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Nectar Punch
A Ladies' Punch.
Lemon Syrup, 1 pint; Strawberry Syrup, 1 pint; Orange Syrup, 1 pint; Acid Phos, ½ ounce; Orange, sliced, 1. Put into a punch bowl, ladle 11/½ ounces into a mineral glass, add shaved ice, fill glass with solid soda, top with maraschino cherries, and serve with a straw.
A fountain formula: you mix a batch of punch base in a bowl, then build each drink to order. Everything hinges on the base being sharp enough to survive dilution by carbonated water and ice.
- The garbled measure"11/½ ounces" is most likely a printer's mangling of 1½ ounces, a common fountain draw of syrup per glass. At that rate three pints of syrup plus the sliced orange yields roughly 30 to 32 drinks.
- Acid phosphateA solution of phosphoric acid with calcium, magnesium and potassium salts, sold to fountains as "acid phos." It gives a dry, mineral tartness that citric acid does not, and it is still made for bartenders. Half an ounce across three pints of syrup is a light hand; it is a seasoning, not a flavour.
- Solid sodaFountain draught came in two streams. The "coarse" or foam stream aerated and frothed the drink; the "solid" or fine stream delivered plain carbonated water with minimal foam. Here you want the latter, so use chilled seltzer poured down the side of the glass.
- Mineral glassA footed, flared fountain glass, typically somewhere around 8 to 12 ounces. Any tall glass of similar capacity works.
- Shaved ice, not cubesShaved or finely cracked ice chills fast and lets the syrup and soda marry. Cubes leave the syrup sitting at the bottom, which is the usual failure of this drink at home.
- The syrupsPeriod fountain syrups were heavy sugar syrups, flavoured with fruit juice or extract. Modern bottled syrups may differ in body and sweetness; if you use them, taste and consider adding a little more acid phosphate.
- Maraschino cherriesThe name originally meant marasca cherries preserved in maraschino liqueur, though cheaper dyed imitations were already on the market by this period and displaced the original entirely after Prohibition. Luxardo or a similar brandied cherry is closer to the original sense.
- Holding the baseThe sliced orange will turn bitter if it sits in the bowl for hours. Mix the base ahead, but add the fruit shortly before service and keep the bowl cold.
The American soda fountain of the 1890s and 1900s built an entire drinks vocabulary parallel to the bar's, and "punch" was one of its most useful borrowings: a pre-mixed syrup base that a busy dispenser could ladle and finish in seconds. Labelling it a "ladies' punch" is probably best read as ordinary trade language rather than a joke about strength, and it points at what the fountain was for. Saloons were largely closed to respectable women, while the drugstore fountain was not, and it is tempting to read the fruit-forward, brightly garnished drinks like this one in the formularies as written with a female clientele in mind. Acid phosphate is the marker of the period. It came out of the nineteenth-century enthusiasm for phosphates as a nerve tonic, and druggists who ran fountains had it on the shelf as a medicine before they discovered it made sugar syrup taste less cloying; by the time this book was printed the tonic claims mattered less than the fact that it worked.