcium, magnesium and iron salts, sold under names such as Horsford's. It is still made for cocktail and soda use. It contributes sourness and a dry, mineral bite without the fruit character of lemon juice.
- A dash means a dashRoughly a quarter teaspoon. More than that and the drink turns thin and metallic.
- Grape syrupPeriod fountain grape syrup was heavy sugar syrup flavoured with Concord grape juice or grape essence, thicker and sweeter than modern grape juice. Commercial snow-cone or Italian-soda grape syrup is the nearest equivalent; grape juice alone will taste watery at this ratio.
- Order of operationsSyrup first, then soda, then the phosphate, then stir once or twice with a long spoon. Extended stirring flattens the carbonation, and the whole point of a phosphate is that it arrives sharp and fizzing.
- YieldOne glass. The recipe gives no instruction about ice; fountain soda water was drawn cold.
Phosphates were one of the staple families of American fountain drinks, and they were common on the counter from the 1880s through the 1920s. The name comes from acid phosphate, a preparation popularised by Rumford chemist Eben Horsford and marketed both as a nerve tonic and as a fountain acidulant; druggists who ran soda fountains had it on the shelf already, which is much of why it ended up in the glass. A phosphate was the plainest thing a dispenser could make -- syrup, carbonated water, a dash of acid -- and books like this one printed dozens of them, differing only in the flavour of syrup. Grape was drawn from Concord juice, which had become widely available in bottled form by the turn of the century. The formula's terseness is itself informative: it was written for a working dispenser standing at the equipment, who needed the ratio and the stream setting and nothing else.