sodas of yore: strange drinkables from new york in 1915

09 May, 2026

weather: ☀️ goodbye clouds
critters: my cat (i stayed inside all day)

today i flipped through the dispenser's formulary, an american tome of recipes and knuckle-swatting advice for an aspiring soda jerk.

notes

• the authors want to be absolutely clear with you that bad hygiene and slovenly habits and cheaping out on ingredients are unforgivable at the soda fountain. i've noticed that how-to manuals from this period can be pretty bossy, but maybe we need some of that when it comes to health hazards.

• some of the "luncheonette" offerings (p196) would go fantastically on my low-effort sandwiches page.

• there is a brief discussion and a couple of recipes on p86 for what they call "kumyss." i was like, gee, i've never heard of that, must be another extinct drink type. then i read "prepared by the tartars from the milk of mares" and realized i totally had heard of it--i just knew it by the mongolian name airag. i would never have imagined seeing airag in this context, but it seems it was popular back then. (the book's recipes use cow's milk, of course.)

• speaking of subverted expectations, there's a lot less apple than i thought i'd see, and a lot more pineapple, and way more grape--as juice and as wine. we have really denormalized day-drinking outside of brunch. that said, most of the fruity soda recipes are variations on familiar themes of cherries and berries and citruses that would seem pretty normal today.

quotes

In former years it was the general custom to use nothing but essences and extracts for soda beverages, but during the last ten years a change has taken place and nearly all first-class dispensers are using pure fruit syrups and so-called crushed or liquid fruits." (p34)

It has been well said that "drinks may come and drinks may go but the orange phosphate goes on forever." (p61)

"Use coloring matter sparingly and eschew the old fashioned 'foams.' Brilliant, frothy sodas are suspiciously unpopular these days." (p30)

"Remember that syrup making is not a boy's job—it is a fine art." (p30)

some adorable names

"fairies' wish" (p37), a soda syrup of cream, vanilla, and strawberry.

"sea-side shake" (p81), a shake like a grape-orange julius.

"may queen fizzette" (p40), a soda syrup of blood orange, raspberry, wine, rose, and pineapple. the "palm beach queen" (p44) is similar, but with grape juice instead of wine.

"razzle-dazzle" (p61), a pineapple-ade with a little raspberry vinegar, which i believe here indicates the same thing as raspberry shrub. max miller made a nice video about it a while back. raspberry shrub is also called "raspberry sharp" in the book (p46), and there is a recipe for a peach shrub on p42.

some inexplicable drink names

"silurian" (p47), a phosphate syrup of rosewater and pineapple juice. my head went straight to the silurian period, but it could be named for the actual tribe. maybe the celts were pineapple farmers.¹

"japanese thirst killer" (p63), an orgeat phosphate with angostura bitters. don't just quench your thirst! kill it dead! i can't say what makes this flavor profile specifically japanese. a lot of the recipes called "japanese" here involve almond generally. i wonder why?

"crown prince fizz" (p53), a strawberry-citrus soda that sounds like a rainbow brite character. was it named after edward VIII? i guess my countrymen have been obsessed with the british monarchy for a lot longer than i thought.²

"quaker freeze" (p55), a raspberry-grape-orange slushie. 'religious society of friends freeze' must not have rolled off the tongue.

syrup: "burbank special" (p36)

Plum extract ......... 2 drams
Quince extract ........ 2 drams
Fruit acid ........... 4 drams
Pineapple juice ...... 10 ounces
Simple syrup ......... 1 gallon

Mix well. Serve as a phosphate.

"fruit acid" refers to a 1:1 solution of citric acid in water or alcohol (p24).

the syrup may be named after luther burbank, a horticulturalist responsible for many fruit and vegetable cultivars, among them several plums and quinces (and a beautiful white blackberry cultivar).

i think we're missing out on certain fruit flavors in our national palate. plums and quinces aren't even exotic in this country, but they're hardly used as flavorings. we should try it more.

syrup: "don't care" (p36)

Blackberry juice, 1 quart bottle; grape juice, 1 quart bottle; lemon syrup No. 2, 1 pint; granulated sugar, 4½ pounds.

Dissolve the sugar in the fruit juices at the boiling point, strain, and when cool, add the lemon syrup. Especially good for use in phosphates—8 ounces, 5 cents.

this was definitely invented by a soda jerk who got sick of making decisions for noncommittal customers. or it's like that restaurant named something like "i don't know, you pick."

there's a version of don't care syrup immediately below this one that calls for brandy. it's five o'clock somewhere???

egg milk thing: "arion" (p79)

Apricot syrup ...... ½ ounce
Peach syrup ....... ½ ounce
Rose syrup ........ ½ ounce
Plain cream ........ 2 ounces
Egg ............... 1
Ice ................ ¼ glass

Shake, strain, toss and serve. Price—12 ounces, all milk, 15 cents.

there are entire genres of drink in this book that barely exist anymore unless you make them yourself. one of these is the egg drink, which i don't think you could persuade most people to try these days. mmm, salmonella. nonetheless, this flavor combo would definitely appeal to me at the old-timey soda fountain. floral flavors are underrated and i'm glad they're on their way back in.

isn't it odd that the drink called an 'egg cream' doesn't have an egg? and this one does, but the name doesn't begin to suggest an egg. bewildering.

hot thing: "hot stuff" (p93)

Beef extract ....... ½ teaspoonful
Clam bouillion ..... 1 teaspoonful
Sweet cream ....... 1 tablespoonful
Port wine ......... 1 teaspoonful

Place in mug which fill with boiling water. Serve with salt, pepper and celery salt.

the authors helpfully inform us that hot drinks like this one were invented to bolster foot traffic during the cold months (p89). all this conjures up for me personally is the childhood amalgamemory of drinking beef broth every time i got the flu.

the name is fun, though. "gimme the hot stuff."

milkshake: "clam milk shake" (p72)

Clam juice ......... 1½ fluid ounces
Milk .............. 2 fluid ounces
Soda water ........ 5 fluid ounces

Add a pinch of salt and a little white pepper to each glass; shake well. Price—8 ounces, 5 cents.

i learned from this book that ice cream was not always a necessary feature of milkshakes.³ the basic chocolate shake recipe in here is just chocolate milk with whipped cream on top. i've always been pretty tepid towards milkshakes as an extension of my tepid feelings towards ice cream. after perusing the ice creamless milkshakes in the book, i realized why i like milk teas from boba shops so much--they're flavored milks with zero ice cream, as god intended.

i also learned from this book that it is possible to make a milkshake out of anything.

a chowder is a kind of milkshake, if you think about it.