Mint Freeze (Juice of lemon sprigs of fresh)

A fountain cooler that assembles in under a minute. The only real technique is restraint with the mint.

• Crush, do not muddle"Stir slightly to crush mint" means bruising the leaves just enough to release oil. Grinding mint against the glass pulls out chlorophyll and bitterness, and leaves shredded green debris in a drink meant to look clean.
• Powdered sugarIn period usage this generally means finely ground granulated sugar, chosen because it dissolves fast in a cold drink. (Modern confectioners' sugar contains cornstarch, so it is not an exact match.) A teaspoon of simple syrup does the same job with less stirring.
• Cracked iceIce broken by hand or mallet into irregular chips, coarser than crushed and finer than a cube. It chills quickly and dilutes quickly, which is why the glass is filled and served at once.
• Ginger aleFountain-era ginger ales ranged from dry, pale styles to sweeter golden ones, so the drink was not always as sweet as many mass-market brands today. A dry ginger ale keeps the lemon and mint forward; a sweet one will bury both.
• Creme de menthe cherryA maraschino-style cherry steeped in green creme de menthe. A plain cocktail cherry or a mint sprig serves the same purpose.
• Glass and yieldOne drink. The recipe names no glassware or capacity; a tall glass is implied by "fill glass with ginger ale." Everything goes in the glass in the order given; there is no shaking and no separate mixing vessel.
• The duplicated lineThe text repeats "Stir slightly to crush mint, fill glass with ginger ale." This is a duplication in the text rather than an instruction to stir twice; whether it originated with the printer or with later transcription cannot be told from the page.