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Raspberry Lemonade
Juice of 1 lemon, 3 teaspoonfuls powdered sugar, 1 tablespoonful raspberry juice, shaved ice, plain water, shake. No. 2. Juice of 1 lemon, 2 teaspoonfuls powdered sugar, ½ ounce raspberry syrup, shaved ice, water, shake. Raspberry Phosphate Syrup Solution of acid phosphate, 8 fluid ounces; raspberry syrup sufficient to make one gallon; mix.
Two fountain lemonades and a bulk phosphate syrup, written for someone standing behind a marble counter with a shaker, a spigot of plain water and a tub of shaved ice. Scaled to a home kitchen they work as written, with a few translations.
- Powdered sugarIn soda-fountain usage this means fine granulated or what we now call superfine caster sugar, not the boxed confectioners' sugar cut with cornstarch. Superfine dissolves in cold water without a syrup; modern confectioners' sugar will leave the drink faintly cloudy and starchy.
- Juice of one lemonReckon about 2 to 3 tablespoons from an average lemon. The originals assume a hand reamer and no straining, so a little pulp in the shaker is expected.
- Raspberry juice vs. raspberry syrupNo. 1 calls for juice rather than syrup, and carries an extra teaspoon of sugar, which suggests the juice was unsweetened; No. 2 uses sweetened fountain syrup and drops back to two teaspoons. If you substitute one for the other, adjust the sugar accordingly.
- Shaved iceFountain ice was scraped fine from a block, so it chilled and diluted fast in a few shakes. Cubes will not do the same work; crush them, and expect to add a splash more water to reach the same strength.
- How much waterNeither version says. A fountain glass held roughly 8 to 10 fluid ounces, so build the drink and top with plain water to that volume, shake, and pour ice and all. Each formula makes one glass.
- Acid phosphateA dilute food-grade phosphoric acid solution buffered with calcium, magnesium and potassium salts. It gives a clean sour bite quite unlike citrus and is still sold for cocktail and soda use; ordinary phosphoric acid from a hardware shelf is not the same thing and has no place in a drink.
- The phosphate syrup proportionEight fluid ounces of acid phosphate topped up to one gallon means one part in sixteen. To make a workable amount, use 2 tablespoons (1 fluid ounce) acid phosphate and enough raspberry syrup to reach 2 cups. This is a stock syrup, not a drink: dispense roughly an ounce into a glass and fill with carbonated water.
- StorageThe acidity keeps the syrup reasonably well, but it is a sugar solution with no preservative. Refrigerate it and use within a couple of weeks.
Raspberry and lemon were both staples of the American soda fountain, and the pairing here is the plainest kind of counter arithmetic: a lemonade with a shot of raspberry to colour and sweeten it. The phosphate that follows belongs to a distinctly American habit. Acid phosphate came into fountain use in the later nineteenth century, promoted alongside the phosphate tonics of the period as a healthful, brain-restoring acidulant, and dispensers took it up because it soured a drink without the perfume of citrus and kept syrups from tasting flat. Fountain manuals of this sort were written for the working dispenser rather than the housekeeper, which is why quantities jump without warning from a single glass to a gallon of stock syrup: one is what the customer orders, the other is what you mix up before the shop opens.