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Kola Cooler
One-half ounce kola punch, ½ ounce red cherry syrup, ½ ounce pineapple syrup. Serve in 12-ounce glass, ⅔ full cracked ice, with straws.
A fountain formula written for a dispenser who had a syrup rail, a carbonator and a jigger at hand. The proportions are complete; the assumed equipment is not.
- The missing ingredientNothing in the text says to add carbonated water, because at a fountain that went without saying. Draw the glass full with soda over the ice after the syrups go in; with the glass two-thirds full of ice, 1½ ounces of syrup is dosed for however much charged water the remaining space takes, a few ounces at most.
- Ounces are fluid ouncesFountain syrups were pumped or measured by volume, so ½ ounce is one tablespoon. Three tablespoons of syrup total in a 12-ounce glass.
- Kola punchA commercial fountain syrup built on kola nut extract, typically acidulated and coloured, and sold as a sweeter, fruitier line than plain kola syrup; formulas differed from house to house. Nothing sold at retail today matches it closely; a cola syrup sold for soda siphons is the nearest substitute, and is likely to read sweeter and less bitter.
- Red cherry syrupNot cherry juice. A sweetened fountain cherry syrup, often in the confected maraschino register rather than the fresh-fruit one; the liquid in a jar of cocktail cherries is the closer reference point.
- Pineapple syrupPeriod fountain pineapple was a sugar syrup flavoured with pineapple juice, often with added essence, and sometimes strained clear. Canned pineapple juice cooked down with sugar approximates it, though it will be cloudy.
- Cracked, not cubedCracked ice means pieces broken from a block, roughly grape-sized. The larger surface chills and slightly dilutes the syrups as the soda is drawn.
- Order of workPut the syrups in the glass, add the cracked ice, then draw the water in hard so it mixes; soda trickled gently onto a packed glass leaves the sweetness sitting in the base.
- YieldOne 12-ounce glass, one drink.
Kola came into American pharmacy and fountain use in the closing decades of the nineteenth century, and kola-flavoured drinks were widespread at fountains thereafter, with syrup houses selling their own kola punch lines alongside the trademarked brands. 'Cooler' appears to have been used as a general fountain style rather than a proprietary name: a tall glass, mostly ice, a modest charge of syrup and plenty of carbonated water, sold in warm weather against the richer ice cream sodas. The pairing of kola with cherry and pineapple is the kind of drink built from syrups already on the rail; cherry-and-cola combinations of the same sort remained on soda menus later, though a direct line of descent from this particular formula cannot be shown.