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Limetta Cordial
One ounce lime juice, ½ glass shaved ice, 2 spoonfuls powdered sugar, dash angostura bitters; fill with soda, mix, add slice of lime or lemon, or fill with soda, mix, add slice of lime or lemon, or sprig of fresh mint. Serve with straws.
A fountain formula written for a soda jerk with a syrup rail and a carbonator at hand. Everything in it translates directly to a home bar, once you know what the vessel and the spoon were.
- The repeated lineThe whole run "fill with soda, mix, add slice of lime or lemon, or" is set twice, apparently a compositor's duplication rather than two stages. Read it once.
- "Glass" means the soda glass"Glass" probably means the fountain soda glass, which in this period commonly ran somewhere around 10 to 12 ounces. Half a glass of shaved ice would then be roughly two-thirds to three-quarters of a cup; the recipe does not say whether the ice goes in before or after the other ingredients.
- SpoonfulsThe size of spoon is not stated. A teaspoon is the usual assumption, so read two spoonfuls as roughly two teaspoons and adjust upward to taste, since an ounce of lime juice is sharp.
- Powdered sugarIn soda-fountain usage this is fine granulated or superfine sugar, not modern confectioners' sugar, which carries cornstarch and will cloud the drink. Superfine dissolves in cold liquid without a syrup.
- Lime juiceOne ounce is 2 tablespoons, about the yield of one juicy lime. Bottled sweetened lime juice cordial was a commercial product in this period; if you use that instead, cut the sugar sharply or drop it altogether.
- Soda"Fill with soda" means charged water from the fountain, drawn hard into the glass to mix. Chilled seltzer from a siphon or a fresh bottle does the same work; pour with some force, then stir once, briefly, to avoid knocking out the gas.
- BittersA dash is a short shake from the bottle, a few drops. It is there for aroma and a faint bitter spine, and much more will dominate an ounce of juice.
- YieldOne tall glass. Serve immediately with straws, as written, before the shaved ice waters it down.
The limetta is Citrus limetta, the sweet lime, though the name is used loosely here rather than botanically. Aromatic bitters such as Angostura began as a nineteenth-century medicinal preparation, and their presence on the soda counter is a reminder that the American drugstore fountain grew out of the pharmacy, where charged water and flavored syrups were first dispensed as tonics. Lime juice itself carried the same double character, long associated with the British navy's antiscorbutic rations, and bottled sweetened lime juice cordial was a familiar grocery item by this period. The result is a temperance drink that borrows the vocabulary and the garnish of the bar across the street — mint sprig, citrus wheel, straws — without the spirits.