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Milwaukee Punch
Strawberry syrup, ½ ounce; orange syrup, ½ ounce; pineapple syrup, ½ ounce; claret syrup, ½ ounce. Serve in punch cups with plenty cracked ice, topping off with sundae pineapple.
A fountain formula, written for a dispenser who had a rack of flavoring syrups within arm's reach and did not need to be told to fill the glass. Two ounces of syrup total is the whole of the written recipe; the liquid is assumed.
- Ounces are fluid ouncesEach half ounce is one tablespoon, so the four syrups come to 2 fl oz in all. Measure them into the cup before the ice, or they will sit in stripes and never mix.
- The missing liquidThe recipe gives no liquid at all beyond the syrups, the ice and the pineapple. Fountain punches of this kind were commonly finished with carbonated water or ice water to fill the cup, and unless the melting ice is meant to do the work you will want to add some; how much depends on the size of your cup.
- Claret syrupA fountain syrup coloured and flavoured to suggest red Bordeaux. Published formulas vary: some are imitations built on grape juice with acid and flavouring, others use real claret. Nothing sold today matches it; unsweetened grape or pomegranate juice with a squeeze of lemon gets the colour and the dry edge.
- Sundae pineappleCrushed pineapple packed in heavy syrup, the same tub used for sundaes — not fresh fruit. Canned crushed pineapple in juice, drained, is closer than fresh; fresh pineapple is sharper and thinner and will sink.
- Cracked ice, not cubesIce broken small chills and dilutes fast, which is what makes a syrup-based punch drinkable. Cubes leave the first mouthfuls cloying.
- YieldAbout 2 fl oz of syrup, enough for one punch cup, though the original is written in the plural. Scaled for a bowl, work in the ratio 1:1:1:1 by volume and add water or soda to taste.
- SweetnessCommercial fountain syrups ran near saturation — heavier than most bottled syrups now. If you are using modern cocktail syrups, expect to add more water rather than less.
Soda fountain "punches" were the temperance answer to the wine punches of the hotel bar: the same cups, the same cracked ice, the same fruit float, with flavoring syrups standing in for claret, rum and arrack. Some carried place names borrowed from the alcoholic versions. The presence of a "claret syrup" on the fountain shelf is the telling detail: dispensers stocked imitations of wine and spirit flavors so that a customer could order something that sounded like a bar drink and receive something that was not one. Formula books of this sort were sold to druggists, who ran most fountains, and the recipes are written in apothecary-style ounces.