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Orangeade Phos
Orangeade Syrup, 1 ounce; Acid Phos, from squirter, 1 dash. In a mineral glass filled with soda water.
A two-ingredient fountain drink that depends entirely on proportion and carbonation. The only real obstacle is acid phosphate, which vanished from home kitchens for most of a century and has since returned.
- Acid phosShort for acid phosphate, a dilute solution of phosphoric acid with calcium, magnesium and potassium salts, sold to fountains as a souring agent that adds tartness without the fruit flavour of citric acid. Buy a bottle labelled for beverage use; never substitute laboratory or hardware-grade phosphoric acid.
- What a dash meansThe squirter was a small pump- or squeeze-top bottle at the fountain; a dash is usually reckoned at somewhere around a quarter teaspoon, though it was never a precisely measured amount. Start there and adjust: acid phosphate reads as dryness and mineral bite rather than sourness, and a little too much makes the glass taste flat and chalky.
- The ounce is fluidOne ounce of syrup is two tablespoons. Fountain syrups of the period tended to be heavier than modern bottled ones, so a thin homemade syrup may need a little more volume to carry.
- Mineral glassA tapered fountain glass, probably in the region of 8 to 10 ounces. That puts the drink at roughly one part syrup to eight parts soda, which is the ratio to hold if you use a different vessel.
- Orangeade syrupNot the same as orange syrup: orangeade syrup was built with juice and acid for a lemonade-style drink, so it is already tart before the phosphate goes in. A modern orange syrup made from juice, sugar and a little zest will stand in, but taste before adding the full dash.
- Order of buildingSyrup and acid go into the empty glass first, then the soda, which does the mixing as it falls. Pouring soda over a settled layer of syrup at the end leaves the bottom of the glass cloying and the top watery.
- CarbonationFountain soda was drawn colder and harder than most bottled water. Use the coldest, most aggressively carbonated soda water available and do not add ice until the glass is filled, or the drink goes limp before it reaches the table.
- YieldOne glass.
Phosphates were one of the staples of the American fountain, and they belonged to the period when the drugstore counter still saw itself as half pharmacy. Acid phosphate was sold as a tonic preparation before it became a mixer, and druggists were comfortable adding a dash of something faintly medicinal to a sweet drink; the sharp mineral edge it gives is what kept fountain sodas from tasting like syrup and water. Orangeade phos is the plainest possible expression of the form, and books like this one printed series of near-identical entries, one per syrup, because a fountain man was expected to work from a standard proportion and vary only the flavour. Phosphates largely disappeared with the soda fountain itself after the Second World War, and have since returned by way of cocktail bartenders hunting for sourness that is not citrus.