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Phosphates
Phosphates can be made of all flavors; but Maltese orange, claret, cham pagne, raspberry, grape, lemon, cherry and ginger are the favorites. Phosphates should be drawn in 7 or 8-ounce tumblers. American Acid Phosphate is unexcelled. It should be dispensed from an essence bottle. A solution of American Citric Phosphate, 6 ounces in 15 ounces of water, filtered, makes a wholesome and palatable acid phosphate, superior to any in the market. Phosphate, a few squirts, in amount, 1 teaspoonful; Syrup of desired flavor, 1 ounce. Soda water to fill a 7 or 8-ounce tumbler. Stir with a spoon. The best way to draw a phosphate is to draw solid soda in a mineral glass within an inch of the top, then draw on top 1 ounce of the syrup desired, add a dash of phosphate from squirter bottle, pour into another glass and serve while still bubbling. There are, however, many other ways all good, such as drawing desired syrup in a glass, adding dash of phosphate, filling with soda and stirring with a spoon. Some people serve them with shaved ice. Phosphates are cooling, refreshing, palatable, and very profitable, and when good are the main stay of the soda business.
This is a working fountain formula rather than a single drink: one ounce of flavoring syrup, a dash of acid phosphate, and carbonated water in a tall tumbler. The hinge is the phosphate itself, which is a specific commercial product and not interchangeable with any acid on the shelf.
- What acid phosphate isA dilute solution of phosphoric acid partly neutralized with calcium, magnesium and potassium salts, sold for beverage use. Buy a food-grade beverage acid phosphate; do not substitute laboratory or industrial phosphoric acid, and do not attempt to compound the "American Citric Phosphate" concentrate described here from bulk chemicals.
- The dose"A few squirts, in amount, 1 teaspoonful" is the whole measure. Acid phosphate reads as sour-salty rather than sharply citric.
- Ounces here are fluid ouncesOne ounce of syrup is 2 tablespoons. The 7 or 8-ounce tumbler is about a cup, so the finished ratio is roughly one part syrup to six or seven parts soda water.
- "Solid soda" and the mineral glassFountains had two streams: a fine spray for foam and a coarse, quiet "solid" stream that delivered water with less agitation. A mineral glass is simply a heavy straight-sided fountain tumbler. With a home siphon or seltzer bottle, pour down the side of the glass to keep the gas in.
- Why it is poured glass to glassThe author calls this "the best way": transferring once between two glasses is meant to mix the syrup through the soda with less loss of carbonation than stirring. He allows, though, that stirring with a spoon also works.
- The flavor listMaltese orange is blood orange. Claret and champagne here most likely mean syrups flavored to suggest those wines rather than the wines themselves, though some fountain syrups of the period did contain wine.
- Essence and squirter bottlesA squirter is a small stoppered bottle with a narrow spout that delivers a metered dash. A dasher-top bitters bottle or a small dropper bottle does the same job.
- Yield and servingOne glass per formula. Serve immediately while still lively; with shaved ice, expect it to dilute quickly, so make the syrup measure generous.
Acid phosphate is generally traced to American soda fountains around the 1870s, promoted by druggists as a tonic as much as a refreshment, and by the time this book was written the phosphate was a fountain staple alongside the plain ice-cream soda. The appeal was partly chemical and partly commercial: the acid gave a tart, faintly mineral bite that cut the heaviness of the sugar syrups, so a cheap ounce of syrup tasted like more than it was — which may be part of what lies behind the author's "very profitable." Fountain manuals of the period habitually blur the line between drug counter and lunch counter, and the language of this entry, with its "essence bottle" and its claim to be "wholesome," belongs to a trade where the soda jerk and the pharmacist were often the same man. The word outlasted the ingredient in places: cherry and chocolate phosphates are still sold in parts of the Midwest, some made with citric acid rather than the phosphate that named them, others still with acid phosphate.