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Rose Mint
Rose Syrup Mint Syrup, 6 drams; Cream, 6 drams; Egg, white of, 3 ounces; Mix and serve with shaved ice and straws, 1.
A soda-fountain formula written in apothecary measure for a dispenser working behind a marble counter. The proportions are decipherable, but the drink itself rests on raw egg white that is never heated at any point.
- Why the cautionThree ounces of unpasteurized raw egg white, shaken with cream and served over ice, is the classic vehicle for Salmonella Enteritidis, which lives inside intact shell eggs and not merely on the shell. Nothing in the procedure brings any ingredient above refrigerator temperature, and the drink sits in the glass while it is drunk through straws. If you want a rose-and-mint fountain drink, work from a current recipe.
- The measuresA fluid dram is one eighth of a fluid ounce, about 3.7 mL, so 6 drams is roughly three quarters of an ounce. The syrup and cream are therefore tiny beside three full ounces of egg white, which is the white of about three large eggs.
- The trailing "1"The stray figure at the end of the line most likely records the yield, one glass rather than a batch, though the text does not say so.
- Two syrups, one headingThe title and first line run together in the original: rose syrup and mint syrup both, with a single figure of 6 drams given for them, which may mean 6 drams each or 6 drams between them. Rose syrup of the period was generally built on rose water or attar rather than fruit, so the flavour is floral and perfumed rather than sweet-berry.
- What the egg was forEgg white here is doing textural work rather than flavouring: shaken hard, it gives a thick head of foam.
- Shaved iceShaved, not cubed. Fountains worked from a block with a shaver, and the fine ice chills the glass almost at once and gives the drink a slushy body.
The American Soda Book belongs to the trade literature of the soda fountain, a druggist's sideline that had grown into an industry with its own equipment catalogues, syrup suppliers and formula collections. Dispensing was often in pharmacists' hands, which is one reason quantities are given in apothecary drams and ounces rather than spoonfuls, and why the layout reads like a prescription. Egg drinks were a whole family within the genre, marketed as nourishing as much as refreshing in an era when raw egg beaten into milk or wine was standard invalid fare; egg also turns up in malteds and flips. Rose and mint syrups reflect the older perfumed-confectionery palate that the fountain inherited from the confectioner and the apothecary alike, before cola and fruit flavours crowded it out.