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Orange Cider
American Orange Cider Extract, 1 ounce; Tartaric Acid Solution, 1. (4 ounces Tartaric Acid to 1 pint water.) American Soda Foam, 66; American Yellow Vegetable Color, 66; Simple Syrup, 1 gallon. Use 1½ ounces to each 12-ounce tumbler.
This is a fountain syrup formula, not a finished drink: you build a gallon of flavored syrup, then draw it into a glass and top with carbonated water. A few of the notations follow trade shorthand that needs unpacking.
- The "66" is ambiguousThe book does not state a unit, and figures of this kind in fountain formularies may stand for drops or minims of a concentrated color or foam solution, though nothing here confirms it. Treat it as a very small addition and work up by eye rather than inventing a conversion.
- Tartaric acid solutionThe recipe defines it for you: 4 ounces tartaric acid dissolved in 1 pint water. The "1" that follows in the ingredient list carries no unit, but by analogy with the 1-ounce extract it is most likely one fluid ounce of that solution per gallon of syrup, supplying the sharpness that reads as "cider."
- No cider in it"Cider" at the fountain meant a tart, foamy, cider-colored soda rather than anything pressed from apples. There is no apple and no alcohol; the acid and the yellow coloring do the impersonating.
- Soda foamCommercial foam solutions of this period were extracts of quillaia (soapbark) or yucca, which carry saponins and give a lasting head. Modern foaming agents sold for beverage use serve the same purpose; ordinary egg white does not, as it will not keep in a gallon of syrup.
- Simple syrup at fountain strengthFountain simple syrup was heavier than bar syrup, roughly 2 parts sugar to 1 part water by weight, near saturation. A 1:1 syrup will taste thin and watery at the recommended dose.
- Dosing and yieldAt 1½ ounces per 12-ounce tumbler, a gallon of syrup makes about 85 drinks. Fill the balance with cold carbonated water, drawn hard to raise the foam.
- Coloring"American Yellow Vegetable Color" was a proprietary product; annatto, turmeric or a modern natural yellow will do the same job. Add it last and sparingly, since the target is a pale cider tint rather than lemon yellow.
- KeepingAcidified sugar syrup at this concentration is reasonably stable, but a homemade batch has no preservative. Refrigerate and make less than a gallon unless you are serving a crowd.
Soda-fountain formularies like this one were trade manuals, sold to druggists who dispensed carbonated drinks alongside prescriptions, and they read as recipes for proprietary products bought from a single supplier — the repeated "American" branding on the extract, foam and color at least suggests as much. The "ciders" and "champagnes" of the fountain menu are often described as temperance drinks: they borrowed the names, the tartness and the head of alcoholic beverages without the alcohol, an appeal that is usually connected to the era's prohibition campaigning. Tartaric acid, cheap and reliably sour, was one of the acidulants of the trade, alongside citric acid, and foam solutions made from soapbark gave a glass of flavored syrup and soda water the visual authority of something poured from a keg. Orange cider is a small piece of that logic: an orange-flavored, acid-sharpened syrup tinted to the color of the drink it was named after.